The Center’s Alternative Spring Break trips give students a chance to spend a week immersed in an area of law, engaging in related pro bono service. Students work with licensed attorneys to receive training and put their skills into practice. Participants can earn 40 hours of pro bono service through each Alternative Spring Break trip.
2023 Trips
- Combat Housing Instability and Learn About Its Impact on Kids:This trip offers participants an opportunity to learn more about how place-based neighborhood lawyering positively impacts low-income children by stabilizing housing and reducing absenteeism. Law students will spend the week with advocates from Atlanta Volunteer Lawyers Foundation’s Standing with Our Neighbors Program and the Truancy Intervention Project, working to break the cycle of poverty and improve student outcomes by focusing on the intersection of housing conditions and education. Law students will gain an understanding of how a lack of affordable, stable housing increases student transiency and affects classroom performance – and how lawyers can make a difference.
- Work with Families and Survivors of Domestic Violence: Law students will work with lawyers and advocates from the Victims Legal Assistance Network (VLAN) to learn how to serve families and survivors of domestic violence. With rates of domestic abuse on the rise, understanding how to meet survivors’ legal and social services needs is as critical as ever. Law students participating in this trip will work with a number of legal services organizations and social services partners to learn how to empower families and survivors of domestic violence to know their rights and be able to act upon them.
- Promote Community Economic Development in Southeast Georgia: Working with Georgia Legal Services Program and community partners, law students will spend part of the week in southeast Georgia assisting advocates in their fight for safe housing and preventing the destruction of historic communities. Students will gain an understanding of the state of public housing in Georgia and learn how attorneys can assist in these efforts through innovative litigation.
- Advance Rural Access to Justice: Law students will spend part of the week in “legal deserts” in southwest Georgia and participate in innovative access to justice efforts around the state, including law library self-help centers and remote legal services. Students will have a chance to learn from judges and advocates about the barriers facing rural Georgians and how attorneys can work with community partners to provide access to justice and opportunities out of poverty.
Deadline: February 3, 2023
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Past Trips
Disaster Legal Services and Preparedness
Law students learned the basics of FEMA support and state-level assistance available in the event of a disaster, working with Georgia Team Ready and stakeholders across the state.
School Discipline
Working with Georgia Legal Services Program, students learned about representing children who are being unfairly or inappropriately disciplined in schools.
Survivors of Domestic Violence
Students worked with lawyers and advocates from the Victims Legal Assistance Network (VLAN) to learn how to serve survivors of domestic violence.
Community Lawyering in Atlanta
Students worked with attorneys from the Atlanta Volunteer Lawyers Foundation to understand how a lack of affordable, stable housing can affect a child's education.
Immigration Detention in Lumpkin, Georgia
People in immigration detention have a right to due process under the U.S. Constitution, but many of them are detained in isolated facilities. Working with the Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC) Southeast Immigrant Freedom Initiative, Georgia State Law students spent a week at the Stewart Immigration Detention Center in Lumpkin, Georgia, meeting with clients, drafting documents and interpreting for attorneys.
Rural Justice in Dougherty County, Georgia
Most of Georgia’s lawyers are in the metro Atlanta area. A group of Georgia State Law students traveled to southwest Georgia to understand the access to justice issues facing rural communities.
Landlord/tenant law in Atlanta
In partnership with the Atlanta Volunteer Lawyers Foundation, 12 law students spent the week interviewing tenants, investigating housing conditions, observing court, participating in mediation and assisting tenants in filing answers to evictions.
Criminal court observation in Jackson, Mississippi
In conjunction with the Mississippi Office of the Public Defender, five law students conducted court-watching research in Mississippi criminal courts, recording their observations for an ongoing study about appointment of counsel for low-income defendants.
NEWS: Alternative Spring Break Students Choose Service Learning Over Downtime
A cornerstone of the Center for Access to Justice’s Pro Bono Program is the Alternative Spring Break, which allows students to spend a week immersed in a substantive legal area while engaging in related pro bono service. For the second year, the spring break program received more applications than available spots.
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