A year of systematic cruelty

January 25, 2018

Today at noon our offices will hold a moment of silence.

We will take this moment to remember that one year ago today, the Trump Administration released an executive order titled Border Security and Immigration Enforcement Improvements that put into place the first pieces of the immigration machine that is now clawing its way from Washington D.C. toward California.

That executive order added thousands of new ICE agents. It threatened repercussions for cities that created “sanctuary” by refusing to deputize local law enforcement systems for ICE’s purposes. And it created a set of so-called deportation “priorities” that fundamentally threaten our treasured values of due process and the rule of law by allowing each individual ICE agent to make subjective and unregulated determinations about who is a “priority” for deportation.

And of course, just two days later, the Trump Administration released the first Muslim travel ban executive order, thrusting the global community into chaos, stranding passengers traveling to the US from around the world, and ripping apart families throughout California and the country.

So today we will mark this moment in silence. In contemplation of the past year. And we will hold in our hearts the many families and communities who now live under the threats implicit in this immigration policy, and those whose lives have already been up-ended.

The administration’s actions on immigration policy over the last year make their position clear. The January 2017 executive orders that were signed (as well as others that were leaked), the termination of the DACA program in September, three iterations of the Muslim travel ban, the legal arguments that the President’s actions in this area are unreviewable by the federal courts – they all make it very clear. This administration’s immigration policy can only be described as a framework of systematic cruelty.

The human species is by its very nature migratory. We have moved all over the face of the earth throughout human history. We move for joyful reasons – because we fall in love, seek new skills and education, because we get amazing job opportunities. We also move for horrific reasons – to escape persecution, warfare, and devastating natural disasters. Of course all of this human movement is regulated in some way by each country’s laws. But at the heart of it all are just the purely human reasons for migration, which we share as a species.

But the Trump Administration views this organic human movement with suspicion and disdain. Rather than seeing human migration as normal, natural, and even as a potential source of new talents, skills, and energy for the United States, the administration’s derogatory and racist language degrades both the reasons for human migration – and the people and families involved.

It is critically important that we – as a nation – understand this core fact: the brunt of the unbearable impact of the administration’s immigration policy falls on families. It is the young Syrian refugee seeking to reunite with his wife and US citizen son in Long Beach during the chaos of the first travel ban. It is the grandmother stranded in Germany as she is trying to travel to the Bay Area to hold her daughter’s hand during the birth of her first grandchild. It is a sobbing mother and teenagers as their father is deported at an airport in Michigan.

So it is those families that we hold in our hearts today at noon – and every day moving forward. Their persistence and courage are inspiring. Their stories fuel our fight.

Want to stand up to protect immigrant families? Sign up for the statewide Immigration Pro Bono Network for alerts, updates and volunteer opportunities!

Mall Massage Lover + Meal Prepper + Karaoke Queen + Outdoor Enthusiast + Passion for Justice = ?

January 17, 2018

The answer: an amazing new group of social justice advocates here at OneJustice!

OneJustice is starting off 2018 with a staff of 27 people – the largest we’ve ever been! Our newest team members all come to us with amazing skill sets and serve in vital roles for OneJustice. And what’s more – they’re all amazing people. As we do with all our new staff members, we asked them to answer these four questions:

What drew you to OneJustice’s vision, mission, and strategies?
Tell us a bit about your position at OneJustice and what you hope to achieve?
What was your path in coming to OneJustice?
And please tell us something about yourself that not everyone might know.

We think you’ll enjoy hearing their responses below. And we know that you’ll enjoy working with them as they get up and running in their work! Join us in welcoming Blossom Cole, Lusik Gasparyan, Roel Mangiliman, and Patrick Kelleher-Calnan.

Blossom Cole – Executive & Grants Coordinator

Since I grew up in California in a low-income community, many of my experiences were extremely traumatic, and were systematically shaped by politics and divisive agendas. Much like today, our government during the Reagan administration in the 80s, pushed racist policies. Social services were defunded throughout the country, and particularly in California, where mental hospitals were closed. The patients undergoing treatment got released to their own devices. My mother was one of those people, suffering from schizophrenia, and had been involuntarily committed, yet they let her out anyway.

OneJustice’s program participants are now facing their own trauma at the hands of our government, which I can identify with personally. My people are losing government benefits, facing legal problems, fighting to stay in the only country they know, and they need help now.

As the Executive and Grants Coordinator, I am responsible for managing the CEO’s schedule, and responding to internal and external requests for her time. I also assist Program Leads at OneJustice in completing grant reporting to our funders in a timely manner. I hope to completely overhaul our physical and digital grants filing system so that is it more accessible and easier to obtain the information required for reporting.

After earning my Bachelor’s degree in Political Science from San Francisco State University, I went on to earn my Paralegal Certificate with a focus on immigration. After an internship in family based immigration, I transitioned to a career in business immigration. Understanding and processing/drafting petitions for both prongs of immigration left me with a serious passion for immigration law. OneJustice gives me an opportunity to still be involved with immigration and allows me to go back to my social justice roots and offer an authentic perspective about what it means to be low-income in California and how support and access can change lives.

Analyzing our politics and governmental processes allows me to learn from my colleagues, who have a winning formula that reaches and communicates to those who are in the business of offering help to people who are disenfranchised. I get to have “a seat at the table” in order to shape OneJustice’s program reach and assist in obtaining funds to sustain our services, which help families and people like me. I give thanks to a great support system that helped me to succeed so that I could give back to my community. Touching one life is all I can ask for, and changing the perspective of one person can effect change, which will be my legacy.

