Harvard Law School Association of Washington, DC

Volunteering Advocacy: Give Back, Start Your Own, Build Community!

Join us on October 29^th at 1:00 PM for a conversation via Zoom with HLS alumni about creative ways to use your skills to help our community during the pandemic and beyond!

Learn how Marc Goldman ’93, co-founder and board member of the Washington Urban Debate League, Bethany Henderson ’02, CEO of DC Scores, and Melissa Reinberg ’91, founder and Executive Director of Negotiation Works, have used their debate, advocacy, and negotiation skills to help marginalized members of our community. HLSA-DC Board Member Jennifer Mueller ’00 will moderate. 

Learn what inspired these alumni to found and engage in their nonprofit organizations, and get ideas about strategies if you are considering starting your own. Volunteer and other opportunities will also be highlighted.

Please come with questions for our panelists!

The Washington Urban Debate League (WUDL) teaches advocacy skills to middle and high school students attending publicly funded schools in the greater DC area, with a special focus on serving Title 1 Schools and other under-represented communities. Inspired by this year’s debate topic, Criminal Justice Reform, the league is rapidly expanding despite COVID-19 and has greatly engaged students--even over Zoom!  The League seeks volunteers to judge debates and/or help coach debaters, to give short presentations on various issues related to criminal justice reform, to reach out to other potential judges/coaches/donors and additional schools that might want to participate, and to serve on its Lawyers’ Committee, which does all of this, and also fosters ideas about the future direction of the League.  

DC SCORES creates neighborhood teams that give kids in need the confidence and skills to succeed on the playing field, in the classroom, and in life. We do this through a free, whole-child after-school model that combines soccer, poetry, and service learning for DC children ages 5-14 who are growing up in high-poverty neighborhoods. Over 95% of the kids we work with are BIPOC and over 80% qualify for free or reduced lunch. Our unique combination of poetry and service-learning—writing for expression and writing for action—empowers our poet-athletes with the skills and the platform to speak up and act out against injustice. We seek volunteers to: create an online community resources hub for our families and youth coaches, promote our Brave Spaces workshop and adopt-a-school opportunities amongst the DC legal community, and join our Advisory Council.

Negotiation Works offers negotiation skills programs for women experiencing homelessness, living in domestic violence shelters, or returning to the community from prison. The programs empower the women with tools to resolve conflicts, advocate for themselves and others, and build more stable lives. We seek volunteers to teach the negotiation courses (over Zoom, for now) at our partner service provider organizations, assist us with curriculum development, and provide general support to our growing organization by assisting with: marketing, managing our evaluation process, and developing partnerships with service providers.

*Know any HLS alumni working in the non-profit or volunteer space?  Please email us!  We’d love to highlight their organizations, the work they do, and opportunities for giving back, with our network. 

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