Youth Court opens its doors to the community!

This past week, the Brownsville Youth Court hosted an open house for prospective members and to introduce our neighbors and community stakeholders to the program. More than 20 community members, representatives from agencies, and students were in attendance. Program Coordinator, Sharese Crouther opened the event with an overview of the program, referral process, and benefits of youth court membership. Visitors then had the chance to observe a real youth court hearing and the evening was rounded out with a question and answer session with current youth court members and staff. Each member shared their reasons for joining the Brownsville Youth Court, skills they have gained since joining, and future career goals. All eleven graduating senior members shared their college plans for the fall, which were each met with rounds of applause from the audience!

The deadline to apply to join the Brownsville Youth Court is April 10^th. We look forward to inducting new members into our 5^th cohort and continuing to spread awareness about youth court to the community.     

Check out photos from the event.


Program Coordinator, Sharese Crouther delivers opening remarks. 



 Youth Court member, Deborah shares her perspective about  Youth Court. 




Brownsville Youth Court Promoting Healthy Eating!

Youth Court members boxing hot meals for the community.

In observance of National Nutrition Month, the Brownsville Youth Court volunteered in help deliver nutritious meals to the Brownsville community. The National Nutrition Month theme for 2013 is “Eat Right, Your Way, and Every Day.” This theme encourages personalized healthy eating styles. It also recognizes that food preferences, lifestyle, cultural and ethnic traditions all impact individual food choices.

Over the past two Saturdays, the Youth Court members volunteered at the Hope Center Development Corporation soup kitchen and food pantry. At the soup kitchen, they helped serve hot, healthy, and balanced meals to over 300 people in the community.

  

Apply to join the Brownsville Justice Community program TODAY!

Apply to join the Brownsville Justice Community program TODAY!

The Brownsville Justice Community is a project of Mayor Bloomberg's Young Men's Initiative that strives to help young people achieve their professional, educational, and personal goals. Our hope is that by participating in community benefit projects and receiving educational support and career development assistance, members of the program will begin to see themselves as positive community role models in Brownsville. Members receive cash incentives for their participation as well as: 

* GED and college assistance

* Internship placement

* Professional development training

* Participation in community benefit projects

* Paid stipends of up to $1400 over six months!



All who meet the eligibility requirements should fill out an application attached or stop by our offices at 444 Thomas S. Boyland Street (between Pitkin and East New York Avenues) for more information. Completed applications can be emailed or dropped off at our office.

Eligibility Criteria: 

*16-24 years old (as of April 1, 2013)

*Justice system involvement within the last 12 months

*Strong preference for Brownsville residents

Questions? Call (347) 404-9587

Brownsville Anti-Violence Project Community Stakeholder Luncheon this Friday!

This Friday, March 8th at 2:30 the Brownsville Community Justice Center will convene a luncheon of community leaders and stakeholders as a part of it's newest initiative, the Brownsville Anti-Violence Project (BAVP). The Anti-Violence Project takes a three-pronged approach to improving public safety and local perceptions of justice in Brownsville: 1) monthly offender "call-in" forums, 2) a public education campaign promoting non-violence and cooperation with law enforcement, and 3) a range of community benefit projects. Violent crime is too often a part of Brownsville's narrative and reality. Anyone reading the statistics would agree that violent crime is an issue that cannot be ignored. The Center for Court Innovation's 2010 community-wide survey found that more than 70% of Brownsville residents and merchants cite gangs and guns as a "major problem" in the neighborhood. Because of this, the BAVP campaign will engage stakeholders from every sector of the community, from the churches and mosques, to business owners and youth leaders, to tenant associations and recreation managers, to police and public officials. Friday will be the first step toward building partnerships with this shared mission and building our collective capacity to make Brownsville a safer community for everyone. 

If you have any questions about this event or would like to learn more about the Brownsville Anti-Violence Project, please email BAVPevents@gmail.com or call 347-404-9589.  

BYC's Black History Month Movie Screening

On February 19th, in recognition of the 150^th anniversary of the Emancipation Proclamation, the 50^th Anniversary of Martin Luther King’s “I Have a Dream” speech and Black History Month, The Brownsville Youth Court held a movie screening of ‘The Help’. A movie which, brought to light the oppression and inequality from Jim Crow laws, and the treatment of African Americans as second class citizens. In addition, members from the Red Hook Youth Court joined the Brownsville team for the event. The screening of the movie allowed the members to correlate current Youth Court procedures, such as story telling from a respondent, with the main characters of the movie.  After the screening , both Youth Courts were given the opportunity to share their prespectives of inequality that they’ve either observed or experienced. The experience overall, was a great reminder of how far we’ve come from segregation and inequality. Furthermore, it set the dialogue to discuss what work still needs to done.  

Check out photos from the event below.



Brooklyn Youth Court members watching the "The Help."





What is a movie without snacks? :)



Youth Court members from both Brownsville and Red Hook engage in a discussion following the movie.



The Brownsville Youth Court Wants You!

The Brownsville Youth Court Wants You!

Are you 14-18?

Are you currently enrolled in school or a GED Program?

Do you want to learn about the law?

Do you want to help other teens who have gotten into trouble?

Applications are Due No Later than April 10, 2013

Apply Here

Download the Application Here

Justice Community Works With Artists to Restore Community Mural on US Post Office

We began our collaboration with Ralph Perez and Xmental when they were contracted by the Department of Probation to install a mural here at our shared offices in the Brooklyn NeON.  Two of our members, Sean and Pedro, who have a particular interest in art, collaborated with Ralph and his crew to help select some of the imagery and do some of the painting.

Next we collaborated on a big mural restoration in Betsy Head Park.  As part of Probation week we brought out several dozen volunteers -- Probation and Center for Court Innovation staff, probationers, YMI participants and staff (including East New York Justice Community), and restored a substantial community mural and concrete bleachers next to the baseball field and track at the center of this major community park. 

Many of our members took this as an ongoing weekly project as well, returning to complete the entire site (below).

Finally, our partnership culminated in the restoration of two mural panels on the front of the United States Post Office for 11212 on Bristol Street.  At this location, two murals were over twenty years old and chipped and faded almost beyond recognition, which originally depicted images honoring the community's graduates and seniors respectively.  The District Manager of Community Board 16 brought us together with the U.S. Postal Service to collaborate on restoring these panels.  Through discussions together, we decided to install new murals depicting an updated version of the imagery of graduates on one side and a variety of images depicting an intergenerational Brownsville on the other side.

Our members cleaned up the weeds and trash around the building, and scraped, sanded, and primed the panels (below).   At the same time members took pictures of things that symbolized daily life in Brownsville to them, which were collected and used by Ralph to help select images for the new murals. 

Then, Xmental brought a crew of five amazing urban artists to install the new artwork.  Two of our members, Dexter and Jayquan came out to help with the set up and painting for the art installation.

To me, our collaboration with Xmental together with another one of my other favorite collaborations this year with Groundswell to install a monumental art piece on the side of a building next to a community garden that invites conversation with all the viewers in this prominent location regarding the past, present, and future of their identity (below) represents the true justice reinvestment that I hope the Mayor's Young Men's Initiative delivers. 

Our members are engaging in incredible service learning while making real, tangible community beneifts.  And through art, they are engaging with the community and giving a voice and a stake to young people in the revitalization of the neighborhood. 

-Benjamin Smith

Justice Community

Program Coordinator