Three Outreach Grants Awarded
The CU-Boulder Outreach Committee awarded Colorado Law three grants for Fall projects that extend faculty expertise to external audiences. See all the 2009-10 award winners.
Caprivi Solar Light Project, Professor Laksham Guruswamy
The Caprivi Solar Light Project is an integral part of the World Energy Justice Partnership (WJEP) of the Center for Energy and Environmental Security. WEJP is directed toward the nearly two billion people, typically living on less than a dollar or two a day, who rely on biomass-based fire to meet all their energy needs. The project will be situated in the Caprivi region of Namibia. It will demonstrate the feasibility of a bottom-up approach to developing non-fossil fuel based energy resources for very poor communities using appropriate sustainable energy technologies like solar lights and cook stoves. The project will demonstrate how the use of solar lights and cook stoves can reduce the time spent in gathering fuel-wood, decrease unhealthy indoor air pollution, reduce deforestation and reduce global warming. The Project has obtained 1,400 donated solar lights from SunNight Solar for distribution in conservancy areas. The Project will identify the best ways to secure community involvement and local collaboration, distribute solar lights and cook stoves, monitor their deployment, and evaluate these methodologies.
In Fine Print, Associate Professor Amy Schmitz with Associate Professor Cecilia J. Pang, Department of Theatre and Dance
In Fine Print is a 15-20 minute educational video project that will provide consumers with tips for surviving scams and financial pitfalls that plague us all. The user-friendly format of the short film will give the ability to engage consumers who may be unaware of the dangers we all face in our daily purchases. This film also would provide capacity to raise awareness and inform consumers who cannot attend consumer skills classes such as those Professor Schmitz presents with her service-learning course, or otherwise lack access to consumer protection information and resources.
Stopping the Loss of Tribal Children: Indian Child Welfare Act Community Training, Professor Jill Tompkins
The student attorneys of the American Indian Law Clinic will provide on-site training on the provisions of the federal Indian Child Welfare Act (ICWA) and the Colorado Children’s Code to the Northern Cheyenne Tribe of Montana, specifically targeting the Tribal Council, the Cultural Committee, the ICWA Committee, prospective tribal foster and adoptive homes and staff of the tribal and state child welfare departments. This training responds to a request by the Tribal Department of Human Services, supported by the Tribal President, to stem the adoption of tribal member children by non-Indians in Colorado (four tribal member children in the past two years have been adopted by non-Indians over the Tribe’s objections). The students will work collaboratively with tribal and state (Montana and Colorado) agency representatives to develop a tribe-specific curriculum and caseworker manual that may be replicated for use by other tribes and states.