HAZTE VALER: INITIAL CONSULTATION PROGRAM

The importance of legal representation for people in immigration proceedings cannot be overstated: Detained people with counsel are ten times more likely to win their immigration cases than those without representation. Yet the majority of detained people – over 70 percent – faced immigration courts without a lawyer in 2021.

Through The Alliance’s “Hazte Valer: Initial Consultation Program,” immigration attorney Luis Campos offers hour-long initial consultations to anyone who has immigration questions or needs help or a second opinion. We charge clients only $25 for this hour, and The Alliance pays the remaining part of Luis’s fees ($125) and expenses.

Hazte Valer is an idiom that means Assert yourself or Make yourself matter. The Alliance empowers our clients and protects their human rights by providing them with access to ethical and affordable legal representation that makes a life-saving difference for families in our community.

Through “Hazte Valer,” The Alliance:

• Offers hour-long consultations with Luis Campos for clients in person and by video for $25;
• Takes the legal load off other non-profits in the valley so they can concentrate on their mission-driven activities and services; and
• Provides excellent, ethical, and dependable legal services (including for asylum cases) that helps secure our position as a trusted hub for impacted communities in the valley.

WOOD RIVER ASYLUM PROGRAM

Through our Wood River Asylum Project (WRAP), The Alliance empowers our clients and protects their human rights by providing them with access to ethical and affordable legal representation that makes a life-saving difference for families in our community. We are the only organization in Blaine County that takes on asylum cases due to their complicated and time-consuming nature.

Through WRAP, The Alliance:

• Offers clients access to low-bono and pro-bono asylum legal services with attorney Luis Campos at a radically reduced rate based on income;
• Takes the legal load off other non-profits in the Wood River Valley so they can concentrate on their mission-driven activities and services; and
• Provides excellent, ethical, and dependable legal services that help secure our position as a trusted hub for impacted communities in the valley.

The Alliance vigorously protects the human and legal rights of both immigrants and asylum-seekers. These rights are guaranteed by the Constitution, by U.S. statutory law, and by our treaty obligations, no matter what your immigration status is. Our work through the Wood River Asylum Project focuses on representing clients seeking asylum in the United States.

1. Blaine County School District announced that it will offer free, half-day preschool at four locations for all children in the school district during the 2022-23 academic year, a move that temporarily waives preschool costs for the 2021-22 school year due to the strains of the COVID-19 pandemic. Previously, preschool was available to a limited number of students with parents paying on a sliding scale based on household income. Read about it here: https://www.mtexpress.com/news/education/blaine-county-school-district-offering-free-preschool/article_98e75cec-d54f-11ec-a3b8-c7c82dc2afbe.html

2. The Community Library, which received partial funding for their recent grant application, presented a pilot program: The Sun Valley Early Literacy Summit on June 8 -10. Teachers from across southern Idaho convened with five nationally-recognized literacy experts, including our own Louisa Moats, to dig into how we teach reading. Sessions included “Becoming a Community of Readers: 5 Literacy Experts Discuss How We Grow Readers” and “How to Help Bilingual Children Become Strong Readers.”

Our Community Library extended its mission to promote valley-wide literacy by sponsoring a three-day Literacy Summit, June 8-10. Thirty-five primary grade teachers from Blaine County and other districts in Southern Idaho attended. Bilingual reading expert Dr. Antonio Fierro from El Paso, Texas, organized and led the institute, with the aim of increasing teachers’ ability to understand and address the challenges that English Learners face as they begin to read, write, and use a new language.

Participating teachers were treated to detailed language comparisons, many specific instructional techniques and resources, and several books containing current research that will help us close the persistent gaps between subgroups of learners. Teachers left energized and informed, ready to apply what they learned in the coming school year.

Dr. Fierro and other presenters, including Louisa Moats, Carol Tolman, Anne Whitney, and Judi Dodson, joined a panel discussion one evening, and Dr. Fierro gave an additional talk in Spanish to interested families.

The Community Library will be offering follow-up seminars and consultations for participating teachers during the year. Many kudos to Jenny Davidson and the library for making reading competence a major part of their mission!

3. As announced in the April News Brief, our Focus Grant 2022 recipient, the Idaho Association for the Education of Young Children (ID-AEYC), matched our $100,000 grant to create a total of $200,000 in funds and services for year one of this grant. In addition, ID-AEYC recently received another $25,000 in matching funds from the Idaho STEM Action Center as a result of WRWF’s partnership with the Idaho Charitable Foundation.

We are thrilled that WRWF is part of this catalytic moment in Blaine County and will continue to keep WRWF members updated on our FG2022 progress.
Thank you!
Louisa Moats & Laura Midgley