How can entire clinical programs be more intentionally responsive to the needs of the communities of color they serve? This 75-minute discussion group will describe the UT Legal Clinic’s Racial Justice Listening Project (“RJLP”) and help provide tools for those who might want to engage in this work.
Last year, the University of Tennessee Legal Clinic launched RJLP to build our understanding of how local community leaders are trying to confront structural racism and then to marshal our transactional and litigation legal clinic resources towards their goals. With the support of a Diversity Challenge Grant from the University, RJLP had three goals:
1. To design and implement a qualitative research study with IRB approval to conduct interviews with community leaders,
2. To develop a three-credit course to engage students in RJLP’s work, and
3. To use the results of the study to reimagine the work of each individual clinic and the clinic as a whole.
In this discussion session, the presenters (professors and students who took the class) will spend 15 minutes describing RJLP. Then participants will discuss ways to implement the model at their schools. Each participant will have access to a Dropbox folder that will include (1) a checklist to prepare faculty and students, (2) a sample timeline and IRB proposal, (3) an interview guide for community leaders, and (4) a sample course syllabus and materials. Through this session, participants will be empowered with practical tools to implement such a project at their own schools.