Holding Our Nation to Its Promise

Ed. Note: Champions of Change is a weekly initiative to highlight Americans who are making an impact in their communities and helping our country rise to meet the many challenges of the 21st century.

On October 13, Attorney General Eric Holder recognized me as a Champion of Change for helping low-income people get their day in court. Of course, the real heroes are the people who fight daily in court to protect their lives and their families, despite an inability to find a lawyer, language barriers, and other obstacles. Here are two of their stories.

Charles Guider was late making a mortgage payment after his mother died.  When he tried to pay, none of the banks or mortgage servicers that had bought and sold the mortgage over the years would take the money. One of them filed for foreclosure. He’s still in his home today because his civil legal aid lawyer persuaded the lender to accept the money and drop the foreclosure.

Charles is one of the lucky ones. Record numbers of people are turning to the courts for help dealing with the effects of the financial crisis on their lives, including foreclosure, eviction, unjust denial of subsistence benefits, and domestic violence. The vast majority cannot afford a lawyer and cannot find one to help them for free. Nonetheless, the House of Representatives is pushing for a 27% cut in funding for the Legal Services Corporation, which provides lawyers for low-income families needing legal help.  To spur discussion about the need for civil legal aid, my colleagues and I produced a series of short videos telling the stories of Charles and other homeowners.  Please watch them and join us in the push for civil legal aid funding.

Maythe Ramirez tried to warn the judge in her child custody case that her husband had beaten her and might harm the children.  But Ms. Ramirez speaks Spanish, and there was no interpreter in the courtroom. She later told a New York Times reporter, “It is really as if you are doing nothing in court, standing still and not being able to explain what’s really happening.”

Ms. Ramirez had the misfortune to be in court in California, a state that provides interpreters for some court cases but not others. But her story is prompting change. Colorado, Ohio, Pennsylvania and Utah are among the states that have vastly improved their court interpreter programs in the past few years. And the American Bar Association is developing a historic set of standards for language access in courts, which will help the courts educate legislators and others about the need to fund this important aspect of access to the courts.

I have spent over a decade building a national program that uses advocacy, policy analysis, scholarship, public education and litigation to ensure that the justice system works when low-income communities need it. When I hear Charles’s and Maythe’s stories, I know our work is far from over. I am proud to have the opportunity to work with my fellow Champions of Change to hold our nation to its promise of “equal justice under law.”

Laura K. Abel is Acting Director of the Justice Program at the Brennan Center for Justice at New York University School of Law. 

For the Win: Taking Action in the Big Easy

For the Win is a guest blog series featuring the remarkable initiatives that young Americans are advancing to win the future for their communities. Each week we highlight a new young person and learn about their inspiring work through their own words. Submit your story to appear in the For the Win guest blog series.

Shonak Patel is a member of AmeriCorps Alums, a division of Points of Light Institute and co-founder and CEO of Swellr. Shonak was a finalist in the 2011 MassChallenge start-up competition and accelerator.  Prior to founding Swellr, he served in AmeriCorps as finance and development fellow with the New Orleans Neighborhood Development Collaborative (NONDC) primarily working on a variety of affordable housing and community revilatilization projects in the Central City neighborhood of New Orleans. He graduated with honors from Babson College in 2006 with a concentration in finance.

Shonak Patel. (Photo by La Capoise Gallerie)

We heard today’s kids were having educational opportunities and resources taken from them, and not provided to them. We knew far too many teachers close to us sacrificing money out of their own paycheck every year to deliver their students the quality education they deserve. We saw a window to innovate and change the status quo in a meaningful way. So we took action.  My co-founders and I created Swellr earlier this year to make it easier for us all to do our small part to account for increasing budget cuts to education across the country.

Action, this is what being an entrepreneur is all about as I have come to learn, and this is what my service experience prepared me for. 

Office of Personnel Management Director John Berry Talks about the American Jobs Act at the GLBT Center of Colorado

Last week, Office of Personnel Management (OPM) Director John Berry toured the GLBT Center of Colorado in Denver and spoke with members of the local gay, lesbian, bisexual, and transgender community about the importance of the American Jobs Act.

Read more about Director Berry’s visit from Amy Drayer, Vice President for Strategic Initiatives at The Center:

John Berry, Director for the Office of Personnel Management, visits The GLBT Community Center of Colorado on Friday, October 14, 2011. (Photo from OutFront Colorado)

Advocacy for the lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender community is at its most powerful when it comes from all directions – from the top, from the grassroots, from our allies, and from the middle.

Last Friday, the GLBT Community Center of Colorado got a chance to see what’s happening at the top – straight from John Berry, Director of the U.S. Office of Personnel Management.  Director Berry was passionate about the Obama Administration’s support for our community and the steps he is taking as OPM Director to institutionalize equality in the nation’s largest workforce.