Red Hook Justice - Your Community. Your Court.

The Justice Center played host yesterday to two celebrations of the amazing young people that we have worked with this summer. Our first event was the graduation of sixteen interns from our High School Summer Internship Program.  The seven-week program involved two weeks of training at the Justice Center in skills like resume and cover letter writing, interviewing, and other skills necessary to succeed in the working world. For the following five weeks, interns were placed in a variety of sites throughout our catchment area including the Groundswell Community Mural Project , Community Board 7 , The Diamond Law Firm, The Red Hook Star Revue , Youth Made Media , the New York City Department of Parks & Recreation , Fireflies New York, Caselnova Restaurant , Beth Elohim Summer Camp , and SUNY Downstate Medical Center . Family, friends, internship supervisors, and Justice Center staff all came together to congratulate the interns on their hard work. A highlight of the event was hear...

Yesterday the Red Hook community came together to celebrate our 18 th annual National Night Out Against Crime. This long-standing event is in partnership with the Red Hook Community Justice Center, the NYPD 76 th Precinct and PSA 1 Housing Police, Kings County District Attorney’s Office, the New York State Office of Court Administration, and the New York Juvenile Justice Corps.  This event provides an opportunity for residents, law enforcement and local organizations to come together, break down barriers, and take a stand against violence in our communities. Hundreds of neighbors gathered in Red Hook’s Coffey Park for the festivities, food, positive messages, and a community resource fair with over 40 local organizations. Some highlights from the day included an anti-violence poetry slam by our local young poets, an exhibit of art work by young teens from the Justice Center’s art program, a Cops and Kids baseball game, and a teen dating violence PSA from the Justice Center’s ...

Last week, high school students participating in the Justice Center’s summer youth programs took a break from serving as youth court members and interns at local businesses to spend the day exploring the role of higher education in their futures. Having watched all of last year’s graduating seniors from the Red Hook Youth Court go on to attend a stellar list of colleges and universities, these high schoolers were eager to learn about what the two schools they toured, Rutgers University in New Brunswick and Princeton University , might have to offer towards reaching their goals. As young people already actively involved in their communities, speaking with representatives from Princeton’s Woodrow Wilson School of Public and International Affairs gave many students a taste of how they could put that experience into practice towards a career by studying public policy. At the end of the day, all students gained a better sense of what the college application process and campus life are ...

For the past six months, the Justice Center has offered free monthly workshops to enhance neighborhood safety, improve the local quality of life, and address community concerns.  We kicked off our Community Education Workshop Series by partnering with the Legal Aid Society for a “Know Your Rights” workshop on the New York City Housing Authority (NYCHA) at the Red Hook Community Justice Center. A Legal Aid attorney provided attendees with crucial information about what their housing rights are in their dealings with NYCHA.  Next, we prepared for tax season by partnering with  H & R Block  and  Sovereign Bank  to host a workshop on financial and tax literacy at the Justice Center. We also held a resume workshop  in partnership with the Red Hook branch of  the Brooklyn Public Library   at a neighborhood school, P.S. 15 . Attendees participated in a host of relevant job-related discussions, including how to write a resume, what a resume sh...