Skip to main content

OCFS Commissioner Gladys Carrion visits Red Hook

Today the Red Hook Community Justice Center hosted an event to celebrate a unique partnership between the New York State Office of Children and Family Services (OCFS), generationOn, and the Center for Court Innovation to implement a pilot Service Learning initiative. OCFS Commissioner, Gladys Carrion, addressed the audience and emphasized the need to continue partnerships that are helping OCFS keep kids involved in the juvenile justice system closer to home and in their communities with positive programming.

This new initiative places AmeriCorps volunteers from the Center for Court Innovation’s New York Juvenile Justice Corps in OCFS’ Brooklyn and Bronx’s facilities. These highly-trained members facilitate and bring to life a Service Learning curriculum designed by generationOn, “Be the Change New York.” The curriculum is based on a restorative justice model and is designed to re-engage youth through Service Learning projects.  The AmeriCorps members serve as instructors and role models to young people in OCFS facilities.  Over the course of a year, more than 100 participating young people have learned new skills, built relationships, performed community service, and postiviely re-engaged with their local communities.
A packed audience with representatives from the New York City Department of Probation, OCFS, the New York State Court system, the Legal Aid Society, and the New York City Law Department saw an entertaining and educational presentation by AmeriCorps members about the new Service Learning initiative. New York State Senator, Velmanette Montgomery, and a representative from City Councilmember’s Sara Gonzelez’ office were also on hand to celebrate and address the group and emphasize the need to give New York’s children more opportunities to grow up in a safe community. This initiative has been so successful that it will be expanded over the next year with the help of three new Juvenile Justice Corps Members.

OCFS Commisioner Gladys Carrion


New York Juvenile Justice Corps members Alicia Grant and Raju Chowdhury present the new Service Learning Initiatve they facilitate at OCFS


New York State Senator Velmanette Montgomery

AmeriCorps members with Commissioner Carrion and Senator Montgomery

Guests enjoy a reception and display of youth art work and projects



Comments

Popular posts from this blog

Peacemaking in Red Hook

Raymond Deal, Traditional Program Specialist, Shiprock District Court, Navajo Nation and Gloria Benally, Program Coordinator, Navajo Nation, train future Red Hook Peacemakers After an intensely trying period in Red Hook in the weeks following Hurricane Sandy, building, strenghtening, and healing relationships between residents and organizations has become crucial. This past weekend, we took a step towards preparing the neighborhood for the hard work ahead with a two-day workshop with peacemakers from the Navajo Nation for residents we are training to serve as peacemakers here in Red Hook. A new project from the Center for Court Innovation's Tribal Justice Exchange , peacemaking is a traditional Native American approach to justice. While the exact form peacemaking takes varies among tribes, it usually consists of one or more peacemakers—often community elders—who gently guide a conversation involving not only those directly involved in an offense or conflict but family

Supporting the Staten Island Youth Justice Center at "Inside/Outside Legislative Theatre" Performance

On June 4th, a group of the Red Hook Youth Court members and staff went to see the "Theater of the Oppressed NYC" performance at the New School. Before attending this event, the youth court members had no idea that anything like this went on! While there, we learned that 12 different legislative laws were changed through something called "Legislative Theatre." The audience members get to be "spect-actors," which is great because the actual audience members got to participate in the play themselves and share their ideas. The performances last night were put on by members of the Staten Island Youth Justice Center (part of the Center for Court Innovation Family). These two plays dealt with real life issues such as getting stopped for not paying your bus fare, arriving late to school and getting sent to the principal's office because of the "zero tolerance policy," getting into fights at school, not knowing one's rights, and being raciall