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News Seattle, WA, US: Life Change Pro Bono
by Heidi Baumgartner, courtesy North Pacific Union Conference Gleaner, and Mission 360 magazine
In Seattle, Washington, community advocate Carolyn Harper-Brown knows all about sandwich making, homeless feeding, and community networking.
“After 14 years of feeding the homeless downtown, I’ve learned a lot from sitting and talking with people,” Carolyn says in her matter-of-fact way. “They appreciate the sandwiches, socks, and gloves. But what they wanted more was to be able to buy their own. Small legal issues kept them from working, getting a place to live, or going to school. They couldn’t afford an attorney.”
So the woman who is already impacting Seattle started finding more avenues of change. She remembers, “Six years ago I prayed, ‘God, I just want to be more relevant to my community. I want to do something that will change lives.’”
Carolyn began knocking on lawyers’ and judges’ doors. Those doors closed, but she persisted in her God-inspired calling. She formed a prayer team and attended ministry training sessions. She didn’t know how to start a legal clinic, but she knew God knew the right people.