Nov. 18, 2015 – In February, the State Bar of Wisconsin’s Young Lawyers Division (YLD) Public Outreach Committee will host a new pilot program in Milwaukee to provide legal services to homeless youth.
Project Street Youth - Milwaukee
The Project Street Youth Clinics will be held from 5:30 p.m. to 8 p.m. on Wednesdays in February – Feb. 3, Feb. 10, Feb. 17, and Feb. 24, 2016. In addition to holding the legal clinics, the YLD is holding a supply drive for hygiene items for Pathfinders.
For more information or to volunteer, contact Elise Libbey.
Project Street Youth is an initiative that began with the American Bar Association YLD and offers volunteer opportunities for YLD lawyers.
“Homeless youth face a unique set of circumstances” said YLD President Ryan Blay. “They are an especially vulnerable population.”
The hope is to provide meaningful legal support, as well as clarity and guidance, for homeless youth involved in the legal system.
An Extremely Underserved Population
According to the ABA YLD, there are more than 1.7 million homeless youth in the United States. On any given night in Milwaukee, more than 567 youth under age 25 are homeless, according to a 2015 Point-In-Time survey by the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development and Milwaukee Continuum of Care.
It’s a great way to roll up your sleeves and help out …. Whatever time you put in, you get ten times back. – Jessica Goldberg, Berkeley, Calif.
With almost 40 percent of the entire homeless population under the age of 18, the population is growing each year. The ABA YLD partnered with the Center on Children and the Law and the Commission on Homelessness and Poverty to improve access to justice to this extremely underserved population.
Project Street Youth in Milwaukee
The YLD is implementing Project Street Youth in Milwaukee as a pilot for a future state-wide program. Milwaukee is the state’s largest city, has the largest population of homeless youth, and has a large pool of lawyers as potential volunteers.
Elise Libbey (Marquette 2014) is an associate at Gonzalez Saggio & Harlan LLP, Milwaukee. She is on the board of the State Bar's Young Lawyers Division, and is organizing Project Street Youth as chair of the YLD’s public outreach committee. She is also on the board of the Milwaukee Young Lawyers Association.
The program provides an opportunity to care for youth who are lost in the system or without families, and will enable volunteer attorneys to touch youth in need of representation and guidance.
The project not only does important work by providing meaningful assistance to this often overlooked population, but it also is a rewarding and powerful way to use legal expertise to give back.
The YLD will partner with Pathfinders, a Milwaukee youth shelter, as the location sponsor for the project.
In 2014, Pathfinders met basic needs of 5,663 youth and young adults, including housing or shelter, educational, resource and referral information, and other services.
Legal Assistance is Needed
Legal issues involving homeless youth include credit and false accusations of fraud, the ability to find housing, expungements of criminal records, public assistance, and the difficulties of navigating the legal system. The YLD needs volunteer attorneys with experience in these legal areas commonly faced by homeless youth. But experience is not a requirement – there is something that every attorney can do, regardless of practice area.
Since the project is implemented by the YLD, preference will be given to YLD members as volunteers. The YLD welcomes and appreciates the support and expertise of all members of the bar.
As a civil litigator, it’s easy for me to lose sight of the struggles many youth face in our nation on a day-to-day basis. Participating in Project Street Youth brought those issues to the forefront, and presented an opportunity to meaningfully address the problems with legal assistance. – Ryan Neville, Charleston, S.C.
If the event is successful, the YLD will explore future events of its kind, and possibly expand the program to other areas of the state.
Attorneys who have volunteered with this program in other states indicated that it is a rewarding program and that being able to provide legal expertise to an underserved population pays dividends far beyond what they contributed.
“I think volunteers will gain practical experience and hopefully make a meaningful impact on the lives of the people we’ll meet in Milwaukee,” Blay said.
