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Week 6 - Aaron dePass

7/17/2017

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     In the past couple of weeks I think I've often times got lost in process. I've found that it has become so easy in the hundreds of phones calls Carly and I have made and the dozens of interviews we've scheduled to lose sight of the overarching goal and eventual impact. I think on a broad level our project this summer has revolved around prodding and challenging the status quo of legal conduct revolving around homelessness and poverty in Detroit (and possibly even the state of Michigan).  
     One of the main goals of the company is to get Street Court back up and running in downtown Detroit (the 36th District). Street Outreach Court Detroit, or Street Court for short, is a program we run which is used to practice rehabilitative sentencing. So for people who are unable to pay traffic tickets, misdemeanors, and civil infractions monetarily they pay with effort to improve their current situation whether that be going to see a doctor, going to substance abuse classes, etc.  What Jayesh and Charles are doing in this field by pushing rehabilitative sentencing has incredible potential both for saving the city money as well as changing people's lives for the better. 
     My role, alongside Carly, this summer has been to help revitalize the Street Court program by creating a video to encourage the judges to continue with the program in the 36th district. I think the main way in which we are serving the Detroit community through theses interviews is two fold: one by pushing the courts to continue this program, but also by helping people to help other people. Although these videos' main purpose was to convince judges in our campaign to re-continue Street Court, we've found that a lot of these videos of our past clients can be motivation and a realized example of life after Street Court. In many of the interviews that we have done, past clients have deeply expressed how much Street Court has changed their lives by having the freedom to be mobile, having a peace of mind when it comes to driving with a license, how their prospects for them and their children have changed after leaving the program, etc. In doing these interviews we not only are showing the judges how important this program is but we're also encouraging clients who are still in the program of the fruit they may possibly bear if they go through the program. 
     Although it may be hard to see or even understand the consequences of our actions now or even in the future, there is a pride in knowing you're trying to make an impact at all, no matter how big or small it may seem to you. And even though our part in achieving this goal may be small, it's still consequential. 
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