Build Power: Community Paralegals in Puerto Rico

The third cycle of our community paralegals just wrapped up. We are thrilled to share this initiative's progress while highlighting the principles of a program designed to socialize legal knowledge, tools, and access to public policy transformation. 

As Puerto Rico - and the end of the world- face increasing inequality and distrust in traditional institutions, projects that attempt to break the monopoly of power are crucial. Community Paralegals break the hegemony of lawyers to acknowledge the capacity of community members to become legal workers and design and push their legal strategies.

The Community Paralegal project integrates legal education with policy and advocacy training, following many other international initiatives. Community stakeholders learn and apply skills to face their major legal threats. In our case, CP chose climate justice and housing. As this cycle ends, we have 20 community leaders from Loíza trained and ready to promote storytelling, media outreach, legislative training, advocacy, writing, and public speaking. They have pushed for changes in flood management plans and are working on advocacy to ensure access to recovery mitigation funds. Most of all, they have gained recognition within the advocacy landscape as a group: the Community Paralegals.

We will continue to see the results of this effort in the months and years to come. Transformation towards social justice needs time and long term commitment. We are grateful for your continuous support. 

It is incredible to see initiatives grow and evolve. As the Community Paralegal Curriculum approaches its anniversary, we want to acknowledge how this program has helped build power among community leaders. After being co-designers and participants of a legal education curriculum tailored to their climate justice and housing issues, Community Paralegals (CP) learned basic legal skills to request legal information, demand public participation regarding disaster recovery funds, advance public policy research, and address media. At this stage, almost three years after the initiative launched, we witnessed how information and skills were the foundation for policy proposals and advocacy efforts that promise transformation.

Since 2023, CP could call important public officials to community meetings (celebrated in the community ) and propose mitigation plans to the municipality and agencies. Their efforts could lead to concrete actions to prevent floods and ensure housing and climate justice while ensuring access to clean riverbanks. Skills are being tested due to bureaucracy, increased housing insecurity, and the apathy that electoral years encompass.

Now its the time to talk about the sustainability of a project that aims to ensure legal empowerment and power building. Your support is essential.