Our Community Justice Connect team trains local volunteers to help their neighbors resolve legal issues before they get out of hand.
At storefronts across New York City, our Community Justice Connect team is training residents to equip their neighbors with the knowledge and tools they need to resolve legal issues before they reach the courts.
Though there are a range of resources across the city to help New Yorkers navigate legal challenges, finding and accessing those resources can be tricky. Civil legal issues, meanwhile, can build up and lead to serious consequences, from mounting debt to eviction to family separation.
Our storefronts, formerly known as Legal Hand, have been helping community members proactively address those challenges since 2015. Now, to reflect their expanding role in connecting residents to a broader range of services, they’ve relaunched as Community Justice Connect. Based in Crown Heights, Brooklyn; the South Bronx; and Jamaica, Queens, they teach community volunteers to offer legal information, resources, and referrals for their neighbors on everything from housing to public benefits, employment, immigration, and more.
Our Bronx Community Justice Center team partnered with Community Justice Connect and other local agencies to help public housing residents build knowledge around rent, repairs, and preventing evictions.
Volunteers—most of whom live in the communities they serve—receive in-depth training and support from the Community Justice Connect team and partners, including an on-site attorney. The program is rooted in a model of community education that empowers residents to help address legal challenges in their neighborhoods, before they escalate.
Civil legal issues are easy to overlook, but they touch virtually every aspect of life—from wages and finances to housing, custody, and more. Empowering community members with the knowledge they need to navigate the resources that are out there—and help their neighbors do the same—can prevent crises for families in some of New York’s most vulnerable communities.