I really love to sing, and I am a karaoke queen. I love learning new things and going to theme parks, especially with my family, which includes my four-year-old son.

Lusik Gasparyan – Project Manager, Pro Bono Justice

In my first year of law school, I realized that I wanted to work for an organization that is not only a problem solver, but is passionate about what they do and wants to improve the lives of those who face many obstacles in the legal system. OneJustice aims to increase everyone’s access to justice, regardless of income, citizenship status, or location of residency. OneJustice approaches the law from an innovative point of view, believing that everything can be improved and new ideas are always welcomed–a belief that I personally share myself.

I am the Project Manager for the Rural Justice Collaborative clinic. The Clinic organizes immigration, criminal record expungement, and housing clinics for those living in the rural parts of the Bay Area, where the access to legal services is limited. Through my work, I hope to increase access to justice for those living in the rural parts and be able to update and advance our clinics based on the needs of the community. My aim is to expand the impact of Rural Justice Collaborative project.

I have a background in dependency, immigration, and family law. Prior to joining the OneJustice team, I was a law clerk at the Children’s Law Center of CA (CLC), where I interviewed minor clients in the dependency system about their living situation and explained to them the dependency court process. In addition, I helped my supervising attorney make recommendations regarding the minor’s care and housing. I also interned at Kids in Need of Defense, helping unaccompanied minors receive asylum or Special Immigrant Juvenile Status by interviewing them and working on their immigration court paperwork. While at the Harriett Buhai Center for Family Law and Pepperdine’s Restoration and Justice Clinic, I assisted survivors of domestic violence with their Family Law and Restraining Order paperwork and representation. In addition, at the Restoration and Justice clinic, I helped a survivor of human trafficking apply for a criminal record expungement so she could obtain a job. At the Coalition for the Advocacy of the Persecuted and the Enslaved, I assisted survivors of human trafficking with gaining legal status and worked with clients who were applying for U-Visa and renewal of DACA.
While in law school, I organized workshops that educated youth from transitional homes on their constitutional rights during police encounters. I created the materials that provided instructions on how to avoid self-incrimination and reduce the chances of being charged with obstruction of justice.

All of those experiences have prepared me for my current role by providing me with an understanding of the different legal issues people face. In addition, those experiences gave me an ability to empathize and connect with different clients and give value and validation to their stories. Those experiences have also made me want to improve the system.

I enjoy going grocery shopping and meal prep for the week. I love cooking and preparing a feast for my friends or family. I believe lemon juice, salt, pepper, and garlic are essentials for almost any savory dish.

Roel Mangiliman – Manager of Innovation and Learning

Everyone at OneJustice works on a constant everyday basis to answer the question, “In what ways can we increase access to justice for those who need it?” I decided to work here because not only do we answer the question, we take action.

As Manager of Innovation and Learning, I promote the theories and practices around topics of innovation, human-centered design, and organizational change as approaches to transform California’s civil legal aid system. Success in this work looks like growing acknowledgement among the legal community that “innovation” is not just brand speak, or referring to iPhones – but rather an organizational development process that resonates as urgent, actionable, and exciting to entities of all kinds looking to increase impact.

Prior to joining OneJustice, I spent five years studying organizational change initiatives in a range of charitable contexts including legal aid, academia, philanthropy, and mental health. At Seneca Family of Agencies, I led training initiatives and innovation efforts to meet the changing organizational needs of a mental health agency expanding rapidly across different states, service type, and compliance entities. At Bay Area Justice Funders Network, as a research fellow I studied philanthropic best practices for social change, and created training content for foundation staff looking to influence their foundations. Earlier, at the SF Superior Court Self-Help Center, I held a management fellowship where I studied the impacts of sudden budget cuts on staffing and service areas, ran strategic planning retreats, and consulted executives on staff and resource development. I completed my JD at UC Davis Law School, and received my BA in political science from UC San Diego. I am licensed to practice law in California, and regularly complete continuing education in nonprofit law, change leadership, and organizational development.

A hobby of mine is getting mall massages – those stations in the mall where people faceplant into a chair and get 45 mins of deep tissue massage (more like body work) at an affordable rate, with no talking. Paradise.

Patrick Kelleher-Calnan – Operations Manager

I was attracted to the mission of OneJustice because I believe lack of access to legal aid is a serious source of harm for many Californians, and I appreciate that OneJustice deals with the legal aid system as a whole. OneJustice appealed to me as an organization because it has a track record of success and displays a willingness to evolve as an organization.

At OneJustice I am responsible for the day-to-day and long term operations of the offices, everything from bookkeeping to IT support. I’m excited to be joining such a high-caliber operation, and looking forward to finding ways to keep our processes effective and efficient as OneJustice continues to grow.

My professional background includes a diverse mix of operational and data-related roles. For five years I was the Admission Technical Specialist for graduate business programs at Northeastern University where I managed several admissions and marketing systems, performed a lot of data analysis and reporting, and making sure operations ran smoothly. Before that I ran the day-to-day operations of a growing bicycle tour, rental, and repair business. Since moving to San Francisco I’ve worked in an accounting office and as a Finance Administrator for a New Zealand based winery.

My work and volunteer experience also includes conducting geospatial research for a Human Right to Water campaign, wrangling data for the Eviction Defense Collaborative in San Francisco, and starting and running a neighborhood bicycle nonprofit in Boston.

I earned my BA from Wesleyan University and my MS in Urban and Regional Policy from Northeastern University.

