For the past two decades, the Law Foundation-funded legal advocates received formal training through two courses: the Family Law Advocacy Training Course and Legal Advocate Training Course. There was a two-week course for beginner legal advocates each fall, and another two-week course for intermediate legal advocates in the early spring. This model, facilitated by staff of the Law Foundation, was relatively effective for the years while the legal advocacy network was smaller. However, as the network has grown in recent years, the model has resulted in newly hired legal advocates sometimes going months without receiving any formal training.
In 2023, the Law Foundation conducted a needs assessment to understand how our training approach could be improved to better meet the needs of legal advocates. The study revealed some key themes.
Needs from legal advocates
Legal advocates provided insightful feedback about their training needs and affirmed some of our assumptions. They confirmed the categories of learning that would benefit them the most in their different legal advocacy roles, and that they needed to be delivered within the first month in their roles. For example, Community Law Advocates emphasized the need for training on residential tenancy, provincial disability benefits, and an overview of welfare. Professional responsibility and file management were also named as learning priorities.
In addition to legal knowledge and technical skills, legal advocates were explicit about the need for training to build their capacity to effectively support clients who are systemically marginalized. They emphasized the need to learn with a decolonizing, anti-oppressive, and anti-racist lens, and that trauma- and mental health-informed approaches to working with clients should be prioritized.
Legal advocates also provided feedback that in-person learning could support better connection with learning for some.
Strategic shift in approach
Incorporating feedback from legal advocates, we began to plan a major shift in our approach to the foundational legal advocate training program. Through a collaboration between the Law Foundation, University of the Fraser Valley (UFV), and a community working group of experienced legal advocates and lawyers, a new training program was developed.
The pilot launched in November of 2025, with senior, experienced legal advocates hired as instructors. The pilot included a three-part structure: pre-training onboarding, core training common to all legal advocates, and specialized streams in either family law or community law. The first cohorts of learners are already sharing feedback about their learning experience, which will enable us to continue improving the program. We will keep evolving this program to ensure legal advocates can provide high quality legal services to the clients they support.
