About Us
Vision, Mission, Values
We know that many nonprofits put these words in this section. But we decided to put them on the at the top of homepage because we wanted to show our visitors that those words drive us and the work that emanates from adherence to them. Also, when people reach out, they ask us about those values, and it forces us to keep them at the front of our minds.
But here is the summary version.
vision
a society whose institutions operate as systems of opportunity
mission
to use our legal skills and representation of indigent people to transform systems of oppression into systems of opportunity
values
clients
dignity, trust, effort, dependability
community
collaboration not cooption, power sharing, leading from behind
policies & programs
opportunity, equity, agency, simplicity, transparency
ourselves
respect, diversity, inclusion, anteambulo, all-in
The Team
Charles@ Hobbs
Charles directs our legal services program to homeless veterans and spearheads our education policy work, including our advocacy for school discipline reform. For Charles, advocating for his clients in court is his favorite activity, second only to riding his snowboard or proving Jayesh wrong.
curriculum vitae
BS, Utah Valley, '10
JD, Cooley, L’14
Gerald Beckwith Constitutional Liberties Fund, secretary
ACLU of Michigan, Local Unit - Lansing, chair
Student Advocacy Center, supervising attorney
Keith@ McCallum
Keith, as our director of client services, where is in charge of intake, functional needs assessments, and case management. Keith also serves as our paralegal in SOCD, preparing our client files and liaisoning with our partner organizations and the court's probation department. Keith is a life-long Detroiter with a deep love for the city and his two boys, Khari and Kosi.
curriculum vitae
BA/BA, Michigan-Dearborn, pend.
Detroit Equity Action Lab, cohort 6
Jayesh@ Patel
Jayesh Patel heads the Functional Justice project, our comprehensive community-centric vision for criminal justice, serves as defense counsel in SOCD, and handles the boring administrative stuff, all despite the constant ridicule for his undying
allegiance to the "uniform".
curriculum vitae
BA, Wayne State, ‘96
JD, Georgetown, L’01
482Forward, board member
ACLU of Michigan, Lawyer's Committee, member
The Board
The affiliations listed are for reference purposes only.
Mary Jones
Detroit Action
Francine Banner-Hubbard, Secretary
University of Michigan-Dearborn
Jiten Ghelani, Chair
Promethean Power Systems
Jayesh Patel, Treasurer
Street Democracy