Since moving to the Bay Area I’ve made it my mission to take advantage of every outdoor recreation opportunity in the area. So far my favorite has to be encountering elephant seals on the beaches of Point Reyes.

Thank You from Julia Wilson, OneJustice CEO

Happy Holidays from OneJustice!

December 22, 2017

This holiday season, we are so grateful for your support. During a year of unimaginable challenges and attacks on the communities we serve, you have proven that when people open their hearts and put their hands to work, anything is possible.

We wish you the best this holiday season, and look forward to another year of working together for
justice for all.

We Have So Much To Be Thankful For

November 28, 2017

We hope you had a lovely Thanksgiving last week, surrounded by those you love and hopefully still not drowsy from all that turkey! In this time of giving thanks, it’s hard to overstate how many things we at OneJustice have to be grateful for. Our work is supported by so many different people and organizations – from our Board members, who help give OneJustice a sense of direction; to our generous donors, whose financial contributions ensure services for those in need; to our community partner organizations, who invite us into their fight for equality and justice.

We are so thankful – and we wanted to extend our deepest gratitude to you!

As a result, today OneJustice is celebrating #ThanksGivingTuesday (rather than #GivingTuesday). Because our work involves so many others, we thought it would be a good idea to ask some of our staff members here at OneJustice what part of the OneJustice network they are most thankful for. Their responses are below – we hope you’ll enjoy them for #ThanksGivingTuesday!

Dania Herrera

Dania is one of the Program Associates with the Pro Bono Justice team, and she works with our Staff Attorneys to help organize and plan clinics. As a result, Dania has had the opportunity to interact with many of the clients directly served in our clinics. She writes: “The legal system can be a large maze for anyone. Without the help of a legal expert or a couple, like in the case of a client we saw in September, it can be quite a daunting process to fill out paperwork that falls within two areas of law. We hold free legal clinics in Stockton regularly and we saw a client who told us that his past drug abuse problem affected access to a better quality of life. He hoped to file a naturalization application at that clinic in September but was advised to attend our record change clinic in October to pursue record change remedies to have a more successful naturalization application. When sharing his life story with the volunteer attorneys and me, he told us what it took to turn his life around, the consequences of his actions, and in that moment I realized how stories like these need to be told in order to fix our broken legal and healthcare system.”

Gillian Sonnad

As a Staff Attorney with the Healthy Nonprofits Program, Gillian works directly with our Executive Fellows. The Fellows Program, which helps to train legal services nonprofit leaders, has generated a strong legacy of alumni. Gillian describes:“I’m grateful for the network of Executive Fellows alumni that OneJustice has created. Knowing that many of our nonprofit leaders have thought critically about the stability and longevity of their organizations gives me hope for the future of our sector and our ability to continue bringing high quality legal services to low income Californians.“

Fabiola Danielle Quiroz

Fabiola also works as a Program Associate with the Pro Bono Justice team. Having worked directly with clients, she is grateful for their willingness to share their stories with her and members of the OneJustice team. Fabiola shares her experience from a recent clinic: “I listened as the client recounted their story – from juvenile hall to prison to the lack of opportunities for reintegration. And, in that powerful moment of openness, I shared my brother’s story too – a story of incarceration from age seventeen. Street Sheet’s November edition on mass incarceration states that over the past 30 years there has been a 500 percent increase in incarceration, amounting to 2.4 million humans with no freedom in the U.S. Now, as we enter the season of giving thanks, I am thankful for narratives having the power to build bridges between different walks of life, and in my ability to serve as a bridge. In finding common ground, my struggle and their struggle becomes one struggle – our struggle, unified towards equality and justice.”

Mai Nguyen

Mai, one of our awesome Staff Attorneys on the Pro Bono Justice team, organizes Justice Bus trips in Southern California. It takes a lot to make these clinics happen, and Mai notes that, among other, she is grateful for the Justice Bus volunteers. She describes, “I am grateful for our Justice Bus volunteers who take time out of their busy schedules to come together to bring much needed legal assistance to low-income Californians. They are able to combine their skills, resources and enthusiasm to make a positive impact on many clinic participant’s lives. Their dedication is apparent in the quality and depth of services we are able to provide through the Justice Bus and from the gracious feedback we get from clinic participants. I am thankful for the opportunity to work with such a diverse range of volunteers, from pro bono attorneys, law students, and legal services attorneys to librarians, teachers, social service providers, and caring community members — all of whom make it possible for OneJustice to carry out our mission to increase access to justice to low-income Californians as far north as Eureka and far south as El Centro.”

Thank you, everyone, for helping bring legal help to those in need.

One year later . . . OneJustice is ready.

November 7, 2017
Post by Julia R. Wilson, CEO

One year ago, I was pathetically naïve.

Photo of Julia Wilson in a brown suit with a white scarf tied over her shoulder.

My selfie on Election Day 2016, trying to echo the colors worn by suffragists in their fight for women’s right to vote.

I picked out a brown, pinstriped pantsuit that felt classic and maybe even (if I squinted at myself in the mirror) a bit timeless. I looked at photographs of my dearest grandmother, Daryl Henson, a fiercely independent woman who was born just two years after women secured the right to vote in this country. I found a white scarf in my drawer and thought about my older daughter, who would turn 18 on November 8th and would get to vote in her first election on her birthday. I felt electric with the possibilities.

Now one year later, I can hardly stand to look at the photo I posted that morning on my personal social media accounts before heading out the door. I think I actually somehow feel ashamed of that photo. It communicates something a bit too personal, or too raw, about what I thought was possible.

