Community Justice Connect is a network of neighborhood sites that trains community volunteers to provide free legal information, resources, and referrals to their neighbors.
Community Justice Connect (Connect) provides support to people facing civil legal challenges in areas like housing, public benefits, employment, family law, and immigration. Our mission is to empower residents through accessible, upstream support that prevents issues from escalating into court cases, as well as in-depth training for community volunteers who want to learn how to navigate complex legal systems.
When civil legal problems with housing, family instability, and government benefits go unresolved, people can face serious harm—eviction, family separation, and devastating financial burdens. Too often, people navigating civil court are not guaranteed legal counsel, and get access to free legal services only after a lawsuit has been filed. Though New York City offers many public resources, navigating the process of accessing them can be difficult.
At Connect, visitors receive assistance to have their questions answered and address civil legal issues across multiple areas. Services include navigation of the social services system, completion of online legal forms, facilitated workshops with local community organizations, and connections to public benefits and other resources.
Samiha Meah visits Community Justice Connect in Jamaica, Queens. Volunteers okay with being photographed. Photo releases from the 2 clients noted.
Samiha Meah visits Community Justice Connect in Jamaica, Queens. Volunteers okay with being photographed. Photo releases from the 2 clients noted.
Empowering Through
Community
Connect transforms the way people access civil legal support through its a unique volunteer-driven non-lawyer legal support model that democratizes legal support and eliminates barriers to service access. Connect provides high-quality, civil legal assistance to community members on a walk-in basis. The program helps everyone who walks through its doors with no barriers to entry.
Free walk-in assistance is provided to community members with any civil questions, ranging from housing, public benefits, immigration, family law, consumer law, and more. When visitors need more specified assistance, such as legal advice or representation, teams make targeted referrals.
Locations facilitate workshops, events, and partnerships with local community organizations based on community need: responding to trends and concerns that visitors raise, helping ensure timely and relevant services.
Empowering Through
Education
Connect teams are staffed by community justice workers (non-lawyers who provide legal information) and volunteers, all working under the supervision of Connect’s Attorney-in-Charge.
Trained volunteers—often students, retirees, and
neighborhood residents—receive comprehensive training, ongoing educational resources, on-site supervision, and stipends. This includes knowledge of tenant rights across different housing types, identifying the correct court forms for adjusting child support orders, navigating public benefits systems, and understanding how to access the different civil courthouses throughout New York City. This empowers them to provide their neighbors with free access to legal information and assistance.
Visitor Highlight: Mr. Tedla - Jamaica Connect"The volunteers here…fixed so many things in my life: they helped me to get citizenship, housing, even furniture. They pushed me to solutions to all these issues. I didn’t know how to figure out everything at once…I’d come here every week, [and] they helped me with all the steps so I could succeed."
Community Justice Connect helped Mr. Tedla apply for citizenship, secure an apartment and furniture through city and community vouchers, and hire movers for his relocation to the Rockaways.
