The Mayor's Office for Economic Opportunity311Search all NYC.gov websites
Justice
NYC Opportunity programs focus on strategies to mitigate the collateral consequences of criminal legal system involvement, and to help individuals build the education and job skills to promote economic opportunity while reducing recidivism.
Program strategies include helping legal system-involved youth and adults to build their education and job skills while reducing recidivism. Each of these initiatives has unique metrics established to track fidelity to the program models and impact on the target communities.
Programs
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Current Portfolio
Green Applied Projects for Parks
Green Applied Projects for Parks (GAPP) is a workforce development program at the NYC Department of Parks and Recreation. The program provides paid work experience, training, and career coaching to young adults ages 18-24 years, prioritizing individuals who have had involvement in the criminal legal system. Participants engage in employment readiness workshops, occupational certifications, training on horticulture, maintenance and operations, as well as assistance achieving educational goals such as high school equivalence (HSE) test preparation classes and driver's license attainment. The program allows participants to acquire essential skills and fulfill work requirements to develop into strong candidates for permanent positions at Parks and beyond.
HSE Connect/Pathways to GED
HSE Connect, managed by the Institute for Justice and Opportunity (IJO) at John Jay College of Criminal Justice of the City University of New York (CUNY), connects criminal legal system-involved adults who lack a high school credential to High School Equivalency (HSE) programming through a collaboration with the State University of New York's (SUNY) Manhattan Educational Opportunity Center (MEOC). IJO and MEOC work together to recruit, assess, and support participants in enrolling in HSE and other educational programming.
Students complete HSE Connect courses in 15 week semesters, taking one or two subjects at a time, according to their needs. Course offerings include Science & Social Studies, Reading & Writing, Math, and TASC. Students are supported in accessing the career or college support program of their choice to further their academic and/or career goals. HSE Connect is currently inactive. Lessons from the program informed the new IJO Pathways to GED program, which is currently active.
Unlocking Employment
"Unlocking Employment: How to Partner with Job Seekers Impacted by the Legal System" is a free 90-minute, online course designed to enhance skills and build capacity for working with job seekers in NYC who have legal-system involvement. The course includes four self-paced modules, featuring interactive exercises and case studies, as well as a resource library. Emphasizing a strengths-based approach, the course is filled with key insights on legal protections for those with criminal convictions, ways to reduce stigma, and proven strategies to support the job search. Registration is free and open to front line staff and leadership at programs that serve NYC job seekers with involvement in the legal system. This includes but is not limited to workforce providers, employment, career, and academic counselors or advisors.
To learn more or to register for the course, visit the Unlocking Employment website.
Select Past Projects
The following list highlights a selection of projects previously supported by NYC Opportunity, some of which continue independently without our funding or oversight.
AIM: Advocate, Intervene, Mentor - YMI
AIM is an alternative-to-placement program that utilizes a one-on-one mentoring model with a paid advocate-mentor available 24/7. Advocate-mentors help adolescents on juvenile probation to strengthen social, familial and community bonds, and to connect to wrap-around services. AIM seeks to enhance community safety by providing intensive mentoring and advocacy.
AIM Evaluation Reports
Arches Transformative Mentoring - YMI
Arches is a group-mentoring program for young adult probation clients, utilizing an evidence-based curriculum centered on cognitive behavioral principles delivered by credible messenger mentors. In addition to weekly group sessions, mentors are available to meet one-on-one with the young adults and are also available for support, advice and guidance. In conjunction with the mentoring, participating young adults work one-on-one with their probation officer, who is trained in the Arches transformative mentoring approach and provides complementary case management.
Arches Transformative Mentoring Evaluation Reports
ECHOES: Every Child Has an Opportunity to Excel and Succeed - YMI
ECHOES is an alternative-to-placement program with a focus on workforce development. Participants receive case management and life coaching services from their Probation Office. In addition, the ECHOES program offers life skills preparation, work development, and service learning opportunities, offered by CBO partners. The Department of Probation (DOP) and CBO partner staff jointly manage weekend and summer work teams.
Educational Expansion on Rikers Island
The Expansion of Educational Programs on Rikers Island initiative expanded basic literacy, numeracy, GED preparation and testing, and vocational training, combined with a small monetary incentive, for inmates ages 19 to 24.
