The Advocates' Afghan Legal Clinic Receives Award from Minnesota DHS
.png "ALC Team: Katherine Veldhuizen, Kristin Gill, Zack Albun, and Casey Schultz Bruning")
ALC Team: Katherine Veldhuizen, Kristin Gill, Zack Albun, and Casey Schultz Bruning (Photo Credit: Tom Dunn)
The Afghan Legal Clinic was recognized by the Minnesota Commissioner of Human Services with the Commissioner's 2023 Circle of Excellence Award. The award recognizes the work of the Clinic, which launched in the fall of 2021 to ensure that the nearly 1,500 Afghans arriving in the region with temporary legal status would have a clear plan for remaining permanently in the United States. Today the collaborative effort between Volunteer Lawyers Network and The Advocates is providing immigration legal services to hundreds of Afghan evacuees in Minnesota.
The Afghan Legal Clinic Team includes: Casey Schultz Bruning, Katherine Veldhuizen, Kristin Gill and Zack Albun.
The Commissioner's Circle of Excellence Awards recognize excellence among human services providers and other organizations that work in partnership with the Minnesota Department of Human Services to help people meet their basic needs so they can live in dignity and achieve their highest potential.
Organizations recognized with Commissioner's Circle of Excellence Awards demonstrate significant initiative and/or innovation in serving people DHS supports, as well as other award criteria including:
- Supports the DHS mission to help people meet their basic needs so they can live in dignity and achieve their highest potential
- Contributes to current DHS goals and priority projects
- Demonstrates best practices
- Achieves results that impact the people DHS supports
- Partners with others in the human services system
- Strengthens equity in the human services system and reduces disparities in communities.
The MN DHS had this to say about our Afghan Legal Clinic:
"The Afghan Legal Clinic is a partnership of The Advocates for Human Rights and Volunteer Lawyers Network. The Minneapolis-based human rights nonprofits established the clinic in 2021 to provide individualized immigration legal services to Afghan evacuees in Minnesota who needed help with cases ranging from asylum and immigration visas to employment authorization. Staff and volunteer attorneys have helped hundreds of evacuees who otherwise would not have had the resources to apply for immigration status that allows them to stay in the U.S. temporarily or permanently. The clinic has navigated its work while adapting to the ever-changing legal, legislative and funding landscape—and engaging directly with community organizations and evacuees to keep the community informed."
We thank the Minnesota DHS for recognizing the importance of the Afghan Legal Clinic, as well as the hard work our staff and volunteers have put into it. We pledge to continue to provide provide all Afghans with accurate information about their legal pathways to permanent status in the United States and to connect individuals and families with legal services.
Interested in learning more? Click here to learn more about our Afghan Legal Clinic.
Interested in getting involved? Click here to learn about how you can help represent an pro bono client.
