- Program Civil Society
- Program Area Increasing Access to Justice
- Grant Amount $250,000
- Grant Period November 1, 2022–October 31, 2024
- Location New York, NY, United States
- Geographic Focus World
About this grant
The Bernstein Institute for Human Rights at the New York University School of Law seeks to advance legal empowerment research both through the Legal Empowerment Lab and through collaborative research activities contained in a field-wide Shared Learning Agenda. The grantee will continue to support academics and grassroots practitioners jointly in participatory research methods in order to inform richer analyses of legal empowerment outcomes. A series of learning resources will be produced and specific research projects will be undertaken, all of which will actively feature practitioners and their beneficiary partners, including participants of the jailhouse lawyer initiative. Despite restrictions imposed by the COVID-19 pandemic, the grantee was able to hold 15 Learning Lab sessions, bringing together 28 participants from 15 countries. They also produced a series of handbooks on participatory research and legal empowerment practice. Additionally, the New York University’s Bernstein Institute for Human Rights virtually accompanied a range of practitioners in order to help better understand broader policy implications of their grassroots work.