1L Service Day is an annual opportunity for incoming law students to work together as a team while serving a greater cause. This year, DePaul's College of Law held its 9th annual (and first remote!) 1L Service Day on Tuesday, August 18, 2020. Approximately 175 volunteers participated, including the incoming first year students and the upperclass students, faculty, and staff, who served as site leaders.Despite the challenges of being remote, volunteers used Zoom to successfully complete a variety of service projects after being divided among nine local nonprofit organizations. The participating organizations included: Amate House, Ignite, Institute for Nonviolence Chicago, Legal Prep Charter School, Little Brothers Friends of the Elderly, Little Sisters of the Poor Saint Mary's Home, Lydia Home, Saint Leonard's Ministries, and Top Box Foods.
The day consisted of each group being introduced to the nonprofit organization they were assigned, completing a service project, and reflecting on the experience. This gave students an opportunity to not only learn more about the service project and how it contributed to the host organization's mission, but also engage in conversation with a direct representative from the organization. After introductions and the overview of the organization and service project, students independently completed their assigned service project. The tasks for each organization varied; however, each service project was carefully thought out and planned in order to benefit the mission of each of the respective organizations.
Service projects included creating cards and letters of encouragement for formerly incarcerated individuals, researching legal and social service resources for city youth, compiling recipes for a food delivery service reaching individuals living in food deserts, participating in an antiviolence training and town hall on youth homelessness, conducting outreach for educational programs, and creating videos and gift bags for elderly individuals. Following the completion of the service projects, students gathered on Zoom to reflect on the experience.
The overall feedback from students and site leaders was extremely positive. Creating these remote opportunities for service took a lot of hard work, but in the end, it was worth it to see students realize the importance of building community and engaging in community service and social justice work. This year's 1L Service Day showed us all that even from a distance, we can all lend a helping hand. Thank you to everyone who participated and helped to make the day a success!
The Pro Bono & Community Service Initiative organized the annual event with support from the Center for Public Interest Law.