The Organization
Avenues for Justice (AFJ) was one of the first Alternative to Incarceration programs for youth in the US and has been consistently Hispanic and African American led for 40+ years. Our 300+ participants each year, 13 – 24, either have court-involved legal matters or are at risk of involvement in the criminal justice system. AFJ provides on-going court advocacy to ensure that participants can receive services instead of being incarcerated, providing wraparound programs of case management, education, employment training, and mentoring.
Position Overview
Responsibilities: Develop, implement, and maintain training programs, workshops and volunteer involved programs that include but are not limited to:
Digital literacy, Entrepreneurship, & OSHA construction training:
● Recruit, enroll, and lead tutoring and instruction for self-paced individual study and group classes in these two separate subjects.
● Administer tests and track progress, certifications earned.
● Teach additional digital literacy skills for social media and communications, basic web development with user friendly platforms such as WIX.
● Provide same services for any additional training classes added.
● Teach collaboratively with court advocates and / or corporate volunteers as needed.
Job readiness:
● Assist court advocates in recruiting participants, ensuring they join classes.
● Assist management in outreach, recruitment and communications with corporate volunteers who lead workshops.
● Assist corporate volunteers with any needs in implementing successful classes.
Life skills workshops:
● Assist court advocates in recruiting participants, ensuring they join classes for creative writing, legal rights, careers, mental health and other workshops as scheduled.
● Assist workshop leaders with any needs in implementing successful classes.
Record-keeping for all activities:
● Maintain attendance records, track test scores, graduations and course completions, certifications earned and other progress markers in central online location shared with other program and development staff.
● Liaison between program and development / fundraising staff to communicate activities and write workshop progress reports.
● Prepare and distribute training materials to participants, volunteers, and staff.
Community Outreach:
● Recruit, train, and monitor volunteers for academic tutoring, leading workshops.
● Work collaboratively with staff on outreach to corporations to recruit partnerships and volunteers.
● Assist in preparing outreach materials, messaging.
● Assist in developing and / or implementing outreach activities for participants including community events, city council and community board events, college visits, field trips.
• Perform all other duties as assigned by the Executive Director and Manager of Court Advocacy and Outreach.
Skills:
● Commitment to youth of underserved communities;
● A bachelor’s degree is required;
● The position requires the ability to communicate effectively with youth, parents, teachers and court personnel;
● Creativity and strong writing skills are required;
● Bilingual – Spanish/English preferred.
● Ability to teach and mentor teens and young adults who have faced many challenges
● Ability to track results, keep organized records on-line; and
● Team worker, ability to serve as liaison between program and development staff.
Locations:
● Two community centers in Harlem (East 130th Street) and the Lower East Side (by Tompkins Square Park) – work week schedule split between locations
● Meetings as needed at our headquarters at the Manhattan Criminal Courthouse in Lower Manhattan.
How To Apply
Submit resume and materials:
● Submit cover letter, resume, and 2 writing samples.
● Email to: gwillis@avenuesforjustice.org