Seeing the Community’s Need for ALRP Services

Amanda Schapel, Esq.
Connected with ALRP since 2012
Associate, Jones Day
Board Member, Panel Attorney

Amanda joined the ALRP Board when two long-time Board members from Jones Day, where she’s an Associate, were ready to step down. “I’d already expressed an interest in learning more about ALRP,” she said. “It was important for me to do something to support the LGBT community. Coming to the Bay Area it’s been startling for me to see how big an impact HIV/AIDS still has in this community and the tragic history of AIDS here is something that personally and emotionally had a big effect on me. Being a Board member and a Panel Attorney for ALRP brings together my identity and my strong sense of the importance of pro bono work and community involvement.”

Amanda is the ALRP Board Treasurer and also serves on the Board’s Major Gifts Committee. “I track ALRP’s finances and work on the budget,” she said, “helping make sure that ALRP stays in the black. Things run very smoothly and the finances are managed so conservatively that even though times have been pretty tough for most nonprofits in the last few years, ALRP has continued to keep going and help clients.”

Her tenure with ALRP has strengthened Amanda’s commitment to ALRP’s mission. “The need keeps growing in the Bay Area,” she said, “and ALRP clients are in desperate straits, especially with the housing market the way it is. A lot of people in the HIV/AIDS community are very vulnerable. For people who are HIV+, any kind of instability just snowballs. ALRP is a trusted place in the community where clients can go to get help with any kind of legal issue—I like that our mission is broadly written to say that we support HIV+ people on any issue, not just housing or immigration. These legal services are fundamental to people’s well being. Hopefully in time we won’t be dealing with HIV anymore, but in the meantime ALRP’s work gets more important every year.”