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VOLUNTEER ALERT

JFON Feedback
Previous JFON volunteers, please send an e-mail to law-ichr@uiowa.edu and let us know how you found your experience with JFON. Did you enjoy the opportunity, or do you have suggestions for how we could improve?

IMMIGRATION WORK

Know Your Rights Presentations
ICHR is working in conjunction with the UI Center for Human Rights (UICHR) and the local organization Justice For Our Neighbors (JFON) in various outreach efforts to Iowa's immigrant community. We have succeeded in getting clearance from Immigration and Customs Enforcement to do a Know Your Rights Presentation for immigrant detainees at the Linn County Jail in Cedar Rapids. These presentations explains the rights and obligations of immigrant detainees under United States law. Following the presentation there is an intake session in which law students work with attorneys to assess potential immigration remedies for the inmates. This semester there are three presentations scheduled: February 21, March 28 and April 25. For more information contact law-ichr@uiowa.edu.

Immigration Intake Clinics
ICHR has partnered with JFON to help run monthly legal clinics focusing specifically on immigration issues. There are two clinics per month in which ICHR members participate, one in Cedar Rapids and the other in Columbus Junction. At these clinics, law-student volunteers have the opportunity to do client intakes and then sit in with the JFON attorney as she discusses the applicable law and the viable immigration options for the client. Many of the clients are Spanish speakers, so volunteers with language capabilities can be extremely helpful. For more information contact: law-ichr@uiowa.edu.

Community Health Outreach
Work with Rachel Sandler, a medical student at the Carver College of Medicine, on her project with the Community Health Outreach Elective. She will be conducting a series of interviews with a number of different clients that Proteus, Inc.—an organization that assists with migrant farmworkers in Iowa—serves in an attempt to get an impression of what life is like for a migrant worker in Iowa, particularly with relation to their experiences with healthcare. The end result of these interviews will be an exhibition whose proceeds will be donated to Proteus, Inc.

PRISONERS' RIGHTS

ICHR has recently started working with the Department of Correctional Services/Community Corrections Improvement Association. Some of the projects that law students are able to participate in include:

Mental Health Reentry Program

The Mental Health Reentry Program provides a high level of service, intensive supervision and support for offenders who have been diagnosed with chronic mental illness. The program is designed to have the maximum impact on recidivism of clients with co-occurring disorders, usually Axis 1 and substance abuse.

Restorative Justice Practices

Examples: Victim Offender Mediation/Conferencing, Victim Impact Classes, Circles of Support and Accountability, Victim support services, Community Service Activities for Offenders

Peer Court

Peer Review Court of Linn County is a voluntary diversion program for youth who commit misdemeanor offenses. It is an alternative to traditional juvenile justice in Linn County. Peer Court is a program in which juvenile offenders (respondents) are given restorative acts by a jury of their peers. We will be sending two to three students to Peer Court on the second Thursday of each month, starting in November. Students will work as mediators or judges to settle disputes between juveniles. Contact zak-toomey@uiowa.edu with questions.

Children of Promise

The Children of Promise mentoring program is on-on-one mentoring for children between the ages of 4 and 17 who have a parent who is incarcerated. 1 child is placed with an adult/advocate outside the system—the adult mentors and advises the child to assist in school & planning for future, and to break the cycle of incarceration faced by many families with a parent in prison.

For more information, contact: law-ichr@uiowa.edu

ICHR has adjourned for the summer. More events in the fall!

Visit our Partnering Organization

International Law Society at University of Iowa, College of Law

Journal of Transnational Law and Contemporary Problems

Research Center for Human Rights

University of Iowa Center for International Finance and Development

The mission of the Iowa Campaign for Human Rights (ICHR) is to promote awareness and activism concerning domestic and international human rights violations. ICHR achieves this mission through academics, activism, and volunteer activities open to the University of Iowa community and the general public.