Summer Corps Application Goes Live March 16

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HOW TO APPLY

The application will be open on this site beginning March 16 and closing April 5, 2011.
 

MEMBER ELIGIBILITY

Law School
In order to participate in the Summer Corps program, you must be a current student at a 2010-11 Equal Justice Works member school and must graduate no earlier than December 2011.

AmeriCorps
In order to be eligible for any AmeriCorps program, including Summer Corps, you must be a U.S. Citizen, U.S. National or Lawful Permanent Resident of the United States. During the application process, all applicants will be required to provide proof of their status by submitting acceptable documentation of eligibility, such as a copy of an unexpired U.S. passport, birth certificate, certificate of naturalization or Lawful Permanent Resident Card.
 

QUALIFYING PROJECT

In order to be eligible for Summer Corps, you must have secured a placement for the summer. Your service project should adhere to the following guidelines:

• You must provide direct legal services to low-income and underserved individuals. This includes conducting intake, performing client and witness interviews, participating in courtroom advocacy and carrying out legal research and writing.
• You are strongly encouraged, but not required, to engage in community education and outreach efforts as a part of your service. This includes creating, updating or translating educational and outreach materials and conducting "know your rights" presentations.
• Your project is not eligible if you do pure policy work.
• If you are performing indigent defense work, you are only eligible if your organization is a state, county, or nonprofit public defender. Offices such as the Federal Public Defender do not qualify.
• You may not engage in any activities prohibited by AmeriCorps during your service hours. These include:
  * proselytizing or engaging in religious instruction;
  * attempting to influence legislation;
  * assisting, promoting or deterring union organizing;
  * engaging in partisan political activities;
  * and/or providing a direct benefit to a for-profit entity.

All Summer Corps members must sign a document certifying they do not partake in any prohibited activities throughout the course of their project.
 

QUALIFYING ORGANIZATIONS

In accordance with the federal regulations and program guidelines that govern AmeriCorps, Summer Corps host sites must be 501(c)(3) nonprofit organizations or qualifying public defender programs. These include:

• Nonprofit organizations serving low-income and underserved communities;
• State, County, and Nonprofit public defender offices;
• Legal service organizations; and
• Civil rights organizations.

The following settings do not qualify as Summer Corps host organizations:

• Federal government agencies such as federal defender offices, the Environmental Protection Agency, the Department of Justice;
• Government agencies including, district attorney's offices, offices of the attorney general. (Please note state and county public defender offices do qualify. See above.)
• Internationally-focused or internationally-based organizations;
• Judicial clerkships; and
• Private law firms.
   

SELECTION CRITERIA

Equal Justice Works retains the right to accept or reject applications at its discretion. Equal Justice Works evaluates Summer Corps applications and selects members using a number of factors including:

• Quality of the application;
• Eligibility of the applicant and applicant’s host site;
• Geographic diversity;
• Law school diversity; and
• Any current Equal Justice Works initiatives such as Veterans’ issues or placement at a current AmeriCorps Legal Fellow host site.

Please submit a complete and thorough application.
 

QUESTIONS?

If you have questions about the Summer Corps program, please send an email to summercorps@equaljusticeworks.org.