Avenues for Justice, Inc.

Co-founded by Lower East Side residents, Robert Siegal and Angel Rodriguez, and incorporated in 1979, Avenues for Justice has provided second chances for over 45 years. In 1992, the organization (then known as the Andrew Glover Youth Program) collaborated with (ret.) Hon. Judge Michael Corriero to launch the Youth Part model in Manhattan’s Supreme Court. A model now used nationwide, the Youth Part is where adolescents are tried separately from adults and promotes alternatives to incarceration services. Throughout our history, we have maintained low recidivism rates: 94% of our court-involved Participants are not reconvicted of a new crime within 3 years of enrolling in our program. We currently serve over 650 justice-impacted Participants, ages 13 - 24, throughout NYC at our Manhattan courthouse offices and two community centers in Harlem and the Lower East Side.

With headquarters in the Manhattan Criminal Courthouse, we rapidly respond to youth and young adults appearing for court dates and legal matters, assess their cases, and advocate to the criminal justice system to have them routed to receive our court advocacy services instead of incarceration.  In addition to our core court component, we provide HIRE Up enrichment programs on a hybrid online and in-person platform at our two community centers for workforce training, job readiness with certifications, education, mental health wellness, and mentoring.

 Since our modest start in the Lower East Side, AFJ’s goal has been to keep young people out of prison through a threefold mission to: 1. intervene to divert and reclaim young people from lives of crime. 2. provide an overloaded court system with a reliable alternative to incarceration. 3. Make New York City safer for everyone.