NCHR's Haitian Entrant Legal and Civic Education Program

Executive Summary

In 1999, NCHR created the Legal Education and Assistance Program (LEAP) to foster better relations between Haitian entrants and the New York City Police Department in response to the disastrous state of the relationship between the two parties after the Abner Louima torture case in August 1997.  The project was highly successful in creating improved communication, conflict management linkages and a greater level of understanding and trust between the community and the NYPD.

In response to a need -- identified and documented through LEAP from 1999 to 2002 -- for assistance on a wide range of legal matters in the Haitian community, NCHR has created the Haitian Entrants Legal and Civic Education Program (HELCEP) to continue working with all relevant stakeholders to respond to – and ultimately prevent – future cases of police brutality, while addressing a pressing and unmet need in the Haitian community for holistic, competent and culturally sensitive legal assistance and conducting an overall educational and awareness raising effort to help immigrants and refugees navigate the American system. 

HELCEP uses the lessons that NCHR has gleaned over the past three years to:  (a) address a wider range of legal issues that Haitian entrants face in Interfacing with the broader legal/judicial/civic system; and (b) facilitate their civic integration into American society by focusing on the rights and responsibilities of “good citizenship.” 

At its core, HELCEP is a training and community education program intended to strengthen the capacity of both the Haitian refugee community and the legal/judicial /civic system to interact in a more productive, mutually respectful manner.  Over the next three years, NCHR hopes to:

-Institutionalize the work in the greater New York Metropolitan area by developing formal partnerships with, providing training to and creating an official network of Haitian and other Community Based Organizations (CBOs), legal institutions and individual practitioners (Program Affiliates) to raise civic awareness and address the broader set of legal needs of Haitian refugees;

-Replicate the program in the greater Miami Metropolitan are, home to the vast majority of new Haitian entrants; and

-Conduct research, produce materials and develop linkages to learn from and participate in the national policy debate about legal services, access and civic integration for refugee communities.

NCHR is a national policy organization that for more than 20 years has been advocating for the fair and equitable treatment of Haitian refugees and immigrants coming to the U.S.  NCHR also directs its efforts to the challenges facing people of Haitian descent living in the U.S. and to addressing a changing environment by developing strategies and building viable institutions.  By building the capacity of CBOs and legal service providers to provide legal education and culturally appropriate services, NCHR will be giving Haitian refugees and immigrants greater understanding and mastery over the legal and law enforcement issues that affect them, thereby contributing to their own empowerment and increasing their level of integration into American society.