Community Fellowship – Haitian Creole Speaker

Immigrant Justice Corps, the country’s first fellowship program dedicated to meeting the need for high-quality legal assistance for immigrants seeking citizenship and fighting deportation is seeking a Haitian Creole speaker for the Class of 2022 Community Fellowship – a two-year placement based at an organization in Rockland County—starting on August 31, 2022.

About the Community Fellowship

Community Fellows are recent college graduates who conduct outreach and legal intake in underserved neighborhoods in and around New York. Community Fellowships run for two years at a salary of $45,000(or more depending on placement) per year plus benefits. Fellows will be trained by Immigrant Justice Corps at the start of their fellowship and will meet as a group throughout the course of the fellowship for skills training, professional support and community-building. The Immigrant Justice Corps Fellowship provides an excellent experience for recent graduates considering a career in law and/or immigrant rights advocacy.

Community Fellows work 35 hours a week, which may include weekend and evening hours to meet the needs of immigrants. They screen immigrants for legal relief, help them file applications for citizenship, green cards, DACA, and more. Community Fellows will become Board of Immigration Appeals accredited representatives. Community Fellows are placed in community-based host organizations and their work is directly supervised by experienced staff. Flexibility, a strong work ethic, and a good attitude are necessary characteristics for Community Fellows.

IJC seeks Fellows who are smart, compassionate, and passionate about justice for immigrants. IJC also seeks Fellows dedicated to the idea of a Fellowship program – you give us two years of hard work and we will make sure you will be immersed in immigration law and helping others who likely would not have had an attorney or advocate otherwise. All IJC Community Fellows speak a language in addition to English.

Because our Fellows are placed at many different partnering host organizations every Fellow’s experience is unique. Community Fellows work on a high volume of “light touch” cases. That means Community Fellows spend most days meeting with clients, conducting screenings and completing applications. The most common types of applications that Community Fellows work on are applications for naturalization, DACA, green card renewals, and Temporary Protected Status.

For Frequently Asked Questions about the fellowship and the host organizations, please read our

Eligibility

·      Applicants MUST be proficient in Haitian Creole with the ability to communicate complex ideas and conduct client interviews using this language skill.

• Applicants may be college graduates (undergrad level) from the 2021-22 academic year.

  Community Fellow Application Components:

• Resume (no more than two pages);
• PDF of your college transcript (unofficial);
• Statement of Interest (500 words or less): describe why you would like to be an IJC Community Fellow. Questions to consider in drafting your Statement of Interest include:
• Why are you interested in immigration advocacy?
• How might an IJC Fellowship prepare you for the career you want to have in the future?
• What skills and experiences have prepared you to work with immigrant communities?
• Essay Question (500 words or less): Please select ONE question for the essay.
• Pick one aspect of the immigration system and describe how and why you think it should be reformed? These are, roughly, the different components of our present immigration system - immigration enforcement - internal (i.e. arrest/detention/deportation); immigration enforcement - border/ports of entry; family-based immigration; employment-based immigration; naturalization and citizenship; humanitarian immigration (e.g., asylum, U Visas, T Visas, VAWA); and temporary programs (TPS, DACA).
• Discuss a challenge you have faced in a workplace, school, or volunteer setting and describe how you addressed the challenge. Please be sure that this essay is not duplicative of your personal statement.
• Two letters of recommendation. We strongly prefer receiving one letter from a professor and one from a current or former employer or internship supervisor.

Non-discrimination statement

Immigrant Justice Corps does not discriminate against any person seeking services or employment based on race, color, creed, sex, gender, religion, age, sexual orientation, marital status, partnership status, alienage or citizenship status, gender identity, disability, national origin, or any other characteristic protected by law.