Jeffery Young, Jr.
Community Legal Services
Philadelphia, Pennsylvania

Imagine a place with trash strewn vacant lots, drugs on every corner, poverty is rampant, and the residents are desensitized to violence. In this place, it is very difficult to break the institutional barriers to rise above the norm. Life here is like playing a game of chess with only half the pieces. One is already at a terrible disadvantage from the beginning. Services that one would take for granted in an affluent neighborhood, such as easy access to banks, post offices, doctors, and dentists, are hard to come by in a neighborhood like this. Many call these neighborhoods dirty, ugly, the ghetto. But to me, my friends, my family, and our clients, WE call it home.

I am pursuing public interest law because I live in the very communities that public interest firms serve. The clients of these organizations are literally my friends and family. The dignity of those who live in my community rests upon the shoulders of champions of justice who choose to work in this field. But some may choose this field because they have compassion and sympathy for the clients. Not me. This is not a choice for me. I don’t have the option of working in any other field. I must work in public interest. It is the only way that I will be able to ensure that members of my community are able to survive daily within our society.

Public interest work defines who I am. I am, and forever will be a public servant. A public interest law career means putting the problems and concerns of others ahead of my own. It means working toward achieving a common good to create a better quality of life for all members of the community. We, as those working for the public, are the last ray of hope for many clients. We are the last resort for our clients to stay in their homes; the last resort for our clients in order to provide food for their family; the last resort in order for our clients to escape from poverty.

Working at Community Legal Services has only fueled my fire to help those that are in need of assistance. Working with the Child Care Law Project has opened my eyes to an area of law which I had no idea existed. This project provides a service that is so desperately needed in low income communities. Quality child care is at a minimum in areas of low income. These early child care services provide two positives for low income communities. They provide jobs in communities that are in desperate need, and they also begin to plant the seed of education in the minds of innocent youth. The stringent rules and regulations surrounding providing adequate child care services are so overwhelming that individuals, who have the patience of an owl, would give up on. The services that I’ve helped offer clients allow them to focus on the most important aspects of their business, providing a safe place to nurture the growth of the next generation. Through education, one can escape from the grasp of poverty. By instilling this at an early age, the next generation will not be so inclined to succumb to the ills of society.

My experience has shown me that the legal issues of my clients are very diverse and many would not be able to effectively navigate through the process themselves. This internship has reaffirmed in my mind that people of limited means are willing to do what it takes to become successful. All that is needed is a little push in the right direction. It has taught me that legal services of the 21st century should not only look to correct one specific legal issue of our client, but to look at holistic approaches so that our clients will no longer be eligible to be our clients. As Malcolm X once stated “Education is the passport to the future, for tomorrow belongs to those who prepare for it.”