Red Hook Justice - Your Community. Your Court.

“You were just doing something, right? Let me take [these pieces] for now, until I get to something simple. But real strategists don’t think like that…the first thing I did was figure out the whole game…If you don’t know the strategy, nothing’s going to help you. You’re going to lose.”  Yesterday afternoon, the Justice Center welcomed International Grandmaster of chess Maurice Ashley to teach the first session of our new chess program, " Think Before You Move , " an  innovative new initiative designed to  teach critical thinking and decision-making skills to young people through the medium of chess.  A group of teens ranging in age from 12 to 17 years old and drawn from both the South Brooklyn area and our adolescent diversion and family court programs, channeled their energy and focus on deconstructing the strategy behind a series of short games. Mr. Ashley challenged his students to look beyond the simple rules he had laid out for them in order to see how br...

The Red Hook Community Justice Center's JustArts initiative is partnering with   Kentler International Drawing Space 's K.I.D.S. Art Education Program to present  Make Your Mark!  this fall. Last week, youth age 11-13 from our catchment area began working with teaching artist Meghan Keane to develop their drawing skills, learn to express themselves through drawing, and craft a personal style. Take a look at our slideshow of the most recent session of  Make Your Mark!  in which students worked on a project based on the gallery's current show, "To Be Young, Gifted and Black in the Age of Obama":

The Red Hook Community Justice Center (RHCJC) is partnering with International Chess Grand Master Maurice Ashley to run an innovative chess initiative called “Think before You Move” for Brooklyn Teens. The program will run for four weeks starting Oct. 25. The goal of Think before You Move is to teach critical thinking skills to young people through the medium of chess. Research has shown that chess instruction helps develop these thinking skills and prepares students to better approach problems, strengthen their personal discipline, counter negative peer pressure and exhibit greater self-control. Learning these skills through chess also helps enhance the students’ self-esteem as well as promote success in the classroom, the work-place and their personal lives. The program is open to local teens age 12-18. The program will also be an alternative diversion program for teens that have committed minor offenses and need to improve their decision making skills. Abou...

The New York Juvenile Justice Corps is off to another great start. We’ve just entered our third year of operation and completed the first week of orientation and training. Established in 2010, the New York Juvenile Justice Corps is an AmeriCorps service program that seeks to prevent young people in New York City from becoming enmeshed in the criminal justice system. The Corps is comprised of 58 members that primarily come from New York City. Members work with hundreds of young people every year and serve at CCI projects including: Harlem, Red Hook, Brownsville, Midtown, Staten Island Ready, QUEST, CCI's Youth Courts, the Attendance Achievement Program and the Youth Justice Board. Members also serve with our partners at the John Jay College Office of Community Outreach and Service Learning , and the Office of Children and Family Services. In addition to serving thousands of young people throughout the five boroughs, the Corps is also designed to give members a...

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...

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...