Economic Justice Project

Program Overview

CUNY School of Law launched the Economic Justice Project (EJP) in 1997 in response to the social justice crisis triggered by regressive welfare reform legislation. One of the tragic consequences of welfare reform in New York City is that thousands of individuals who had been pursuing CUNY degrees were forced to quit school in order to fulfill workfare requirements. Most of these individuals were single mothers struggling to obtain the skills and credentials needed for the types of job that could lift their families out of poverty.

The EJP has responded to this challenge on several fronts by providing direct representation to hundreds of CUNY undergraduates, collaborating closely with and supporting the organizing and political efforts of the Welfare Rights Initiative (WRI) and other grassroots organizations, and working with others engaged in legislative and other systemic advocacy. In recognition of these efforts, the New York State Bar Association selected the Project for the President’s Pro Bono Service Law Student Group Award in 2002, and the Clinical Legal Education Association gave the Project its Award for Excellence in 2004. The theory, genesis and structure of the Project are described in Poverty Law and Community Activism: Notes From a Law School Clinic, 150 U. Pa .L. Rev. 173 (2001).

Highlights

• Representing CUNY undergraduates at contested welfare hearings to protect their entitlement to benefits and advance their right to pursue college educations
  
  
• Collaborating closely with the Welfare Rights Initiative to secure public policies that expand welfare recipients' access to higher education as a path out of poverty
  
  
• Working with advocates for legislative reforms at the federal, state and local levels
  
  
• Conducting public outreach and education sessions, and producing public education materials