Program areas at Avenues for Justice
"Avenues for Justice (afj) serves two main groups of participants in new york city, ages 13 to 24: 1) "court-involved" participants, which includes those who have active legal proceedings, are diversion (younger participants referred by nyc family court for shorter mandates), are formerly incarcerated, or are in the process of reentry from a detention center; and 2) "at-risk" participants who are at-risk of involvement with the criminal Justice system or who receive short-term assistance or referrals to third party specialists better suited to meet their needs.participation: Avenues for Justice exceeded our 2022 goal of serving 330 participants, serving 386 participants from january 1, 2022 to december 31, 2022.during 2022, afj served 262 participants in the court-involved program: 155 were in the long-term court advocacy program, 86 were in the family court diversion program, and 21 were re-entry. One hundred forty-one were served through the lower east side site and 121 were served through the harlem site. This report focuses on the 262 court-involved participants. During 2022, 102 young people entered the court-involved program. That is by far the largest intake of new participants in the history of afj. During 2022, afj also served 72 at-risk participants online and at our two community centers in harlem and the lower east side. Additionally, afj provided 52 participants with referrals and other short-term assistance."
Our program is effective and efficient. On average, only 6% of our court-involved participants are reconvicted within three years of enrollment at afj and only 13% are reconvicted within six years of enrollment. Operating rikers costs nyc taxpayers approximately $500,000 per incarcerated person per year. It only costs afj $6,300 to put one young person through a full year of our wraparound services which lead to employment, academic success, and long-term stability.
"services for the court-involved and at-risk participants are provided online and onsite at afj's two community centers in harlem and the lower east side, and at afj's headquarters inside the manhattan criminal courthouse. Court-involved participants receive free court advocacy services with intensive case management. All participants receive hire up services for job readiness and certification, teen empowerment and legal rights, life skills training, mental and physical health wellness, academic/educational support and tutoring. Afj also provides referrals to third party specialists for all participants when needed.hire up program impact/outcomes: in 2022, afj's hire up program offered over 200 workshops, classes, and training sessions focused on digital literacy, construction safety, videography, mental health, entrepreneurship, job readiness, interpersonal relationships, educational tutoring, communication skills/civics, and legal rights and responsibilities, both online and onsite at our two community centers. In 2022, 180 individual participants attended hire up workshops.employment: with the emphasis on employment readiness in hire up, afj saw an increase in 2022 of participants who found and retained jobs. A total of 84 of the 262 active court-involved participants in 2022 were employed and 38 of these obtained employment during the calendar year. Of those that had obtained employment during 2022, 89% had participated in the hire up program.summer youth employment program (syep): for a second year, the city selected afj in 2022 as a host site for its summer youth employment program (syep), funded through nyc's department of youth and community development (dycd). The program subsidizes salaries to stimulate summer hiring. While afj places participants in employment opportunities year-round, for syep we created a unique 150-hour media training camp, with trainees receiving syep salaries for study in podcasting, videography, and music production. Fourteen of our original 19 enrollees attended from july 5 to august 12, training 25 hours a week.job readiness: afj, in partnership with the women's initiative & allies network (win) of blackrock, hosted a job readiness event at our lower east side community center in december 2022. The event consisted of the following three workshop stations: how to write a resume, how to write a cover letter, and a station for mock interview practice.digital literacy: launched in 2020, combining self-paced on-line study with instruction led by afj's court advocates, afj increased group instruction in 2022 which resulted in sizeable increases in enrollees and certifications earned: of the total 91 participants who took certification tests, 52 (57%) were during 2022. Of the 771 tests taken, 603 (78%) were in 2022. Of the 356 certifications earned, 281 (79%) were earned in 2022.financial literacy: city national bank team members led a financial literacy workshop in 2022 for 12 afj participants and their families.osha certifications: in 2022, afj changed to onsite, group classes at our harlem community center which resulted in 18 participants earning 21 certifications with 17 certifications earned for osha and site safety training and 4 earned for flaggers and scaffolding safety training. Education: education data is collected from participants at intake, on an annual basis while a participant is active (annual follow-up), and at program completion/exit. In 2022, of the 262 court-involved participants, 164 were in school at intake, 60 received their high school diploma while at afj, and 68 were still in school when they exited afj programming."