So on Election Day 2016, I put on my pantsuit and tied my white scarf over my shoulder. I felt buoyant as I went through my commute, smiling at first shyly – and then conspiratorially – with the other women in pantsuits in the parking lot and on the BART train. By the time I reached the streets of downtown San Francisco, I was brazenly high- fiving other pantsuited women as we walked by each other on the sidewalk – strangers and yet sisters.

Twelve hours later, I was perched on a stool, watching the TV shows on my computer alone in my darkened house, with my younger daughter asleep in bed. The pantsuit was crumpled in my hamper. I haven’t worn it since. I don’t know if I will wear it again.

Photo of OneJustice staff around a laptop at a desk at SFO airport.

OneJustice staff at the SFO “pop-up” airport clinic in response to the first round of the Muslim Travel Ban, January & February 2017.

I didn’t sleep that night. Around 5am, I sent an email to the entire OneJustice staff. I contemplated closing the offices for the day, but that didn’t feel right. I thought that our team needed to be together. So I invited everyone to take some time and then gather in our conference rooms in the late morning so that we could start to process what had happened and parse through what it might mean for OneJustice’s work.

We went through boxes of tissues that day. We cried and raged. We talked about power, privilege, and systemic racism and sexism in our country. We talked about the potential impact of the election on the communities that invite OneJustice into their fierce struggle for equality and justice. Staff members shared their fears, and we pledged to keep each other safe, no matter what the future might hold.

A photo of two attorneys working on laptops at a folding table at the LAX airport clinic, with signs that say "travel ban questions?" and "volunteer immigration attorney here to help"

The LAX airport legal clinic in response to the travel ban (February 2017).

That day is seared in my memory forever. The election’s impact on our work could not have been more stark. In one set of candidates, we had a possible President who had served on the Board of Directors of the federal Legal Services Corporation, and a Vice Presidential candidate who was a civil rights lawyer married to a former legal aid lawyer. On the other side, we had a Presidential candidate who had called for the end of the DACA program and ruthlessly vilified our communities, and a Vice Presidential candidate who had called for the complete elimination of Legal Services Corporation on three separate occasions during his time in the House. We feared what our community was likely to face under the new administration.

On November 8, 2016, we actually thought we had a good sense of what was likely to come. It turns out that we accurately predicted some of the components, but we were off in terms of the timing. We did start planning that day and in the following weeks, including how to use the two California Pro Bono Regional Meetings that took place on either side on the inauguration date. We tried to forecast different scenarios – the end of DACA, risk of mass deportations, a Muslim registry, the elimination of federal funding for legal aid – and sketch out high-level responses.

Looking back over the past year, I realize now that we could never have truly been ready for what came next. How could we have imagined the waves of aggressive, discriminatory, and unconstitutional policies from the new administration? A proposed budget from the White House with no funding at all for legal services? The attacks on the core democratic values we hold so dear: the rule of law, equality and justice for all?

Two attorneys shown on a large computer screen with the supervision immigration attorney at a table in the OneJustice conference room.

The OneJustice virtual DACA renewal clinic to bring legal assistance to young adults in Humboldt County in Sept. 2017.

I am so proud of what the OneJustice network has accomplished – and withstood – over the last year. The LAX and SFO airport clinics in response to the multiple version of the Muslim travel ban. The expansion of our Immigration Pro Bono Network to stand with immigrant communities as they face rapidly shifting immigration policies, craven deportation reprioritization, and increased ICE raids in Los Angeles. The renewal of our grassroots network – Californians for Legal Aid – to raise awareness about the importance of legal services for Californians in need. The statewide DACA response sprint to assist young adults in the terrible 4 weeks before the end of the DACA program. The communities with whom we work – and our staff and volunteers – have undertaken amazing work in heart-breaking circumstances.

The past year has honed the OneJustice team to the sharpest edge. We have been buffeted and thrown about, but we also grew deeper roots that are now intimately intertwined with the roots of our partner organizations. Frontline collaborations forged in crisis have become lifetime relationships filled with trust and mutuality. We have highly organized rapid response checklists and planning systems that we continue to hone with each new disaster – whether natural like the recent Northern California fires or a man-made disaster, manufactured by the federal administration.

I would never choose to live through the past year again – not for anything in the world. I wish very much that our country and communities had never been forced through these experiences. But as we work to make sense of the past 12 months and to look forward at what we might face over the next year, there is one thing that I know in my bones.

We are no longer naïve. We have learned our lessons.
This year, we are ready.

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

And we need YOU more than ever before! Please take a stand with us and fight for justice for all!

Sign up for Californians for Legal Aid, our grassroots network raising awareness about the importance of legal help for those in need
Sign up for the Immigration Pro Bono Response Network to receive news and alerts about immigration needs in California
Donate today online to fund the fight in 2018 and beyond – thank you!

What do a coffee drinker, cliff diver, peek-a-boo player, angsty punk, and improv performer have in common?

September 26, 2017

They all work at OneJustice now!

Yep, in addition to their expertise in fundraising, impact evaluation, pro bono design, and nonprofit management, our staff have some pretty quirky skill sets! We recently added new folks to the team, and we’re excited to introduce them to you.

We sat down with them and asked them to share a little something about themselves, including:

What drew you to OneJustice’s vision, mission, and strategies?
Tell us a bit about your position at OneJustice and what you hope to achieve?
What was your path in coming to OneJustice?
And please tell us something about yourself that not everyone might know.

We think you’ll enjoy hearing their responses below. And we know that you’ll enjoy working with them as they get up and running in their work! Join us in welcoming Aaron Chandler, Omar Corona, Pete James, Lea Volk, and Alexis Payne.

