Community Outreach
Social Advocacy
The social advocacy aspect of BLSA is both a proactive and reactionary branch of the organization. It is our goal to bring together the students of our law school, the respective BLSAs of other law schools and the community at large to help implement meaningful change with respect to social justice. We plan on implementing such changes by creating a safe space to share our grievances during times of socio-political strife as well as facilitating discussions, trainings and other programming to create a forum of open dialogue about such issues.
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Community Service
The BLSA Community Service Initiatives (CSI) committee is the community outreach branch of BLSA. This is where BLSA members have the opportunity to engage in the Washington DC area community in a hands-on and proactive way.
CSI's strategy is three-fold:
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(1) plan community service and outreach programming
(2) cultivate short term and long term partnerships with non-profit and community organizations with BLSA
(3) bring awareness regarding community needs and current events impacting the community.
Often as law students, we are so involved in our studies that we forget to engage with the community we intend to serve. The best way for understanding the community we serve is to get involved in community service. This is not just volunteerism and outreach, this is another aspect of legal education that the Socratic Method cannot teach. BLSA envisions a generation of engaged and well informed law students that are not detached from the problems every day people face.
For the 2016-17 school year CSI plans to host BLSA sponsored outreach events such as voter rights and registration drives, law clinic volunteer opportunities, and get-to-college mentoring and tutoring programs for Wilson High School students. Additionally, CSI plans to give weekly announcements of outreach opportunities in the DMV area to give BLSA and WCL students alike ongoing notice of non-profit organizations in need of volunteers.
If you would like to be apart of the Community Service Initiatives committee, please contact the Community Service Initiatives Director Imani Cherry at imani.cherry@student.american.edu and express your interest.