Public Counsel, the legal nonprofit, will welcome the community into its Koreatown offices for its third annual community resource day on Saturday.
The event will run from 9 a.m. to 12 p.m., and will allow community members to explore the resources that Public Counsel offers, along with food, games and other activities.
Staff will provide presentations on immigrants’ rights, family preparedness, medical debt and education rights. Joshua Busch, senior advisor with Public Counsel, said their organization focused on these issues because many people in the community are facing these types of hurdles on a daily basis.
The idea for the Koreatown Community Resource Day came from the awareness that many people in the neighborhood don’t know what the organization does. They wanted to change that with the goal to help their neighbors with a holistic approach.
“We try to see people as a whole person, and understand that while they may come with a legal problem, oftentimes there’s many other challenges they’re dealing with,” Busch said. “Something as basic as providing food at an event like this can be really meaningful for families who are struggling.”
There are people who have lived in the neighborhood for years and didn’t realize what resources were available to them the whole time, Busch said.
“Some of it comes from just longstanding areas of expertise of our legal teams, and then other areas are in response to newer threats that have come up,” Busch said. “The family preparedness work comes out of family law. So we have a families and youth advocacy team who have expertise in family law, and they partnered with our immigrants’ rights team to develop this newer area of work.”
The event is also an opportunity to connect community members with other organizations, like social workers or other resources that go beyond legal help.
More importantly, families can expect a festive event with games for kids, music and other activities.
“It’’s a recognition that for parents this will make it easier and more accessible for them if there’s activities for their kids to participate in, and then also to make it more of a celebration,” Busch said. “Part of this is also building community connections, so making it a space where people can come together and strengthen our connections with the community [is important].”
Busch said that events like this are more critical now than they were when the event first started three years ago. Over the past year and a half, Public Counsel has seen an increase in the people who require their services, partly due to the pressure on immigrant communities from this administration.
“[It’s] harmed so many people in our community and caused so much stress and anxiety and torn families apart,” Busch said.
In addition to issues from the presidential administration, Busch said that right now people need all the help they can get due to things like the affordability crisis, and that the main focus is making sure people know they have all these resources available to them.
He hopes to connect with community members and that people can come, learn, and enjoy themselves.
“We want to support people in all different areas of their life,” Busch said. “Not just the legal challenge that they’re showing up with.”