(The drum roll please………)

Aaron Chandler, Senior Manager of Donor Relations (San Francisco)

My mother is a public interest attorney, and I’ve been involved with volunteering, organizing, fundraising and leadership for racial, economic, environmental and social justice for 15 years. In this time, I’ve seen the profoundly positive impact that access to justice can have in the lives of people who otherwise wouldn’t be able to receive legal assistance.

Here at OneJustice, I’m engaging our committed supporters–without which we couldn’t have gotten to where we are now–as well as prospective supporters, by working with our staff, Board, Advisory Board and Strategy Council members to tell the story of OneJustice’s impact on individuals and the legal aid sector as a whole, and to build a culture of philanthropy at OneJustice. In addition, I plan our annual gala, Opening Doors to Justice, and assist with refining the communications strategies that allow us to reach our stakeholders in the most meaningful ways.

My background has primarily been in fundraising — I really enjoy making connections between potential supporters, and impactful organizations doing meaningful grassroots and systems-change work. Prior to OneJustice, I was managing the fundraising at a human services organization in the East Bay, as well as at a national economic justice organization. I’m from Seattle originally, and went to college in Massachusetts. Eventually I moved to San Francisco three-and-a-half years ago, when I took on the role of Executive Director at a community-based HIV/AIDS organization, turned it around and guided its merger with another local HIV/AIDS agency.

I enjoy traveling, (good) coffee, baking sweet desserts, (sometimes) running, and enjoying the fact that the East Bay — where I live — is consistently warmer and sunnier than San Francisco.

Omar Corona, Pro Bono Justice Program Associate (Los Angeles)

I value OneJustice’s commitment to transforming the civic legal aid system in California by leveraging the resources of the private and non-profit sectors in order to better serve the most vulnerable. I also appreciate that working at OneJustice allows me to apply my skills in a way that positively impacts those most disenfranchised by our legal system.

I am especially interested in the exposure to the legal aid landscape in California that working at OneJustice affords me since I hope to pursue a career in public interest law.

Since joining OneJustice, I have been able to work on a variety of projects. First, I am part of the team behind the Pro Bono Training Institute which allows me to develop the training modules that we use to train volunteers for IMPACT LA and JusticeBus clinics. I’m also involved with IMPACT LA and the Southern California Immigration Capacity-Building project, which is in its early stages of development. Some of my overarching goals in working at OneJustice are to gain a better understanding of what can be done to narrow the legal aid gap in our state both through pro bono work as well as policy changes. Some more project-specific goals of mine are to: increase the number of volunteers that access the resources available through the Pro Bono Training Institute as well as contribute to the growth and expansion of IMPACT LA clinics.

Prior to joining the OneJustice team, I served as a Fellow with the City and County of San Francisco where I was able to exercise my passion for public service and gain tremendous insight into the mechanisms of local government. My interest in legal aid stems from my experience with assisting self-represented litigants in the Superior Court of Los Angeles as an undergrad, primarily with eviction defense and family law.

In addition to legal aid work, I have also been involved in policy advocacy and research around environmental protection and sustainability. I have found many parallels between my work in legal aid and environmental protection. These parallels have made me realize the importance of promoting equity and ensuring fair access to resources. I earned my B.A. in Political Science and Environmental Studies from UCLA.

As a SoCal native, I really enjoy swimming in the outdoors and after a recent trip to the island of Barbados, I’ve come to enjoy cliff diving (although my parents aren’t too fond of it yet)! I also really love to eat spicy food and as a Vegan, I especially enjoy cooking my own and learning new recipes. However, I also very much enjoy visiting and trying different vegan-friendly restaurants!

Peter James, Senior Manager of Impact Evaluation (San Francisco)

When I first moved to California, I was talking to someone at a legal aid organization and they said, “You should check out OneJustice”. Since then, OneJustice has always been on my radar as a well-respected and innovative organization. So when the opportunity came to start a new strand of work at an organization with such deep roots in the legal services community, I jumped at the chance.

My core responsibility at One Justice is to build impact evaluation capacity at OneJustice. This means helping my colleagues to understand impact evaluation as a discipline and implement evaluations across the wide range of programs that they manage. We will then use what we have learned from our own work to support legal services organizations to evaluate their own services. Over time, we want to support the legal aid community to develop a high-quality evidence-base for planning and designing services as well as demonstrating the impact and value of programs.

I’m originally from the U.K. and started my career as a research consultant. I then joined the Impact Evaluation team at Citizens Advice, a nationwide network of community advice services. This experience first sparked my passion for legal services and my interest in using research methods to study how services can best be planned, designed and delivered. After moving to the U.S., I worked in the research office at the Judicial Council of California, which provided an insight into the operation of the legal system at the state level. Working at OneJustice means I can bring together these different threads to focus on the legal aid community in California.

I like to make up games, and now that we have a 15-month-old son, my repertoire of peek-a-boo-inspired routines has become wider than I would have ever imagined.

Lea Volk, Healthy Nonprofits Program Associate (San Francisco)

I was drawn to OneJustice because of its cohesive and comprehensive approach to transforming the legal aid system and aiding social change in California. The multifaceted work of OneJustice resonates with my multitude of passions I often struggle to juggle, including social justice advocacy, community empowerment, civil rights law, and the ongoing fight for justice and equality. Through this innovative organization, I feel capable of being a part of both the micro and macro components required to efficiently and successfully create progressive change and bring healing to disenfranchised communities.

