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Teaching Grassroots Health Law, Policy and Advocacy: Service and Collaborative Learning

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  22 October 2024

Sidney D. Watson
Sidney D. Watson*
Affiliation:
SAINT LOUIS UNIVERSITY, SAINT LOUIS, MISSOURI, USA
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Abstract

This column describes the history, mission, and work of Saint Louis University School of Law’s service-learning course Health Law, Policy and Advocacy: Grassroots Advocacy. Grassroots Advocacy allows law students to work with advocacy organizations on state and federal health policy initiatives, engaging in legislative and administrative advocacy and public education. The course uses community collaboration, community-led advocacy, and collaborative learning to train the next generation of health policy advocates for Missouri and the nation.

Keywords

Teaching Health LawExperiential LearningService LearningHealth PolicyHealth Advocacy
Type
Columns: Teaching Health Law
Information
Journal of Law, Medicine & Ethics , Volume 52 , Issue 2: Defining Health Law for the Future: A Tribute to Professor Charity Scott , Summer 2024 , pp. 506 - 511
Copyright
© The Author(s), 2024. Published by Cambridge University Press on behalf of American Society of Law, Medicine & Ethics

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Footnotes

About This Column

Teaching Health Law is edited by Brietta R. Clark, J.D., Interim Dean of Loyola Law School, Loyola Marymount University. She can be reached at [email protected].

References

The Grassroots Advocacy Syllabus is available from the Health Law and Bioethics Teaching Resource Bank maintained by Saint Louis University School of Law Center for Health Law Studies in partnership with ASLME and the Association of American Law Schools (AALS) Section on Law, Medicine and Ethics. To request access to the Teaching Resource Bank, please email Abigail Allred at .Google Scholar
For just one of the many articles about community-led justice movements and the role of lawyers, this one in the health justice context, see, Harris, A. P. and Pamukcu, A., “The Civil Rights of Health, A New Approach to Challenging Structural Inequality,” UCLA Law Review 6, no. 4 (2020): 758–833.Google Scholar
This was in the late 1970s and early 1980s before funding restrictions narrowed the scope of services that legal services programs could provide.Google Scholar
I do not want the reader to think that my law students do not ask good questions. They do, but they generally do not have lived experience.Google Scholar
567 U.S. 519 (2012).Google Scholar
Over five years, we had two Grassroots Advocacy research professors, Liza D’Souza, now The Hon. Richard B. Teitelman Chair Attorney at Legal Services of Eastern Missouri, and the late Cora Faith Walker, who went on to serve as the member of the Missouri House of Representatives from Ferguson, Missouri.Google Scholar
This was the only class we did not refer to as “Grassroots Advocacy.” Our partnership with legal services operated within the restrictions placed on legal services funding.Google Scholar
The dedicated lawyers and paralegals at Legal Services of Eastern Missouri, under the brilliant leadership of the Joel Ferber, have long produced in-depth, heavily footnoted analysis of pending legislation and administrative regulations. We deferred to their expertise, providing a different type of policy and legal analysis.Google Scholar
My notes say Josie Butler testified, her testimony reflected a group effort. Her composure was her own.Google Scholar
Thanks to former Associate Dean Elizabeth Pendo, now at the University of Washington School of Law, who originally made the connections suggesting that Grassroots Advocacy should be offered as a service learning course.Google Scholar
Saint Louis University, “Service Learning at SLU,” available at <https://www.slu.edu/center-for-social-action/service-learning/index.php>..>Google Scholar
Brandon Hall is also an associate at Armstrong Teasdale, LLP.Google Scholar
To name a few: Samantha Schrage Bunk and Alix Rankin, Missouri Foundation for Health; Larsen, Elizabeth, Oliver, Geof, Pair, Lauren, and Bunk, Samantha Schrage, Legal Services of Eastern Missouri; and Mary Quandt, Missouri Appleseed.Google Scholar
Alixandra S. Cossette worked on the House side and Josie Butler in the Senate. Christina Baker worked at the Department of Social Services.Google Scholar
Sami Schrage Bunk and Geof Oliver, Legal Services of Eastern Missouri, and Alixandra S. Cossette, Stinson LLP.Google Scholar