People's Advocacy Institute

The People’s Advocacy Institute (PAI) is a non-profit community resource, training and capacity-building incubator for transformation justice in the South. PAI serves as a vehicle for true democracy, harnessing the collective wisdom of southern communities that have been directly impacted by a divestment from key community systems such as mass criminalization and incarceration and economic inequality. By engaging communities in electoral justice efforts, People's Assemblies, Alternatives to Incarceration Initiatives, and an intentional grassroots process for cultivating ideas and developing solutions PAI, builds community capacity, inspires self-determination and community-driven solutions to violence, punitive legal systems and social injustice facing far too many communities. We believe that community agency is what architects robust systems change and is what is needed to build new institutional power that paves the way for a more just system rooted in restoration, resilience and self-determination.