Strengthening public safety throughout New Jersey through alternative sentencing programs, youth-based services, housing justice initiatives, and other trauma-informed, community-centered programs.
Newark Community Solutions seeks to re-engineer how justice is achieved in Newark, New Jersey, and the surrounding Essex County area.
Headquartered in the Newark Municipal Courthouse, Newark Community Solutions is a team of social workers and criminal justice professionals who work to improve the quality of life in the communities they serve in partnership with the Newark Municipal Court, the Essex Vicinage, University Hospital, and numerous community-based service organizations. The diverse range of services offered through Newark Community Solutions all share the core goal of treating people with dignity and respect and improving relationships across systems and communities.
Alternative Sentencing Program
Newark Community Solutions’ alternative sentencing program is the first community justice program in New Jersey, providing formalized sentencing alternatives to judges in the form of social services and civic engagement. Offering an alternative to jail time, fines, and fees, participants are assessed to determine service needs and assigned psychoeducational groups and individual cases to complete. The ultimate goal is for the participant to engage in an outcome other than jail time or fines. In addition to standard social service offerings, the program provides specialized intervention services for participants who report a history of crime victimization and behavioral health needs.
Eviction Diversion
Newark Community Solutions’ Eviction Diversion Initiative provides eviction prevention services in Essex County through New Jersey’s Comprehensive Eviction Defense and Diversion grant program. These services include case management, linkage to rental assistance, legal aid and direct emergency assistance. Resource Navigators are integrated into the landlord tenant court process to support tenants and advocate for housing stability. In partnership with Volunteer Lawyers for Justice, the program offers a tenant’s rights group weekly and legal aid referrals made directly to a network of legal aid providers in the community for additional support. The Eviction Diversion Initiative continues to be an essential resource guide to hundreds of individuals faced or threatened with eviction in Newark and the surrounding Essex County area.
Legal Navigation
Legal Navigators conduct outreach in and around Essex County, New Jersey to help community members identify criminal and civil legal needs. Clients connected with legal navigation services are able to: get referred to diversion programs, have current warrants lifted, receive new court appearance dates, and address outstanding fines or fees. Additionally, legal navigation screens for civil legal needs including veteran issues, expungement, child support, housing, financial issues, and divorce. In an effort to make attending court more equitable for community members, Newark Community Solutions facilitates regular “pop-up” court dates at locations like the Newark Public Library and Betterlife Respite Center.
Youth Empowerment Resiliency Project (YERP)
A trauma-informed healing program for young people who have been exposed to violence and are involved in the justice system, YERP’s mission is to give young people the tools necessary to overcome traumatic experiences and enable them to succeed despite those experiences. The program aims to support the overall well-being of participants, assist in navigating legal and social service needs, and build accountability through self-awareness and connection to community. To accomplish this, YERP works in close collaboration with the Newark Street Academy and the Office of the Public Defender’s juvenile division.
Youth Impact
Youth Impact Newark is an after-school leadership program that trains its youth members to handle real-life cases of respondent youth who have been cited for low-level offenses such as vandalism, fare evasion, assault, and truancy. Youth Impact Newark accepts referrals from multiple police divisions, the Newark Municipal Court’s Truancy Division, middle and high schools across the city of Newark. The program offers meaningful, restorative peer-facilitated alternatives, including community service and educational workshops, rather than traditional school or court-based punishments. Beyond resolving cases, Youth Impact Newark functions as a robust youth development program for its members, who are high school students from across the city.
As the nationwide shortage of stable, affordable housing has come into sharp relief, an important question is ringing out in cities and neighborhoods across the country: How can we help people stay in the homes they already have?
