by Cliff Parkinson, Community Outreach Committee Co-Chair
This year, UCLI’s Community Outreach Committee has undertaken concerted efforts to serve three specific groups: (1) refugees, (2) the Salt Lake Valley’s homeless population, and (3) Utah’s Native American tribes.
This Fall, UCLI began working with the International Rescue Committee (the “IRC”) to provide workshops on various legal subjects to refugee entrepreneurs in the Salt Lake area. The IRC is a global NGO that resettles refugees and supports their health, education, and economic wellbeing. Salt Lake’s IRC office is home to an innovative program called the Spice Kitchen Incubator, which provides refugees with restaurant start-up opportunities. Spice Kitchen entrepreneurs navigate all the challenges inherent in getting any business off the ground, but with the additional challenge of doing it in a new country. Naturally, many of these challenges are legal in nature. UCLI has provided the Spice Kitchen Incubator program with attorneys who have held workshops introducing refugee entrepreneurs to various legal issues encountered by new businesses. UCLI’s volunteers provided training this year on business entity formation and employment law. UCLI looks forward to continuing to provide these trainings to our local refugee entrepreneurs.
UCLI’s Community Outreach Committee has also continued its efforts to help the Salt Lake Valley’s homeless population. Spearheaded by Kate Conyers, UCLI’s Proximity Task Force has created regular opportunities for attorneys to cook and serve meals to homeless youth at the Volunteers for America Homeless Youth Shelter.
Finally, UCLI has begun working to provide more dedicated support to Utah’s Native American Tribes. Over the summer, UCLI joined with the Indian Law Section of the Utah Bar and a number of other entities to raise funds and supply donations to provide Utah’s eight federally recognized tribes with food staples and hygiene necessities to address needs created by the current COVID-19 pandemic. UCLI continues to lend its support to these efforts and is enthusiastically looking for other ways to serve and support Utah’s tribes.
The Community Outreach Committee looks forward to another year of finding new and innovative ways to serve in Utah and thereby raise awareness surrounding UCLI and its mission.
Pictured: Casey Clark (Upper Right), Michael Stanger (Lower Left), and Sadé Turner (Lower Right), Volunteer Presenters to IRC Spice Kitchen refugee entrepreneurs
To volunteer to provide legal education seminars to refugee entrepreneurs with the IRC, email Cliff Parkinson at . To join or start a new “Get Proximate” effort, email Kate Conyers at . Thank you!
