The Red Hook Community Justice Center

The Red Hook Community Justice Center is the nation’s first multi-jurisdictional community court. Operating since 2000, the Justice Center seeks to solve neighborhood problems using a coordinated response. At Red Hook, a single judge hears neighborhood cases that under ordinary circumstances would go to three different courts. Instead, residents and justice system partners alike have access to an array of services – under one roof – to help improve local quality of life. The Justice Center is a project of the Center for Court Innovation, an independent public-private partnership that works to promote institutional change and new ways of thinking about justice. The Justice Center worked with CUP on Rent, Rights, Repairs, a foldout guide to housing court for public housing residents.

Remás

Remás is a Brooklyn organization that helps immigrants understand their financial choices and improve their options for achieving financial prosperity.

Resilience Advocacy Project

Resilience Advocacy Project (RAP) empowers youth to become leaders in the fight to end poverty. RAP combines youth leadership programs with system-level advocacy initiatives in order to build resilience in youth and increase their voice in civic and social justice efforts.

Riverkeeper

Riverkeeper’s mission is to protect the environmental, recreational and commercial integrity of the Hudson River and its tributaries, and to safeguard the drinking water of nine million New York City and Hudson Valley residents.Riverkeeper focuses on three overarching problems facing Hudson River communities: (1) Restoration of the Hudson River ecosystem, with particular emphasis on minimizing fish kills and water pollution; (2) Protection of New York City’s drinking water supply; and (3) Improving public access to the Hudson River.

Safety Net Project

The Urban Justice Center’s Safety Net Project (SNP) is New York City’s advocate for economic justice, combining direct legal services, litigation, research, and policymaking to achieve economic justice for all New Yorkers. We strengthen the safety net by ensuring access to public benefits, nutritional assistance programs, eviction prevention services, public housing, and emergency shelter to ensure that no New Yorker is without food, housing, or other basic human rights.

Schema

is a research and design firm. They solve complex information problems through technology, data, design, and art. They create tools and experiences that turn information into action. 

Street Vendor Project

The Street Vendor Project is a membership-based project with nearly 2,000 vendor members who are working together to create a vendors’ movement for permanent change. We reach out to vendors in the streets and storage garages and teach them about their legal rights and responsibilities. We hold meetings where we plan collective actions for getting our voices heard. We publish reports and file lawsuits to raise public awareness about vendors and the enormous contribution they make to our city. Finally, we help vendors grow their businesses by linking them with small business training and loans.

The Street Vendor Project Collaborated with CUP on the Vendor Power! MPP.

Streetwise & Safe

Streetwise & Safe—also known as SAS—is a project by and for youth of color in New York City that shares the ins & outs, do’s & don’ts, and street politics of police encounters between LGBTQQ youth of color and the police. We also stand for and with LGBTQQ and youth with experience trading sex for survival needs. We feel knowing your rights makes you more confident in protecting yourself during and after interactions with the police. We also know that the reality is that the police don’t always respect our rights but knowing what they are is important so that we can fight for them later. We also create a space to share strategies to stay safe from all forms of violence experienced by LGBTQQ youth, and advocate for policies that will change the ways police interact with us.

Tenants and Neighbors

Tenants and Neighbors is the largest tenant’s rights organization in the New York State, with 15,000 members. For more than 30 years, through grassroots organizing, T&N has forged a powerful movement in the fight to preserve affordable housing, strengthen tenant protections, and sustain diverse and livable communities. They collaborated with CUP on the MPP Predatory Equity.

The Brooklyn Community Bail Fund

Brooklyn Community Bail Fund secures the freedom of New Yorkers who would otherwise be detained pretrial due to their poverty alone. They are committed to challenging the criminalization of race, poverty and immigration status, the practice of putting a price on fundamental rights, and the persistent myth that bail is a necessary element of the justice system. CUP collaborated with Brooklyn Community Bail Fund to create Bail’s Set, What’s Next?, a guide that helps bail payers understand the difference between the four types of bail, and navigate the process of paying. https://brooklynbailfund.org/

The Legal Aid Society

The Legal Aid Society is a 501© non-profit legal aid provider based in New York City. Founded in 1876, it is the oldest and largest provider of legal aid in the United States. Its attorneys provide representation on criminal and civil matters in both individual cases and class action lawsuits. The Legal Aid Society works throughout New York City to ensure everyone has access to justice. CUP teamed up with the Legal Aid Society to create Yours to Keep, a poster that breaks down the key steps in the foreclosure process and helps homeowners in NYC understand their legal rights and options to keep their homes. https://www.legalaidnyc.org/

The Natural Resources Defense Council

The Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC) is a United States-based 501© non-profit international environmental advocacy group which was founded in 1970, the NRDC has over 3 million members, with online activities nationwide, and a staff of about 700 lawyers, scientists and other policy experts. CUP collaborated with NRDC  to create Breathe Easier at Home, a guide that lets tenants have the right to live in a safe and healthy home and how to hold public housing management accountable. https://www.nrdc.org/

Teachers Unite

Teachers Unite is an independent membership organization of public school educators supporting collaboration between parents, youth and educators fighting for social justice. TU organizes teachers around human rights issues that impact New York City public school communities, and offers collaborative leadership training for educators, parents and youth.  We believe that schools can only be transformed when educators work with and learn from parents and youth to achieve social and economic justice. TU collaborated with CUP on the MPP “Schools Are Us.”

The Urban Homesteading Assistance Board

The Urban Homesteading Assistance Board is a nonprofit organization that helps low-income tenants control their housing through the creation of limited-equity cooperatives. UHAB also helps tenants preserve existing and affordable housing by empowering them to make proactive decisions about the future of their homes. UHAB collaborated with CUP on the MPP Predatory Equity.

Anusha Venkataraman

Anusha Venkataraman is an urban planner, writer, artist, and activist. She is presently the Director of the Green Light District initiative at El Puente, a community human rights institution in Brooklyn, NY. She has worked with numerous community groups in local organizing efforts, and as a visual artist both individually and with collectives. In 2010, she edited Intractable Democracy: Fifty Years of Community-Based Planning, a book celebrating New York City’s legacy of grassroots neighborhood-based activism. Anusha was the Youth and Outreach Director at the Steel Yard in Providence, Rhode Island. She holds a master’s degree in City and Regional Planning from Pratt Institute, and a bachelor’s degree in International Relations from Brown University. She served on a 2013 Public Access Design jury.