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New Training Modules for Pro Bonos
In Fall 2023, the Vermont Asylum Assistance Project partnered with Vecina, a Texas-based nonprofit founded with the mission to “empower immigrant justice advocates through mentoring attorneys, educating communities, and mobilizing volunteers.” We are excited to share that Vecina has designed two online training modules that are available to VAAP pro bono attorneys. The first module is an overview of affirmative asylum and the second trains attorneys to conduct asylum client intakes.
We are so grateful to Vecina for these resources and look forward to sharing them with pro bono attorneys who are interested in volunteering with us. Please email us for details on how to access these trainings.
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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 if you or your firm would like more information about that process!
Afghan Asylum Project
We have recently started matching attorneys to work on Afghan asylum cases through the Association of Africans Living in Vermont (AALV). AALV are still in need of more pro bono attorneys to assist them with additional Afghan asylum cases. 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 anyone with an interest or experience in fundraising, public relations, legal, or financial backgrounds. Please contact us to learn more.
Financial Contributions
VAAP is building a budget that will 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.
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THANK YOU FOR YOUR SUPPORT!
- THE VAAP TEAM
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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.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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Becky Wasserman (she/her) (Co-Founder) Becky is an attorney and the Executive Director of the VT Saves Program in the Office of the State Treasurer. Becky started working with asylum seekers more than ten years ago through her law school’s immigration clinic. Since then she has worked in a pro bono capacity on a number of immigration matters, including volunteering at the southern border in 2018 and 2019. In 2021, she co-founded the Vermont Asylum Assistance Project, with Kate Paarlberg-Kvam.
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