Through the David H. Getches and Piton Foundation Public Service Fellowship, Colorado Law will enable a recent graduate (the “Getches-Piton Fellow” or the “Fellow”) to undertake a public service project. The core requirement of the project is that the recent graduate support the Piton Foundation’s Children’s Corridor initiative, with the Fellow taking on projects related to legal services—working with an external partner organization (e.g., Colorado Legal Services) and/or the Colorado Law Clinical Program—to support the health, welfare, and well-being of the children in that area.
The Fellow could assist with a range of issues affecting children in the area, including divorce, child support, parenting time, parenting time and the intersection of criminal matters (e.g., domestic violence or substance use) with government benefits and legal guardianship issues. In so doing, the Fellow could work with existing community-based organizations to improve the lives of the children in the area by addressing unmet and unattended legal needs. Work could include either direct legal services work to support the unmet needs of the children in that community, advocacy and policy work related to broader social welfare policy issues facing those children (including the issues above or other policy concerns such as truancy reduction or youth aging out of foster care), or a combination of both direct legal services and advocacy and policy work.
The Getches-Piton Fellowship will be awarded to a recent graduate of Colorado Law who has a demonstrated interest in issues affecting children, with preference given to those who took a relevant clinic. The Fellow must be a self-starter who can define, develop, and implement a project and set of duties over the one-year term of the fellowship.