August 2023

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View this email in your browser PRO BONO OPPORTUNITIES MONTHLY NEWSLETTER August 2023 UPDATES FROM OUR TEAM Dear all: We hope you are enjoying the last few weeks of summer! We are excited to announce that we recently launched a new website.  Please visit the site to learn more about our work, ways to volunteer, and legal resources on asylum. See below for additional pro bono news and updates on available cases for attorneys. PRO BONO NEWS USCIS Online Request System On August 21st, USCIS launched a new online appointment request page.  This website can be used by both individuals and attorneys to schedule an in-person appointment with USCIS online instead of calling a USCIS Contact Center.  You can request an online appointment here.     GET INVOLVED Volunteer Opportunities We continue to actively match new pro bono attorneys with experienced mentors to work on asylum cases with clients in need of legal assistance.  Please email info@vaapvt.org if you or your firm would like more information about that process! Afghan Asylum Project We are seeking pro bono attorneys to assist the Association of Africans Living in Vermont (AALV) with two Afghan asylum cases.  Attorneys at AALV have already started preparing these cases and it is anticipated that each case will require approximately 20 hours of work.  AALV staff would be on-hand to mentor pro bono attorneys, including by answering questions and reviewing drafts.  Please email us if you are interested in assisting with one of these cases.   Seeking Board Members! VAAP is looking for dynamic Board members to help us grow our organization.  We seek individuals who are committed to our mission and encourage members of the communities we serve to apply.  Special consideration will be given to those to anyone with an interest or experience in fundraising, public relations, legal, or financial backgrounds.  Please contact us at info@vaapvt.org to learn more. Financial Contributions VAAP is building a budget that would help us support a full-time director to fully resource pro bono asylum attorneys in the State. If you would like to support this growing project, please donate here. THANK YOU FOR YOUR SUPPORT! - THE VAAP TEAM Donate to VAAP Erin Jacobsen (she/her), Chair of the Board is an Assistant Attorney General at the Office of the Vermont Attorney General and Co-Director of the office’s Community Justice Division, which seeks to improve equity, public safety, and fairness in all aspects of the criminal legal system. She was previously a Professor of Law and Director of the South Royalton Legal Clinic at Vermont Law and Graduate School and the Senior Staff Attorney at Vermont Immigrant Assistance project, where she supervised student clinicians on humanitarian immigration cases and taught Immigration Law and Legislation & Regulation in the classroom. Caitlin Jenness (she/her), Treasurer lives with her husband Miles on a small homestead in Huntington, VT. In 2013, Caitlin earned her M.B.A from Antioch University in Sustainable Business Management, and has spent the last 10 years working in financial leadership of multiple mission-driven entrepreneurial businesses across Vermont. She is excited to bring her affinity for spreadsheets, budgets and financial planning to the organizational efforts of the VAAP team. Faith Orr (she/her), Secretary is a first-year law student at Vermont Law and Graduate School. She graduated from Concordia University in Montréal in 2015, specializing in French-to-English translation and worked as a French-to-English translator and legal assistant. Faith has experienced her own immigration challenges, and finally became a Canadian permanent resident last year. She moved back to Vermont during COVID-19 to continue her studies and help to better the lives of asylum seekers in Vermont. She plans to practice immigration law after passing the bar. Kate Paarlberg-Kvam (she/they) has a PhD in Latin American Studies, and spent ten years teaching college prior to directing the Community Asylum Seekers Project (CASP) in Brattleboro. In that role Kate learned firsthand the transformative power of legal representation for asylum seekers, and worked with CASP to co-found the Vermont Asylum Assistance Project with Rebecca Wasserman. Kate now directs the Milk with Dignity Standards Council, a Burlington-based nonprofit working to ensure the human rights of Vermont's dairy workers. Kate has worked as a researcher and a solidarity activist with social movement organizers in Colombia and is fluent in Spanish, occasionally helping VAAP with interpretation and translation needs.   Our mailing address is: 50 Lakeside Avenue, Unit 118-H25 Burlington, VT 05401 Copyright © 2023, Vermont Asylum Assistance Project, All rights reserved. Want to change how you receive these emails? You can update your preferences or unsubscribe from this list.

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