As the Healthy Nonprofit Program Associate, I handle the logistics for our Executive Fellowship Program and for our annual Public Interest/ Public Service Day while assisting with consulting and technical assistance for legal services organizations. I aim to provide smooth and detailed production to these two programs as well as look for ways to improve outreach and program evaluations. As someone who loves video production and editing, I would like to also create and/or increase our video media for documentation of our wonderful work, overall outreach purposes, and to spruce up our webinar trainings.

Before joining OneJustice, I worked as a Student Activist Coordinator for Amnesty International USA where I had the opportunity of educating, training, and organizing high school and college Amnesty student groups. While working with Amnesty International, I graduated from San Francisco State University in 2015 where I received a Bachelor of Arts in both Sociology and Latina/Latino Studies with a minor in Race and Resistance Studies. While a student of SFSU, I spent my time out of the classroom fully involved in student and community activism. I co-founded a successful student organization that worked to create a statewide network of students and educators fighting the privatization and commodification of public higher education, called the Student Union of San Francisco, which operated as a local under the California Student Union (CASU). It was through these years of grassroots organizing that I found my love for direct action planning, coalition building, and creating a network of politicized activists and advocates.

While in transit to and from work I may appear rather composed and calm yet, I have angsty punk and 90’s Riot Grrrl music blaring in my head phones. I also have an inability to refuse rhythm which often leads to me dancing to terrible music, dancing while I eat, and awkwardly trying to air drum as I walk.

Alexis Payne, Law Clerk (San Francisco)

I met attorneys from OneJustice while responding to the travel ban at SFO Airport in late January. I was impressed with their innovative techniques as well as their dedication to the organization’s mission of making legal aid accessible to all. As someone who has a passion for social justice and hopes to work in corporate law, I appreciate that they mobilize corporate attorneys to bring life-changing legal help to low-income Californians.

My time at OneJustice is spent tracking important cases, helping to build networks of pro bono and legal aid attorneys, and developing a cultural humility training for pro bono volunteers. During my externship, I hope to further explore the role that BigLaw plays in bringing legal help to those in need. I am also excited to learn more about how using innovative techniques rooted in cultural humility can improve client outcomes.

I am currently a 2L at Berkeley Law. I worked at OneJustice this summer as a Law Clerk. Prior to starting law school, I worked to help meet the basic needs of houseless individuals in my community. I have also mentored young adults, started programs at local libraries, and raised awareness about racial and economic justice.

I love doing improv – I helped start the Boalt Improv Group at Berkeley Law last year. I also enjoy throwing dinner parties, spontaneous dancing, and camping.

Sundae eater, band fan girl, Rocky 2.0, political news junky, trivia buff, and food forager?

What do all of these talents have in common?

Well, all of these (somewhat quirky) folks recently joined the OneJustice team!

We sat down with them and asked them to share a little something about themselves, including:

What drew you to OneJustice’s vision, mission, and strategies?
Tell us a bit about your position at OneJustice and what you hope to achieve?
What was your path in coming to OneJustice?
And please tell us something about yourself that not everyone might know.

We think you’ll enjoy hearing their responses below. And we know that you’ll enjoy working with them as they get up and running in their work! Join us in welcoming Ellie Dehghan, Maria Gavaldon, Dania Herrera, Stuart Johnson, Michael Palzes, and Fabiola Quiroz!

Ellie Dehghan, Staff Attorney, Pro Bono Justice

OneJustice’s mission is urgent, pivotal, and deeply personal. In 1975 rural West Texas, a legal aid attorney helped a teenage Mexican immigrant gain access to the education to which she was entitled. That teenager was my mother, and she went on to become the first in her family to graduate from college. Access to legal services produces generational impact, to which my story is a testament.

How attorneys engage in pro bono work is as critical as the number of hours they spend engaged in that work. Through the Pro Bono Justice Consulting program at OneJustice, my hope is to address and enrich the “how” portion of the equation. I will be facilitating the launch of pro bono networks, supporting stronger partnerships across the sector, and creating a space for innovation and creativity as we work to increase access to justice for Californians.

I am adamant about utilizing an equity and inclusion lens no matter what our role may be and no matter the section of the legal space in which we operate. Prior to spending three years building and implementing projects in legal aid, I spent two years as a litigator in BigLaw with a strong commitment to pro bono. Most recently, I expanded Bay Area Legal Aid’s Youth Justice project to San Mateo County, serving youth at risk of homelessness as their holistic civil legal aid attorney. I am particularly fortunate to have helped launch BayLegal’s inaugural Racial Justice Committee, spearheading racial justice and inclusion efforts not only in client advocacy, but within the organization as well.

My sense of humor is most akin to that of my eight-year-old nephew. I enjoy writing creative nonfiction but do not do it nearly enough. I used to be able to finish an entire Black and Tan Sundae at Fenton’s in Oakland – it is huge and delicious.

Maria Gavaldon, DreamSF Fellow, Pro Bono Justice

I was assigned to be at One Justice through my DreamSF Fellowship with OCEIA. I was interested in this fellowship because as a DACA student, I wanted to do more hands on work with the immigrant community. Something I often notice is that we don’t have many minority groups or people with stories like ours giving us legal representation. I hope to be the person with whom our clients feel comfortable when talking about their experiences and to be able to let them know that we are here for each other.

At One Justice, I am mostly in charge of doing outreach and scheduling appointments for Justice Bus Clinics. I also do research on future locations we are going to visit so we can know what organizations to partner up with. During the Justice Bus clinics, I interpret for attorneys and translate our paperwork for clients. What I want to gain from One Justice is knowledge about criminal and immigration law, as well as getting better at translating English legal terminology into Spanish. I hope to one day be one of the few undocumented lawyers the Latino community can relate to and confide their personal stories with.

