Welcome to the Alternative Spring Break Blog

Santa Clara University, School of Law proudly sends 20 students
to help offer volunteer legal aid in New Orleans, LA. This blog will chronicle this year's trip. Please check back for new updates from each of the law student participants!

Hurricane Katrina hit on August 28, 2005 taking the lives of more than 1800 people and leaving at least $81 billion dollars in damage. The city of New Orleans, Louisiana felt the greatest devastation due to the tremendous flooding and the levee system breaking in the Lower Ninth Ward. Despite the passage of time and an unprecedented Super Bowl win, there is still a need for volunteers in New Orleans and many low-income people are still feeling the devastating effects of Hurricane Katrina. While the city has not lost its wonderful personality, it has not returned to the city it once was. The effects of Katrina on the city of New Orleans should not be forgotten.

Santa Clara University, School of Law’s Student Bar Association has showed continued support to the city by establishing an Alternative Spring Break Trip to New Orleans. This student-planned trip began in 2007, and this marks the fourth year students will return to provide pro bono legal aid. The trip unites law students who share a commitment to working for social change, a goal encouraged by SCU Law School.

The participants feel honored to meet attorneys, workers, and individuals who are willing to share their stories and personal experiences. The invaluable experience volunteering in New Orleans is meaningful for everyone who has gone on the trip. Seeing such raw destruction that remains untouched even a few years after Katrina and working with people to rebuild their lives that have been torn apart raises an awareness about social and economic inequity that is essential for progressive lawyering. While some law students begin their legal careers knowing they want to pursue public interest work, for some the NOLA trip has been the inspiration for what will become a lifetime of pro bono and volunteer work. This awareness and dedication benefits the SCU community and the legal profession as a whole.

All twenty students this year will be working at Southwest Louisiana Legal Services (formerly New Orleans Legal Aid Corporation, which still goes by acronym NOLAC). NOLAC is a non-profit legal aid agency that provides legal services free of charge to low-income people in the greater Southwest Louisiana area. They have substantive legal units in housing, employment and public benefits, family, homeless advocacy, consumer, foreclosure prevention, tax, and successions/ title clearing. Student volunteers will assist in litigation, prepare research memorandums and briefs, take clients through intake, and a variety of other tasks. Most of NOLAC’s clients are poor, illiterate, elderly, African American women that are struggling to rebuild their homes and lives for their families. The level of poverty in New Orleans increased post-Katrina and continues to increase today with the recession that we have all experienced in the United States.

Even four years after the storm, many residents of New Orleans are still in the process of attempting to find shelter or rebuilding their homes. The housing unit of NOLAC is still working to provide housing for families that cannot afford to rebuild. Many residents have struggled with landlords that refuse to rent to African Americans or individuals that need Section Eight housing. The staff at NOLAC continues to fight for their clients’ needs for affordable housing.

This unique city has always had problems with crime, racism, corruption, and a legal infrastructure that has always been proven to be difficult to navigate through. The aftermath of Katrina has only shed more light on these disheartening issues and just goes to show that the need for help is still there. The Santa Clara student volunteers understand this and know that their efforts will help many who need it the most.