Avenues for Justice (AFJ)

For over 40 years, Avenues for Justice (AFJ) has kept arrested and at-risk youth ages 13 - 24 out of jail by providing court advocacy with services for education, careers and social health. On March 13th under state COVID-19 mandates, AFJ closed its centers in Harlem, the Lower East Side and inside the Manhattan Criminal Courthouse and moved its programs online to continue working with a caseload of 275 quarantined youth and provide emergency services for over 50 additional youth in crisis. To date we've equipped 130 homes with phones and computers so that our youth can join our online programs, and provided groceries, supplies, gift cards and in some cases, bedding and kitchen appliances. We also added online job training with certification. As a result, during this time of turmoil, just 3 youth (1%) have had new legal issues, all of them non-violent misdemeanors and crimes.