On Monday, December
16, 2013, the Brownsville Justice Community Program celebrated the culmination
of another successful year. Participants, staff, and local community supporters
came to congratulate the participants who successfully completed all of their
milestones and internships and thank those participants who may not have
completed but put in equal effort into the milestones they were able to
accomplish. Throughout the year, our participants
took part in various activities from a plethora of community benefit projects
and educational activities, to internships, and for completing each of these
milestones they received stipends payments for various amount.
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| Benjamin Smith, Program Coordinator, offering words of encouragement. |
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| Abdul Nixon receiving his certificate of completion. |
During the events,
participants were asked to speak about what the Justice Community Project meant
to them. Many stated that the project provided them with a positive outlet from
the everyday life they were used to. They spoke about acquiring skills that
they could use to obtain employment or successfully graduate from school. The
Justice Community Project became their home away from home.
Staff from all
departments from the Brownsville Community Justice Center gave the participants
words of encouragement as they all played a role in the success of the program
this year. Many of our participants volunteered with many activities ran by the
Brownsville Anti-Violence Project from Call-Ins to the Changing the Narrative
Art Gallery. They also were a part of the first pilot group for the new
Learning Lab.
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| Dashawn Hayes(left) and his daughter receiving his certificate of completion from program coordinator Benjamin Smith (right). |
This year we had a total of 16 participants who successfully
completed the project. Full completion includes completing 12 community benefit
projects, 12 community planning sessions, 12 educational activities, and 8
weeks of an internship. We also had several participants who completed at least
80% of the program. We are very proud of
all the work they accomplished and know that each one will use the skills they
acquired during their time in the project to become successful men and women.
We would like to thank each one for the contributions they made not only to
this program, but to the Brownsville community.
We would like to also
thank all of our partners including New York City Department of Probation,
Mayor’s Young Men’s Initiative, The Center for Economic Opportunity, Pitkin AveBID, Brownsville Partnership, Groundswell, resident.connect.care, Opportunities for Better Tomorrow, Brooklyn BEOC, Career Gear, Hoods to Woods, Children ofPromise, Project Rhythm, Youth Represent, and Project East New York who all
helped to make this year a great success. We look forward to the work we will
accomplish together in the coming year!
We are now accepting applications for our 2014 enrollment year expected to being in February 2014. If you, or anyone you know, is interested in joining the Justice Community Program, contact our Program Coordinator, Benjamin Smith at (347)404-9585 or email at bsmith@courts.state.ny.us for more information.
