Pro Bono Week Blog Post: ABA Call to Action for Pro Bono Now

Next week, October 24 through the 30, marks the National Celebration of Pro Bono.

Thank you to those who are engaged in this work for your efforts and dedication as Unaccompanied Children’s Champions!

As a capacity-building organization, CILA supports advocates working with children and youth in immigration matters. We strive to support attorneys, pro bono coordinators, legal staff, social workers, and other advocates on the ground working with youth along with pro bono attorneys and volunteers working to assist children. CILA does this by providing trainings, creating resources, answering technical assistance questions, hosting work groups, and offering opportunities and space for collaboration and community.

According to the Department of Justice, over forty-two thousand unaccompanied children with pending cases do not have an attorney to represent them in immigration court while they pursue safety and protection in the United States.

For those of you interested in getting involved, we invite you to view CILA’s platform Pro Bono Matters for Children Facing Deportation which features opportunities across the nation to help a child in need of pro bono representation. CILA encourages you to check out the opportunities on the platform and to take a case to help a child in need of an attorney.

You can also help CILA spread the word that the platform is on CILA’s website and can be viewed 24/7 to see current opportunities.

Learn more about the platform in CILA Senior Staff Attorney Yasmin Yavar’s blog post CILA’s Pro Bono Matters for Children Facing Deportation—Take a Case, Make a Difference.

CILA provides numerous free materials including recorded trainings and written resources to help support pro bono attorneys, including the recently updated CILA Pro Bono Guide.

Register for the webinar, A Call for Pro Bono: Advancing the Rule of Law, scheduled for October 28 during pro bono week. The ABA Commission on Immigration (COI) is hosting the webinar and will include information about the Commission’s pro bono opportunities including CILA and the platform. Register and free to share the registration link!

The ABA has also issued a national call to action for all lawyers to do pro bono now, to commit to 10 hours of pro bono before the end of the year. Individuals can use the hashtag #probononow when making their commitment and asking others to join in, and people are encouraged to share their pro bono experiences regarding where they are volunteering and the type of advocacy they are doing.

Additionally, this year’s ABA Giving Day lands during pro bono week on October 28! CILA along with 15 other ABA programs and entities are being featured for ABA Giving Day. We invite you to support CILA and invest in us, to protect and expand CILA’s innovative one-to-many model that creates an exponential impact on legal services for migrant children throughout Texas and the United States. Visit the ABA Giving Day website and contribute to CILA. Thank you for supporting us. Every gift helps!