EFW OFFERS LEGAL AID SESSIONS TO MIGRANT WORKERS
Eastern Farm Workers, a longstanding St. John’s Outreach partner, provides much needed support and services to migrant workers on the North Fork of Long Island.
One example are the legal advice sessions EFW holds for its clients. The sessions are offered in both group and individual formats. The “Know Your Law“ series is designed for group participation, and a recent session on immigration law was attended by 22 participants. One-on-one sessions are also offered and are designed to assist individual workers, who often have limited understanding of English, to navigate the complex government and private assistance networks.
Frank Gundersen and Warren Mazek assisted these legal advice initiatives by spending a day in EFW offices “cold canvassing“ a long list of local lawyers and small law firms to help recruit lawyers willing to provide pro bono assistance. There were many calls made and a number of individual or small firms expressed an interest. Those contacts were provided to EFW for follow up.
An important Outreach objective is to encourage direct parishioner participation such as this, which has the side benefit of helping us better understand the communities we serve and evaluate the effectiveness of the programs we support. Our strong relationship with EFW is born of long time parishioner involvement, and we continue to learn from and with our partners.
If you are interested in learning more or becoming involved yourself, please contact Warren Mazek or Frank Gundersen, [email protected].
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