Human rights program will create training videos with grant money

The Human Rights Advocacy Program (HRAP) at the Brandeis School of Law was awarded a grant from the Louisville Bar Foundation to support its ongoing work advancing the human rights of immigrants, refugees and noncitizens in our community.

For the past two years, the HRAP has surveyed and studied the obstacles that immigrants, noncitizen and refugees face in language and educational access. The program also has worked to study trends and shifts in the language and rhetoric used to describe the immigrant community in regional media.

These research projects were developed through an initial needs assessment identifying the obstacles and barriers that immigrants face in the community.

This work was completed by HRAP law student fellows Steven Harris, Abby Lewis, Briana Lathon, Marianna Michaels, Kristen Barrow, Irina Strelkova, Sue Eng Ly, Danielle Hampton and Kylie King with the ongoing support of numerous law school public service volunteers.

This grant will allow the HRAP to develop and distribute user-friendly training videos to front-line workers who interact with the immigrant community. The videos will focus on cultural competencies in working with the community and legal requirements to provide language and educational access.

"This research began with community conversations and outreach," said the HRAP in a statement about the grant. "This grant will allow the HRAP to bring its results back into the community to try to improve compliance and awareness. It reflects a collaborative effort of law faculty, law fellows, public service volunteers and community organizations."