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Save the date!
VAAP has partnered with the Vermont Poverty Law Fellow the Vermont and New Hampshire Asylum Seeker Network to deliver an Asylum Seeker Symposium at Vermont Law and Graduate School on June 14th. We would love to have you join us for this interdisciplinary public education event in person in South Royalton or online at vermontlaw.edu/live. More soon!
Complete our online training!
VAAP has partnered with Vecina, a Texas-based nonprofit working 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 via the VAAP Resource SharePoint to which actively engaged attorney have access. The first module is an overview of affirmative asylum and the second trains attorneys on how to conduct in-depth asylum client intakes.
VAAP was also welcomed to join our local partners at the U.S. Committee on Refugees and Immigrants Vermont (USCRI) at a well-attended Ethics for Immigration Lawyers workshop presented by Vermont Judiciary Bar Counsel, Michael Kennedy. Thanks to USCRI for organizing and inviting participation from our pro bono attorneys with active asylum cases, and thanks to Attorney Kennedy for supporting their work.
We are so grateful to our partners 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 and the SharePoint.
Stay tuned for VAAP's training calendar coming soon and be sure to subscribe to the Vermont Bar Association's newsletter for early access to the live Continuing Legal Education (CLE) training sessions VAAP will be offering later this year!
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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, including individuals and families from Afghanistan. Please email if you or your firm would like more information about that process!
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 lived immigration experience as well as those 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 pro bono asylum legal work across Vermont. 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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Jill Martin Diaz (they/them), Executive Director is VAAP's supervising attorney and first full-time paid staff. They come to VAAP from Vermont Law and Graduate School where they taught doctrinal and clinical immigration law and directed the Center for Justice Reform Clinic. Previously, Jill practiced as a Vermont Poverty Law Fellow at Vermont Legal Aid and an Immigrant Justice Corps Fellow at Sanctuary for Families New York. The National LGBTQ+ Bar Association recognized Jill’s achievements by honoring them as one of 2023’s Top 40 Lawyers Under 40. They are licensed to practice in New York, Vermont, and the District of Vermont.
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Erin Jacobsen (she/her), Board Member is Chief of Staff of Burlington Mayor Mulvaney-Stanak. She was most recently 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. Previously, she was a Professor of Law and Director of the South Royalton Legal Clinic at Vermont Law and Graduate School, 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), Board Member 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), Board Member 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), Board Member 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), Board Member 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 and a group of immigration attorneys and advocates from around the state.
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