“I moved across the country– from Upstate New York to San Francisco– to pursue a fellowship at Open Door Legal. I had just graduated from college with a degree in English and communications. 

As a Development Fellow, I get to connect with clients and share their stories; through grant narrative writing and other media campaigns, conduct research, and review donations and payments that come in.

We were able to help this elderly client with two cases. The first case was granting her guardianship of her grandson. The second case involved her being sued for credit card debt incurred by her husband who had passed away. We were able to get her guardianship granted and get her case on credit card debt dismissed. When I got to visit her and her grandson, I got to see the direct impact on our work. She has done an amazing job bringing up her grandson, and was in great spirits. This is a family who will be able to stay safe together and have relief because of the work of our team.

We want to keep families safe, together, safely housed, healthy and happy. These are all basic rights that everyone deserves and is entitled to in this country. For me, it’s just really moving to see that ODL is able to help these clients and these families be able to have that better tomorrow and without ODL, so many of these families and so many families in San Francisco wouldn’t have the safety and protection that they have.”