HRAP resource serves a comprehensive guide

As it heads into its second year, the Brandeis Human Rights Advocacy Program is finding that its first-year project -- a comprehensive guide to the services available to immigrants, noncitizens and refugees in the Louisville area -- is still a valuable resource.

Because the services needed by this population often cover several areas — such as legal, medical, education and housing — it make sense for service providers to have a listing of all services their clients could need in one place.

But until the Human Rights Advocacy Program created its guide, agencies had to draw from their own knowledge of what services are provided. The guide allows agencies to guide clients in a more efficient and comprehensive way.

"I appreciate the work of the Human Rights Advocacy Program at the Brandeis School of Law," said Sophie Maier, immigrant services librarian at the Louisville Free Public Library, who has used the resource. "The guide is a handy manner of sharing contact information about the many resources that exist in our city, which can be very silo-ed and hard to navigate for a limited English newcomer."