Employment Works
Employment Works is a dedicated job preparation and placement program that serves individuals with a criminal conviction. The program works with job seekers to identify service needs, and to provide and/or connect participants to career counseling, occupational skills training, education services, and job placements. This program is not currently funded by NYC Opportunity. Lessons from this program informed existing and forthcoming SBS workforce programming.
Food Handlers Certification
The Food Handlers Certification program offers both sentenced and detained individuals in Department of Corrections (DOC) facilities food handlers and First Aid/CPR/AED certification courses, as well as employment workshops.
Justice Community
Justice Community offers court-involved young adults a range of employment and career related opportunities and services, including community benefit projects, job readiness training, career exploration services, and job search assistance. Community benefit projects are central to the program model, and help participants to develop soft and occupational skills, as well as teamwork and project management experience, while fostering greater community engagement. Justice Community also offers case management services, basic education, and high school equivalency test preparation classes, and encourages post-secondary education, technical education and/or occupational training leading to nationally recognized credentials. This program is jointly funded by NYC Opportunity and YMI. This program is currently inactive.
Justice Scholars
Justice Scholars is an education-based program serving court-involved young adults living in communities with high rates of poverty and incarceration, and low rates of high school completion. The program offers multiple educational tracks (pre-HSE, HSE, high school completion, and post-secondary), as well as job readiness, career exploration and case management services. This program is jointly funded by NYC Opportunity and YMI. This program is currently inactive.
Learning Independence for Empowerment (LIFE) Transitions Programs
The LIFE Transitions Program provided transitional services for youth leaving juvenile detention to return to their communities. Community-based organizations provided workshops to youth in secure detention, then continued and expanded the services after youth return to the community. This program is currently inactive.
Model Education: CUNY Catch
CUNY Catch aimed to reduce recidivism, increase attainment of HSEs, increase college enrollment, increase the employment and future earnings of formerly incarcerated young adults, and increase public safety by providing outreach to youth on Rikers Island and educational and vocational services to young people after release.
The core components of the CUNY Catch program included on-island pre-release services at Rikers and post-release services that take place at the three off-island locations. Pre-release services provided outreach and recruitment conducted through individual and group sessions that included an assessment of educational and vocational needs and transition planning. Post-release services included pre-HSE courses, HSE classes, college remediation classes, career counseling, assistance with job placement, assistance with college application and enrollment, and counseling. This program is currently inactive.
Model Education: Getting Out & Staying Out
Getting Out & Staying Out (GO/SO) aimed to reduce the recidivism rate of formerly incarcerated young men by assisting them in completing their high school education (i.e., HSE), acquiring job skills, finding meaningful employment, and enrolling in higher education.
GO/SO's programmatic implementation was divided into various on- or off-island activities, each contributing to the program's comprehensive mentoring approach to transitioning participants to their communities and helping them gain stability in their lives. On-island activities included outreach and recruitment, transitional planning, one-on-one counseling, court involvement, and the correspondence program. Off-island, center-based activities included coach support, individual counseling, vocational training, career management, and educational referrals. This program is currently inactive.
Model Education: Supportive Basic Skills Program
The Supportive Basic Skills Program aimed to reduce recidivism among young people (ages 16 to 24) who were released from DOC custody on Rikers Island by addressing the pressing educational needs present in this target population. The basic education classes, provided by Friends of Island Academy (FoIA), were designed to provide a solid foundation upon which to build toward attainment of a high school or HSE diploma. In order to recognize the multiple challenges that these young people faced in trying to successfully reintegrate into their communities, education services were embedded within a larger comprehensive case management framework that offered counseling and work and career supports. This program is currently inactive.
NYC Justice Corps
NYC Justice Corps is a cohort-based program serving criminal legal system-involved young adults that combines workforce development services and recidivism risk reduction strategies. Participants engage in restorative service through participation in Community Benefit Projects, intensive work readiness services, case management, cognitive behavioral interventions, and flexible support for placement in educational programs, 'next-level' work readiness programming, vocational training and employment. This program is jointly funded by NYC Opportunity and YMI. This program is currently inactive.
Learn more about NYC Justice Corps.
NYC Justice Corps Reports
PhotoVoice
PhotoVoice is a photography program in the Brooklyn neighborhoods of Brownsville and Red Hook giving low-income young adults currently involved in or at risk of involvement with the criminal legal system the opportunity to participate in a "visual dialogue" of self-exploration. Professional photographers engaged students through a series of workshops, field trips, and final exhibits focused on issues relevant to their neighborhoods. This program is currently inactive.