2019 Haywood Burns Peace and Meditation Retreat

Please join us in supporting CUNY Law students as they join in community for a weekend of peace, rest and restoration at the Blue Cliff Monastery.

A fundraising campaign for CUNY School of Law

For 18 years, The City University of NY Contemplative Urban Lawyering Program (CCULP) has mindfully and thoughtfully integrated contemplative practices into the fabric of law school life and the practice of law. 

BE-ing a social justice or public interest lawyer or law student is not easy. It takes real commitment to go into some of society's most painful places and offer real service and healing to those in need. That means that the young lawyer's personal inner resources better match (or even exceed)  their professional legal expertise, what we call developing one's "inner credentials".

During the past 18 years, a key component of developing these "inner credentials" has been the annual spring mindfulness retreat at the Blue Cliff Monastery in Pine Bush, NY.  During the 2019 retreat,CUNY students, alumni and allies joined together for a restorative weekend of peaceful, mindful, quiet  contemplation.  We sat together, we sang joyful songs together and some of used a chain saw together.

For many of our students, staff and grads, they are choosing to work in jobs that are not the most lucrative, and for many/most, even the most minimal sliding scale fees for this retreat are potentially prohibitive. Yet, the cost of them not having access to this yearly deepening and renewal of self, Self, community and connection is a price too high to pay both as self care for themselves and those they serve who are in need.

So what you can do! We are currently fundraising to support the cost of attendance for CUNY Law students, staff and alumni to attend our weekend retreat from March 29th-31st. Any donation provides support for this tremendous opportunity to folks that likely would not have been able to attend- folks either are currently in the midst of working in social justice or who are in law school and  will soon be entering the high stress world of social justice lawyering. In fact, a contribution of $80.00 will cover the costs of attendance for an entire weekend at the discounted, sliding scale rate.

We are extremely thankful for any donation that can be made as every dollar contributed will go directly towards individuals to continue the legacy of their own commitment to "Law in the service of human needs" and continue to pioneer this path with compassion and great care.

Planting Seeds

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