CONNACCA is pleased to support two very worthy pro bono opportunities available to our members.  We hope that many of you will consider one of these very different programs as a means to fulfill your professional responsibilities.

The first is the Pro Bono Partnership.  It was founded by corporate counsel specifically to facilitate volunteerism by in-house attorneys.  A broad range of pro bono opportunities are available to attorneys interested in providing business legal assistance to nonprofit organizations in Connecticut.  See www.probonopartnership.org.

The second is the Truancy Intervention Project.  The project's goal is to reduce truancy in middle schools by involving volunteer attorneys appointed to represent truants in Family With Service Needs (FWSN) cases.  Attorneys will also act as mentors for these children and problem solvers for their families in helping to address the underlying causes of truancy.  Click here to visit the event page for more information.

 TRUANCY INTERVENTION PROJECT ANNOUNCES FALL TRAINING FOR NEW VOLUNTEERS IN NEW HAVEN AND NEW BRITAIN

Become a Truancy Intervention Project Volunteer.

The Truancy Intervention Project is expanding into New Haven while continuing its very successful project in New Britain. Interested attorneys can volunteer to partici-pate in either the New Haven or the New Britain projects.

New Haven volunteers will be trained on Saturday, October 16, 2010 from 8:00 -2:30 at the Roberto Clemente Leadership Academy located at 360 Columbus Ave. in New Haven.

New Britain volunteers will be trained on Saturday, October 23, 2010, also from 8:00-2:30 at the CBA Law Center in New Britain.

Training is designed to be comfortable for attorneys who are not litigators, and who have little or no courtroom experience. Content includes education law, understanding issues of culture and poverty, procedure in FWSN cases, relating to the adolescent cli-ent, learning about community and state services available to clients and their fami-lies.

About the Project: The Truancy Intervention Project is a program of the Connecticut Pro Bono Network. The project is a dynamic collaboration among the Children's Law Center of CT Inc., the New Haven County Bar Foundation, New Haven Legal Assis-tance, Connecticut Legal Services, the Connecticut Bar Association and the Connecticut Bar Foundation in cooperation with the New Britain and New Haven Public School dis-tricts. The project is a pre-court intervention designed to divert the filing of a Family with Service Need (FWSN) petition. This project matches interested attorney volun-teers with middle school aged children who are experiencing problems with school at-tendance. Project experience has shown that in many cases, truancy problems can be alleviated by having a committed adult demonstrating consistent interest in the child's school attendance and providing a role model for the value of education. In other in-stances, relatively minor interventions, such as meeting with school personnel to ad-dress underlying issues that are causing truancy, or helping the child's family access available services, have a surprisingly beneficial impact on a child's school attendance. Our volunteers consistently tell us that their involvement in the Truancy Intervention Project has given them a great deal of personal satisfaction.

A twelve-month commit-ment is requested.

For more information or to register for either New Haven or New Britain training, please contact Melissa Stachelek, Project Director, at truancyproject@clcct.org (860)832-8000.