Global Legal Empowerment FAQ

Any undergraduate, graduate students or other volunteers interested in legal and human rights in developing countries would have a great experience with this program. A background in law, policy, and international development is helpful, but not required.

Students are not required to have any pre-law or law background. The in-country Program Lead and Program Associate provide the brigaders with all the legal information needed to implement the workshops. Brigaders will also have the opportunity to ask questions and discuss ideas with the Program Associate during a pre-brigade webinar. On the brigade, the group will also be accompanied by Honduran lawyer to answer questions and provide legal guidance, and local Greek humanitarian & development workers.

In Honduras, in order to prepare the community, the Program Lead will meet with the community to organize dates of the free legal clinics and identify family cases. Legal Empowerment Program Technicians will conduct site visits to the community to gather specific community and project profile information that will later be shared with the brigaders.

In Greece, the program director will meet with NGOs and other actors providing legal services to Refugees, Asylum seekers and Unaccompanied minors to organize the agenda for the visits, workshops and spaces for community interaction.

To prepare the students, the Program Associates will host a regular call with the chapter leaders and provide pre-departure resources, including a webinar for the brigaders to ensure that the brigaders understand the community needs and the focus of the project before arriving to Honduras or Greece. Following the pre-departure webinar and prior to arrival, your Program Associate will share all necessary resources in order to adequately prepare you for the brigade. You can also check some Brigade preparation materials here.

A Legal Empowerment Brigade participant will typically engage in the following:

• Legal clinics: brigaders will shadow Honduran lawyers to offer legal advice to whole communities, where families and individuals with unresolved disputes or questions can receive free legal counsel. These clinics are meant to provide no-cost access to legal services that were previously denied or unavailable.
• Family law cases: volunteers, alongside Honduran lawyers, perform interviews and intake procedures that will be used by the Legal Empowerment lawyers in the following months to resolve the cases that would have been unattended completely or otherwise unresolved for many more years.
• Present educational workshops that inspire and inform the community (Honduras) and residents of the Unaccompanied Minors Shelters (Greece) on a variety of issues such as gender-based stereotypes, domestic violence, education, reproductive rights, and women’s empowerment and leadership, which impact and affect the daily lives of all members of society. The Legal Empowerment Program has been able to develop an educational curriculum to be implemented across each and every Legal Empowerment Brigade.
• Understand what it means to apply for asylum in Greece and processes like family reunification for minors.
• Learn about other organizations’ and GB’s work to support the integration of refugees into the Greek community to get a glimpse of the Holistic Model for refugees in action!
• Enjoy learning about a new culture, country and environment!
• Have fun! Work, play and learn about the community through a variety of intercultural activities planned by your Brigade Coordinator.

Community involvement is key to a successful Legal Empowerment brigade. In Honduras, the community will participate in each component of the Legal Empowerment Brigade: legal clinics, family cases, and educational workshops overseen and presented by brigaders. Additionally, the community will learn about the legal process in which they are involved and the benefits of the new legal framework. The community will gather together for a final event where both the brigade and the community members will meet one last time before departing, sharing lessons learned, successes and plans for on-going development.
In Greece we work closely with other NGOs and partner with shelters for Unaccompanied minors. GB is able to support their work thanks to volunteers!

Volunteers will be provided to several online planning tools and will be invited to review a pre-departure webinar to go over itinerary, activities, preparations, and brigade logistics. Be sure to read all educational materials and resources sent by your Program Associate prior to your brigade and other resources found here

For University Chapters, there is a minimum 10 volunteers. Smaller groups will have to be paired with other groups to meet the minimum. There is no maximum volunteer number. Non-University Chapters- please contact admin@globalbrigades.org.

Volunteers do not pay to participate in a Legal Empowerment Brigade. Instead, volunteers fundraise to support Global Brigades’ Holistic Model. Once a volunteer meets a set Donation Goal, they are eligible to join us on-the-ground to see their fundraising efforts put into action by participating in a Legal Empowerment Brigade.

When a volunteer participates in a Legal Empowerment Brigade, the volunteer’s ground transportation, food, lodging, and emergency insurance are all covered. The funding that the volunteer raised also supports all the necessary costs for program implementation, such as lawyers, supplies, coordinators, translators, and support staff.

Your program donation goal will also contribute to covering legal fees for asylum claims of beneficiaries from the Greek Council for Refugees thanks to our partnership with this organization!

Visit our financials page to learn about how donor funds are utilized.

The safety of the student volunteers is Global Brigades’ number one priority and is the single most important consideration when entering a community or choosing a project. Each country that Global Brigades serves in has implemented safety protocols and policies to decrease any risk of danger and to ensure that any emergency can be properly handled in a prompt and professional manner. For more information on safety precautions, emergency procedures and insurance information, please visit Safety and Insurance on the Volunteer Resource Site.

First, find out if your school has a Legal Empowerment Brigades Chapter by searching for your school on the Chapters tab. If your school does not have a Chapter, click the Be A Chapter President button to fill out an application to start a chapter. You will be connected with a Chapter Advisor.