• About Public Advocates
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Who We Are

Public Advocates Inc. is a nonprofit law firm and advocacy organization that challenges the systemic causes of poverty and racial discrimination by strengthening community voices in public policy and achieving tangible legal victories advancing education, housing and transit equity. We spur change through collaboration with grassroots groups representing low-income communities, people of color and immigrants, combined with strategic policy reform, media advocacy and litigation, “making rights real” across California since 1971.

Our Vision

Communities that were once excluded and marginalized are energized by their collective power to shape public decisions and achieve justice. As a result of that engagement, all Californians have the building blocks to thrive and to create vibrant communities – excellent public schools, affordable housing, reliable public transportation, quality health care, good job opportunities, and economic security.

Our Theory of Change

We believe that by engaging in strategic partnerships, policy and media advocacy and litigation, we will increase the capacity of grassroots organizations to shape public policy and discourse, and that we can also positively influence public opinion, the media, policy makers and courts to hold business and government accountable. We do this to promote the expansion of civil rights and resource equity and create a mobilized community base to ensure that all Californians have the fundamental rights and equitable allocation of resources they need to build vibrant communities. We choose to address areas such as education, housing, transportation and health that are fundamental to enabling individuals and communities to fulfill their potential, and we choose to challenge systemic problems in ways that will achieve maximum impact.

Addressing Systemic Problems

Across all our work we address:

• Inequitable distribution of public resources
• Public policies and laws that stifle or fail to advance the rights or address the needs of our clients and their communities 
• Ineffective implementation of programs designed to serve or protect our clients
• Lack of accountability to the public and especially to our client communities
• Limited access to public forums and decision making processes for marginalized communities, including people with limited funds and few political contacts, and non-English speakers

Focus Areas

Our current programs focus on education equity, affordable housing and community benefits, and transportation justice.. Historically we have also worked on consumer, insurance, and telecommunications issues. We find health issues cutting across program areas, from victories to require medical testing for lead poisoning and to guarantee access to prenatal and emergency care for undocumented residents. Today we are addressing the relationship of obesity to physical education and school lunch programs, of transit services to access to health services and food markets, and of unhealthy school facilities to academic achievement.

Highlights

• Public Advocates was one of the lead counsel in Williams v. State of California, in which a class of children and their families reached an historic agreement with the State to ensure children’s basic educational right to qualified teachers, textbooks, and decent facilities. To assure that school improvements actually reach the neediest students and least advantaged schools, Public Advocates remains actively involved in legislative advocacy, community organizing and education, and monitoring.

• Public Advocates has successfully represented inner city drivers in “redlined" zip-code territories denied affordable automobile insurance, women and minority police officers for the City of San Francisco, more than 50,000 Latino, African-American, and Asian educators denied employment opportunities in California public schools, and tens of thousands of pregnant undocumented immigrants denied prenatal care.

• The firm's clients have included more than seventy diverse community organizations and plaintiff classes, such as the National Council of La Raza, Southern Christian Leadership Conference, Association of Mexican American Educators, World Institute on Disability, Chinese for Affirmative Action, and California Rural Indian Health Board.

• In addition, Public Advocates has helped to launch major, now independent, organizations such as Health Access, Latino Issues Forum, Greenlining Institute, Urban Strategies Council, HomeBase, and the Latino Coalition for a Healthy California.