Students will educate young Deaf students at Texas School for the Deaf about guardianship and alternatives to it, with an emphasis on an option in state law to enter into Supported Decision-Making (SDM) agreements. Students will help participants understand what guardianship is, how SDM works, and how to begin conversations with parents and other loved ones about SDM. Deaf students wanting to execute SDM agreements with supporters will be afforded to do so at a later clinic.
Organization
INCLUDE Project, Mithoff Pro Bono Program
The INCLUDE Project enables students with interests in disability and probate law to provide free legal serves to persons with disabilities and their families. Through INCLUDE, law students have counseled more than 400 families on guardianship alternatives since the 2015 passage of the Texas Supported Decision Making Act, a law that is the first of its kind nationally and that incorporates certain protections afforded by the U.N. Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities in Texas Law. INCLUDE is an internal project of the Richard and Ginni Mithoff Pro Bono Program, in partnership with the William Wayne Justice Center for Public Interest Law.
Project Details
- Project Date
Friday, October 5
- Project Time
- 8am-11am
- Approximate hours of work requested
- 6 hours, including training and preparation
- Training
- Tuesday, October 2, 12pm-12:55pm, in TNH 2.124
- Skills used
- Client interviewing/counseling; community education/outreach; mediating between those with divergent interests; cultural competence
- Project location
- Texas School for the Deaf, 1102 South Congress Avenue
- Number of student volunteers requested
- 12
- Class year preference
- 1L, 2L, 3L, LLM
- Required skills
- Strong English skills required; ASL interest helpful but not necessary; students must have done at least one SDM clinic prior to TDS clinic
- To Apply
- Submit email stating interest and any language skills to Sarah Sedgwick at ssedgwick@law.utexas.edu