I am currently enrolled at San Francisco State University starting my third year as a Political Science major. Previously, I was an ASI Project Connect intern at SF State where I did outreach to current and future students from underrepresented communities. I was also involved on campus with our new Food Pantry where we gave groceries exclusively to SFSU students. During the Spring 2017 semester, I received recognition for my community service hours and I hope to eventually have a position in the student board to bring more awareness to the undocumented students on campus.

I am a hardcore fan girl and my friends always make fun of me. When I graduated high school, they would tell me it was time to grow up and get rid of my posters and stop tweeting about bands all the time. I haven’t stopped because there’s so many college girls who are just as obsessed as me so I don’t mind. I’m still waiting for One Direction to come back from hiatus.

Dania Herrera, Program Associate, Pro Bono Justice

OneJustice works to make legal representation accessible to all Californians. In college, I studied Sociology with a special focus on the problems within the legal system that could affect access to legal representation. After learning about OneJustice’s mission and their body of work, I knew OneJustice would be a good fit for me because they do legal accessibility work every day.

I am in charge of legal clinic planning and logistics along with other members of the Pro Bono Legal Clinics Team; my main responsibilities are to make sure our legal clinics run smoothly from beginning to end by helping to recruit volunteer attorneys, interpreter volunteers, and conduct outreach to clients. I hope to identify and fill legal accessibility gaps in California by working with the rest of the OneJustice team.

I previously worked as a legal assistant at different immigration law firms in the city. I also interned for the Kamala Harris for Senate campaign because her campaign platform focused on repairing different accessibility issues in California. I was also able to bridge my love of the law and books by working as a law library clerk at the UC Davis Law School.

I can’t find people like Liam Neeson can, but I sure know how to guess the endings of movies and TV shows. I am also accidentally good at playing soccer. When I exercise, I workout by doing a weird hybrid of running and jumping rope. Rocky can eat his heart out! I am also weirdly good at staying upright on a runaway crowded Muni bus in heels.

Stuart Johnson, Executive & Operations Coordinator

I am passionate about public service and serving the common good. OneJustice’s mission to expand access to the civil legal aid system for all Californians is inspirational to me and motivates me to do my very best every day.

At OneJustice I provide executive support to the CEO and Board of Directors. I am also a member of the Development and Communications team and provide office management support. Most recently I have started building our media relations plan for the year. While at OneJustice, I hope to learn more about nonprofit management and pro bono law.

Most recently, I worked in former California Senator Barbara Boxer’s communications office. I have also worked as a grassroots organizer on a few political campaigns and as an immigration services coordinator at Berry Appleman & Leiden LLP. I hold a Bachelor of Arts degree in Political Communication with a minor in Economics from The George Washington University.

I really love (unfortunately) consuming an excessive amount of political news, playing adult league baseball, and visiting the Lost Coast!

Michael Palzes, Staff Attorney, Pro Bono Justice

I am concerned that civil legal aid is currently facing unprecedented challenges, and want to do more to help protect access to justice. I think OneJustice’s commitment to building capacity and expanding access to indigent legal services is both exciting and critically necessary. By joining OneJustice I hope I can make the kind of broader systemic impact that is not always possible in direct services legal aid work.

I am taking over primary responsibility for the IMPACT LA project, and spearheading a new immigration pro bono capacity building project with my Pro Bono Justice Team colleagues. In both projects a substantial portion of my focus will be on delivering legal services to low-income survivors of domestic abuse and other forms of severe trauma. I hope to continue the good work of IMPACT LA and build on the successes I have inherited with that project. I further hope to build a long-term sustainable network for providing legal services to immigrant communities that can help people overcome the fear and uncertainty of our current immigration climate.

Before joining OneJustice, I was a staff attorney at Nevada Legal Services in Reno. I coordinated the state’s legal aid program for low-income HIV positive individuals, and before that served as an Equal Justice Works Fellow in criminal justice re-entry and record sealing. In both positions with Nevada Legal Services I focused substantially on providing services to survivors of human trafficking and domestic abuse. Prior to that, I worked at the Montana Department of Justice where my duties included service on that state’s Access to Justice Commission and its Domestic Violence Fatality Review Team.

I am a huge trivia buff, and generally love odd facts and useless information. For the last two years in Reno I co-hosted and wrote the questions for a local pub trivia night. Growing up I played on competitive school-sponsored trivia teams in the National Academic Quiz Tournaments league, and did multiple screen tests for Jeopardy! (though have yet make it on the show). I also love National Parks and historic sites, where I usually spend way too much time reading plaques and collecting new bits of trivia. I’m looking forward to finding a new trivia night as I get more settled into Los Angeles.

Fabiola Quiroz, Program Associate, Pro Bono Justice

As a mentor for the Latino Peer Program at Humboldt State University, I advocated for DACA legal assistance for students and people in our community. Our organizing efforts painted a picture of how limited resources are in rural communities, and the partnership that developed with OneJustice truly made our vision of a DACA legal clinic a reality in Humboldt County. This community organizing effort has led me to be a part of a team that seeks to innovate our current legal aid system.

As one of the Pro Bono Justice Program Associates, I am responsible for managing the Justice Bus Project and Rural Justice Collaborative legal clinics. As an “outsider” organization hoping to help rural communities, I strive to forge strong relationships with organizations in the communities we hope to serve to ensure a better understanding and accessibility to the legal help we provide.

