Every month, we give our Amicus Mundi Award to a volunteer who has gone above and beyond in their work with one of our community partners. This month, we are honoring an attorney helping protect the rights of millions of sexual assault survivors.
Join us in congratulating Chuck MacLean!
Our honoree: Since 2021, Professor Chuck MacLean has volunteered with Rise, a national organization working to expand the rights of survivors of sexual assault.
Rise was instrumental in passing the Survivor Bill of Rights, a landmark piece of legislation expanding the rights of survivors, unanimously through the U.S. Congress in 2016. Since then, they have worked with volunteers like Chuck to pass state-level Survivor Bills of Rights across all 50 states.
“Chuck has helped multiple state organizers map out the current ‘legislative landscape’ to understand the statutes already in place and identify gaps where changes are needed to strengthen laws for survivors' rights,” says Caitlin Ryan, Chief Strategy Officer at Rise. “This is an essential part of our organizing process and enables our work to pass laws. We wish there were more lawyers out there like Chuck!"
“Multiplied our impact”: As a longtime educator, Chuck has brought his volunteer work to the classroom. He teaches future law enforcement professionals at both Metro State University in Minnesota and University of Wisconsin-Eau Claire, with a curriculum that emphasizes the importance of maximizing procedural justice.
Chuck believes that having his students help with this research gives them an opportunity to have an impact on the issues they will likely deal with in their professions and better prepares students to become ethical criminal justice professionals.
“It is so much easier to engage students on real issues instead of case studies and make believe,” Chuck says. “By working on Rise projects with students, we were able to give them experience and we multiplied our impact.”
And Chuck notes an additional win-win for this volunteer partnership. “Real research that might help real people – that’s a lesson that they’ll never forget,” he says. “For some students, it will drive them to public service and to take on tough tasks.”
Building a more just system: Because the legal system has so many protections for the rights of the accused, Chuck emphasizes the importance of building a more just system of protections for victims.
“We have to identify shortcomings and be creative, insightful, and involve critical thinking to improve every corner of criminal justice so we’re not the sad story from the past,” he says. “With evolution and revolution, we have to work to better this.”
Because of the work of Chuck and his students, Rise is a major step closer to strengthening the rights of survivors in Minnesota and Wisconsin.
On volunteering: Throughout his long and varied career, Chuck has been committed to volunteerism, and has found volunteer opportunities through WTA in his main interest areas – voting, elections, and sexual assault.
“We The Action and Rise make it so simple,” Chuck says. “The project’s are clearly focused, the timing and deliverables are known, and it’s really manageable. Plus, it's its own reward.”
“I would volunteer on ten times the projects that I do now if I had the time,” Chuck says. Follow Chuck’s lead and sign up for a project here.
Congratulations to Chuck MacLean and a special thanks to his students for their hard work and profound impact.