While UNC was on spring break in mid-March, plenty of students were using the time to relax or vacation before the end of the academic year. But one group from the UNC School of Law spent it helping Hurricane Helene victims navigate applying to receive assistance from the federal government and insurance companies.
When the storm struck western North Carolina in late September, UNC law students found several ways to help with initial response efforts. Second-year student Miranda Papes says food drives and clothing drives quickly got started to send supplies.
And Papes, who is a special trips coordinator on the student-run Pro Bono Board at the law school, was already starting to formulate how she and her peers could travel to eventually help provide legal aid.
“On the Pro Bono Board, we definitely wanted to get people on the ground in those areas to help in any way we could as well,” she told Chapelboro. “Obviously, we needed to let things settle before legal issues started to pop up and [victims] needing assistance with FEMA. So, we knew around December how this trip was going to take shape.”
The result was eight UNC law students volunteering in clinics at Burnsville and Boone – towns in two of the westernmost counties in the state – to help clients go over appeals for their financial assistance applications and insurance claims. Students worked directly with some victims, building on the work being regularly done by Legal Aid of North Carolina and the state bar association to help the region’s residents.
UNC law students and two staffers with the School of Law pose for a group photo in Burnsville, N.C. (Photo via Meghan Moran.)
According to Papes, the main issue is requests to FEMA sometimes are denied because the victims fail to include a specific word or phrasing that flags the application to qualify for assistance. She got to work with one client at the clinic by combing through the document to build out a strong appeal and improve their chances of passing the review.
“Those are kind of the things we got to work on with clients in person,” said the Dallas, Texas native, “just going through the application, seeing if we could spot any issues off the bat that we could help them with the in appeal process so that they get this reward [and] help them get their life a little back on track.”
Meghan Moran is the director of pro bono initiatives for the UNC School of Law, which oversees the Pro Bono Board and facilitates a variety of volunteer projects – including trips like this. The program also coordinates trips over the fall and winter breaks, with the latest being in Cherokee to focus on helping residents with driver’s license restoration issues. Moran said that trip provided a chance to get a sense of the hurricane’s damage in western North Carolina communities and the impact legal aid could provide in the response efforts.
“Trips like these,” she described, “where students get to maybe learn a new area of the law, meet people from the community, practice new skills that maybe they’re sharpening on these trips, really helps promote that goal of life-long pro bono commitment. Because students are seeing firsthand the impact of their work, and it’s not only meaningful for that reason, but also [it’s an experience] they can take with them as they move into their careers as lawyers.”
Miranda Papes (right) works with classmate Rachel Vinarcik on a client’s case at one of the clinics over spring break. (Photo via Meghan Moran.)
Since getting started in 1997, UNC Law’s Pro Bono Program has earned several awards and participation has developed into a tradition among its student body. Moran said last year’s graduating class saw 97% of students take part in at least one pro bono project during their time at the school, which she said reflects the core goal of why the program was started.
“One thing that we want to impart to our students and really embody ourselves at the law school,” said Moran, “is that we can use our training, our resources, and our expertise to make that [legal] process much easier for others.”
Papes said in the case of the clinics for Hurricane Helene victims, helping reassure people and take steps toward normalcy was a fulfilling way to gain experience that makes a bigger difference. She said while the UNC contingency left feeling like the affected region is beginning to find a path toward recovery, there will be far more work to do – and some of that may come from the Pro Bono Program again.
“Going into a disaster [area],” Papes said, “obviously it’s very heartbreaking. [Victims] lose a lot – not only your home, your personal property, but a lot of yourself. So, I think providing a little security or a little bit of hope to those residents is really rewarding.
“With storms like this,” the law student added, “the devastation really does last over years and some people’s lives might never return to normal. So, I think it’s important that not only did we get out there early but to keep returning to this community in the years to come to keep providing as much assistance as we can.”
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