 "Photo: Trent Barnes")
A Texas Tech law school student plans to use a two-year fellowship to help court-involved juveniles with mental, emotional and developmental disabilities.
Colleen Wisdom, a juris doctoral candidate from Lubbock with a master's degree in marriage and family therapy, received the Equal Justice Works Fellowship for her project, which she will begin work on in the fall.
Wisdom said she plans to establish a pro-bono support system in Lubbock to provide a referral list for competent legal counsel to families of court-involved children with disabilities.
"Texas is a very pro-punishment state, and I have a different view on how to handle juveniles, especially with special needs," said Wisdom, who graduates from law school in May. "Sometimes regular punishment doesn't work was well as it would for children without disabilities."
She said local support was part of the reason her project was chosen for the fellowship.
"The project that I created has gotten a lot of community interest," Wisdom said. "What the sponsors really wanted to see is that the community is going to support this."
There are several supporters of Wisdom's project in Lubbock, including Advocacy Incorporated, Dispute Resolution Center of Lubbock, the Lubbock Regional Mental Health Mental Retardation Center, several judges and attorneys in town and the probation office at the Lubbock County Juvenile Justice Center.
According to the Equal Justice Works Fellowship Web site, www.equaljusticeworks.org, Equal Justice Works is an organization with "a mission to create a just society by mobilizing the next generation of lawyers committed to equal justice." The organization's fellowship program was created to address the shortage of attorneys working for traditionally under-served populations and causes.
Along with the $37,000 annual salary Wisdom will receive from Equal Justice Works, Wisdom also will receive $13,000 from Advocacy Incorporated, her sponsor agency, to fund the project.
James Carroll, communications director for Equal Justice Works, said out of 300 applicants nationwide for the Equal Justice Works Fellowship, only 50 are chosen to receive funding for their projects and become fellows.
In addition to the Equal Justice Works Fellowship, Carroll said the organization has several other programs for law students committed to legal justice, including the AmeriCorps National Service Network and Summer Corps.
Wisdom said she is glad her project was chosen and believes it is good that somebody on a nationwide level was willing to put money into a relatively rural community.
"Apparently, I was able to communicate that there is a need and that there are these children that are falling through the cracks," Wisdom said.
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