I volunteered at the student-initiated and student-led Youth Educational Services (Y.E.S.) whose mission is to serve local community needs. Within Y.E.S. House, I volunteered with the Homelessness Network which offers assistance to homeless families. Our focus is on educational exposure for the children to nurture their creativity and love of learning. I also volunteered my time to help facilitate the 3rd Annual Resource Fair at the San Francisco County Jail #5. Our hope was to engage participation of organizations that cater to the needs of re-integration and provide the incarcerated men resources upon release. One of the most impacting moments was during a group session inside the jail and hearing incarcerated men give advice to an incarcerated man who was being released in just two days.

I enjoy foraging for food, especially nutritious chicken of the woods mushrooms in Humboldt County!

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29 Legal Services Leaders are Heading Back to School

Ah, September. Just saying the word brings to mind crisp fall weather, shorter days, and students heading back to school. In California’s legal aid community, September also means the start of OneJustice’s Executive Fellowship program! And we are so excited to introduce to you the 29 new Fellows who have been selected for the 2017-2018 cohort.

Now that they made it through the competitive application process, the Fellows will gather monthly from September 2017 through June 2018 – dipping their toes into a different nonprofit management topics each time. Fellows will explore personal leadership styles, communications, working effectively with a board of directors, innovation and change management, human resources, budgeting, revenue models, and more. Faculty for the Executive Fellowship Program is drawn from the business, broader nonprofit, and philanthropic communities with a focus on bringing new learning and best practices from other sectors into the legal aid sector.

As you can tell from the short video above, the Executive Fellowship program works to achieve transformative change on many levels – for the individual leaders participating, for their organizations, and for the whole of California’s civil legal aid system. Armed with the training they receive through the program, Fellows return to their organizations ready to take on challenges related to supervising staff, designing effective programs, and raising money. Alumni of the program – now numbering over 140 – tell us they gain confidence and a peer network of support they continue to rely on for years to come.

We are thrilled to introduce the 2017-2018 Executive Fellows! (Drum roll please……….) They are:

Vanessa Barrington, Justice in Aging
Denny Chan, Justice in Aging
Laura Chiera, Legal Assistance to the Elderly
Martina Cucullu Lim, Centro Legal de la Raza
Shuray Ghorishi, Family Violence Appellate Project
Lauren Giardina, Disability Rights California
Shirley Gibson, Legal Aid Society of San Mateo County
Jennifer Haffner, Legal Services of Northern California
Sara Hedgpeth-Harris, Central California Legal Services
Angelica Jongco, Public Advocates
Aarti Kohli, Advancing Justice – Asian Law Caucus
Gladys La Torre, Los Angeles Center for Law & Justice
Elissa Lasserre, New Beginnings Law Center
Victor Leung, ACLU of Southern California
Katrina Logan, Community Legal Services in East Palo Alto
Michael Magnaye, Legal Services for Children
Neha Marathe, Law Foundation of Silicon Valley
Kate Marr, Legal Aid Society of Orange County
Araceli Martínez-Olguín, Community Legal Services in East Palo Alto
Chris McConkey, OneJustice
Patience Milrod, Central California Legal Services
Stephanie Penrod, Family Violence Law Center
Ann Rubinstein, Homeless Action Center
Renée Schomp, OneJustice
Naomi Schuldheisz, Legal Aid Society of San Bernardino
Barbara Schultz, Legal Aid Foundation of Los Angeles
Caron Smith, Neighborhood Legal Services – Los Angeles County
Alysson Snow, Legal Aid Society of San Diego
Michael White, Riverside Legal Aid

Questions about the Executive Fellowship program? Kim Irish, the Healthy Nonprofits Program Director would be delighted to chat! Please email her at kirish@one-justice.org.

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Frightfully Delightful

Boo! from the OneJustice crew

Even hard core, super serious justice-seekers have to grab some downtime (and cupcakes) to celebrate one of our very favorite holidays! Today our staff crew gathered for a virtual statewide Halloween party and the highly competitive annual OneJustice costume contest.

And hey – don’t forget that YOU can also join our #costumes4justice contest – just post a Halloween costume selfie on social media using #costumes4justice, and 3 winners will receive a nifty Justice Bus water bottle!

The costume competition was intense today, and the tension was palpable as we counted the votes! Who would win first place? The mouse, business cat, or bunny? The witch or scarecrow? Waldo or Boba Fett? And should the Los Angeles office get extra points for coordinating their Pokemon Go costumes? And what should we do about the intensity with which CEO Julia Wilson claims to be able to recite the lyrics of every song in Hamilton: A Musical?

And when the votes were counted, the winners were . . (drum roll please……)

First place San Francisco: Charlotte’s Webb (aka Claudia Pepe, Community Relations Program Associate who supports both the Justice Bus and Rural Justice Collaborative)
First Place Los Angeles: Togepi from Pokemon Go (aka Ariella Morrison, Staff Attorney*, who runs the IMPACT LA Project and also works to coordinate pro bono for immigrants seeking to become US citizens)
Second Place Overall: Raggedy Ann (aka Katie Pluyment, Healthy Nonprofits Program Associate, who is busy these days supporting both the Executive Fellowship and Public Interest/Public Sector Career Day) and
Third Place Overall: Conehead (aka Lyla Bugara, Pro Bono Justice Program Associate, who is hard at work planning the two California Pro Bono Regional Meetings in early 2017)

We hope you’ll enjoy our annual photo montage below, and from all of us at OneJustice, we wish you the most Spooktacular Halloween ever!

* Admitted to practice in Michigan, not admitted in California.