FIFTH AVENUE COMMITTEE -DEVELOPING JUSTICE IN SOUTH BROOKLYN (NY)

Program Description
The Fifth Avenue Committee (FAC) is a nonprofit community-based organization founded in 1978 to address South Brooklyn's most pressing socioeconomic problems. FAC's work is focused on four program areas: affordable housing, workforce development, community organizing and empowerment, and reform of the criminal justice system through its Developing Justice in South Brooklyn program. The organization tackles these critical public policy issues through a combination of community development activities and grassroots organizing. FAC is involved in projects that range from concrete services, such as developing affordable housing opportunities and providing job training, to pushing for systemic change in South Brooklyn by organizing residents to take on gentrification issues in their neighborhoods.

The Developing Justice in South Brooklyn program is based on the same general principles and grew out of a belief that the criminal justice system was not working for the individuals caught up in the system, the families left behind, nor the community of South Brooklyn as a whole. After a year of community planning meetings on criminal justice issues, FAC launched the Developing Justice program in September 2000. Building on the FAC model, Developing Justice provides direct services to former prisoners in the form of housing assistance and job training, and involves a community organizing and leadership development component grounded in a desire to change the criminal justice system. The program provides voluntary one-on-one assistance to former prisoners returning to South Brooklyn after at least one year in prison. Participants are referred to the program through outreach in prisons, with family members, community organizations, and parole officers. Program counselors, former prisoners themselves, assisst each participant in achieving their individual reintegration goals by connecting them to FAC employment and housing services, support groups, and counseling, and by serving as a broker for other needed services such as substance abuse treatment.

Developing Justice also seeks to address systemic change by addressing fundamental community justice issues. The project not only helps former prisoners and their families to address the substantial obstacles they face in their lives, but also aims to address issues of structural racism in the criminal justice system and explores the trade-offs between public investments in incarceration and those in true community development.

Program Goals
FAC aims to advance social and economic justice in South Brooklyn by developing affordable housing, creating employment opportunities, and organizing residents and workers to combat displacement caused by gentrification. The Developing Justice program seeks to help former prisoners reintegrate into the community by providing assistance with employment and housing opportunities.

Networking, Partnering & Collaboration
Developing Justice has developed partnerships with other community-based organizations and correctional facilities to increase outreach for the program. Partners include: National Congress for Community Economic Development; Center for Alternative Sentencing and Employment Services (CASES); Corporation for Supportive Housing; The Annie E. Casey Foundation; Open Center on Crime, Communities, & Culture; Public Welfare Foundation; Vera Institute of Justice; and Weed and Seed of the US Department of Justice.

Outcomes
The program has not yet been evaluated. However, FAC plans to document, evaluate, and publicize the Developing Justice project in a way that can inform other community-based organizations. As of November 2002, the Developing Justice program had helped 31 participants secure employment and helped seven more complete skills training in network cable installation or commercial driving.

Additional Reading
Fith Avenue Commitee. n.d. "Developing Justice in South Brooklyn: A Neighborhood Program Advances Community Justice." Brooklyn, NY: Fifth Avenue Commitee. (http:// www.fifthave.org/ Assets/ PDFs/ DJProgramReport. pdf).

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