Legal empowerment is about more than knowing the law—it’s about using it to drive meaningful change in communities. Across the world, grassroots organizations are pioneering new ways to strengthen legal empowerment and community power building. But too often, the resources to experiment, learn, and adapt are scarce.
To bridge this gap, the Legal Empowerment Fund (LEF) has launched its first-ever Innovation and Learning Grants—a pilot $100,000 initiative to provide ten learning grants to existing grantee partners to test and refine new approaches related to community organizing and mobilizing for legal empowerment. This inaugural round marks the beginning of an annual effort to support innovative ideas that strengthen legal empowerment movements. The full list of organizations and their innovation ideas is provided below, excluding one grantee partner whose work requires confidentiality due to its sensitive nature.
Selected from a pool of seventy-four applications, these grassroots groups will receive grants to explore new strategies, deepen their engagement with communities, and generate insights that strengthen legal empowerment movements globally.
Why Innovation and Learning?
Innovation is not about reinventing the wheel—it’s about adapting, testing, and refining strategies that work in specific contexts. Grassroots organizations are at the forefront of legal empowerment, and they need resources to experiment and share their learnings.
Through these grants, the selected groups will:
- Test new legal empowerment strategies to strengthen their work with communities
- Connect with peers in a learning cohort to exchange insights and challenges
- Build knowledge that informs the broader legal empowerment movement
Meet the Grantee Partners
These ten organizations, spanning multiple regions and issue areas, are using legal empowerment to advance justice in their communities:
1. Vision des Filles Leaders pour le Développement (VIFILED) | Democratic Republic of the Congo
VIFILED works to empower young women and girls in South Kivu, particularly in indigenous communities, advocating for their right to education and participation in decision-making.
Innovation Idea: Integrated System of Legal Monitoring and Empowerment of Pygmy Indigenous Peoples
VIFILED will combine technology and community approaches to raise awareness and build an early warning system that monitors land justice violations affecting Pygmy Indigenous peoples. Using mobile tools and community mobilization, they aim to document and respond to mining-related rights violations.
2. Thai Poor Act (TPA) | Thailand
TPA, born out of the Assembly of the Poor, mobilizes rural and urban communities affected by government policies. The organization provides legal aid, advocacy, and direct action to defend land, labor, and environmental rights.
Innovation Idea: Making and Advocating for the Peasants’ Climate Justice Bill
TPA will support peasant communities to draft and advocate for a climate justice bill that addresses their specific struggles with land and environmental rights. The bill will be developed through community leadership and participatory input, centering peasants’ experiences in the legislative process.
3. Observatorio Ciudadano Nacional de Feminicidio (OCNF) | Mexico
OCNF is a coalition of 43 organizations across 23 Mexican states dedicated to fighting femicide through legal action, policy advocacy, and survivor-led justice efforts.
Innovation Idea: Strengthen Legal Response to Femicidal Violence
OCNF will partner with a university law program to address the shortage of trained legal professionals available to support femicide cases. This pilot initiative will train a new generation of gender justice–focused lawyers, with potential for expansion to other Mexican states.
4. Legal Centre Lesvos (LCL) | Greece
LCL provides free legal aid and representation to migrants, engaging in strategic litigation to challenge unjust migration policies and human rights violations in Europe.
Innovation Idea: The Storytelling Workshop with Refugee Women on Lesvos
LCL will facilitate collective storytelling workshops with refugee women, offering an alternative, healing-centered approach to documenting border violence. This method challenges traditional legal testimony collection, creating space for solidarity and shared narratives among women survivors.
5. Just Like My Child Foundation (JLMCF) | Uganda
JLMCF supports adolescent girls in rural Uganda by strengthening legal capabilities, promoting education, and ensuring access to health and economic opportunities.
Innovation Idea: Save for Justice
Building on a previous initiative, JLMCF will expand a community-based fund that enables local groups to pool resources for legal empowerment activities aimed at preventing gender-based violence. The approach will foster greater community ownership and sustainability.
6. Defence for Children International–Sierra Leone (DCI-SL) | Sierra Leone
DCI-SL is part of a global movement defending children’s rights. The organization combats gender-based violence, human trafficking, and child labor while advocating for stronger legal protections.
Innovation Idea: Mobilizing Intergenerational Support for Child Rights and Justice in Rural Communities
DCI-SL will use storytelling and drama to engage rural communities in child rights discussions, aiming to inspire community-driven reforms. By blending traditional storytelling with legal awareness, they seek to update community bylaws and foster stronger intergenerational collaboration.
7. Colectivo de Coordinación de Acciones Socio Ambientales (Colectivo CASA) | Bolivia
Colectivo CASA works with local communities to fight environmental injustices, strengthening grassroots leadership to challenge pollution, deforestation, and resource exploitation.
Innovation Idea: Promoting Indigenous Justice Practices through Art and Technology
Colectivo CASA will combine artistic expression and digital tools to promote Indigenous justice practices related to land, environment, and collective rights—utilizing social and print media to amplify community voices and knowledge.
8. Berufsverband für erotische und sexuelle Dienstleistungen e.V. (BesD e.V.) | Germany
BesD e.V. is a sex worker–led organization advocating for the decriminalization of sex work, labor protections, and an end to stigmatization and victimization.
Innovation Idea: Digital Transformation for Enhanced Community Engagement and Transparency
BesD will develop a digital infrastructure, including cloud-based platforms, to improve internal communications, case management, and member engagement—strengthening community-led advocacy for sex workers’ rights.
9. Access Planet Organization (APO) | Nepal
APO promotes the rights and empowerment of women and youth with disabilities, focusing on education, technology, and legal aid to ensure dignity and economic inclusion.
Innovation Idea: Development of Justice Companion Mobile Application
APO will design and launch a mobile app—Justice Companion—to provide women with disabilities with accessible legal information, peer connection, and collective action spaces, closing gaps in access to justice and support networks.
Next Steps
The grant term officially began on January 1, 2025. Over the next year, grantee partners will document their progress, share challenges and successes, and collaborate with peers in the learning cohort. The LEF will share insights from their journeys, ensuring that the broader legal empowerment community can learn from their innovations.
Stay tuned for updates as these organizations test new strategies and push the boundaries of what’s possible in legal empowerment.
