[blindlaw] Sighted Assistance at Work

[mrallman116 at gmail.com]

I am extremely familiar with this issue. I worked at a legal aid organization for 10 years before I got my current job. For a while there was someone who was there part time to assist me and part time to serve as a social worker. In other words, she was paid and split between two different types of duties.
 That occasionally had drawbacks but when I look back it seems like a very cushy arrangement to me based on what came next.
 Long story short, the recession hit the organization very hard and there was no longer funding for that accommodation. I began relying on volunteer interns and law clerks. I reached out to schools in the area that had paralegal students who were looking for internships. Sometimes I had people who were just volunteering to get experience and other times I supervise them in the completion of a practicum or internship for credit. I pitched it as a sort of exchange where I got accommodations and they got meaningful experience. For a while I got very good quality volunteers and sometimes it seems like I had more people than I could supervise or knew what to do with who were interested. Then, as I expected, the recession began to end and the cup dried up. It became harder and harder to find reliable and good quality volunteers. When students were ready to leave at the end of the semester or if someone was helping out for a while and got a job, there was nothing I could do but start looking for new people. It was like building a house of cards all the time as people schedules shifted and people came and went. There were times I felt like I had a second part time job that I wasn't actually getting paid for. The organization was supportive of and receptive to the volunteers but the recruitment and vetting fell entirely on me for the most part.  We too had secretaries that would help out and there are times when I don't know what I would have done without them.  However, they two were stretched and there is no way I would have been able to rely on them exclusively. If I had stayed longer, I honestly don't know whether I would have  been able to continue like that long term. I moved out of state and took another job where I have ironically been dealing with very much the same situation that would take too long to explain. All that said, it can be extremely rewarding and fulfilling and to work with volunteers and know that you are helping to provide them with meaningful experience that will likely help them find employment. I have served as a reference for many interns overtime who contacted me later to let me know that they found good jobs. I wish I could paint a rosier  picture of this arrangement but I really hope you're able to find a way to make it work.  Happy to talk more off list if you are interested. 
Melissa Sent from my iPhone

> On Dec 9, 2016, at 10:29 AM, Jen Barrow via BlindLaw <blindlaw at nfbnet.org> wrote:
> 
> Hi All,
> 
> 
> 
> For those of you who work for legal nonprofits with limited budgets, what
> arrangements do you make to get the reader assistance you need?  Does the
> existing administrative staff provide your accommodations?  This is what we
> do at my organization, but it is not working well because our secretaries
> are already stretched with supporting dozens of attorneys.  I'm
> brainstorming possible solutions to suggest to management.  Did your
> nonprofit hire additional administrative staff?  Or do you use any
> combination of law student support and volunteers?
> 
> 
> 
> Thanks,
> 
> Jen 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
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