The Legal Aid Society – ahead of a City Council budget hearing on funding, including the budgetary needs of New York City’s Crisis Management System (CMS) providers – called on the Adams Administration to restore $1.5 million in funding to Legal Aid’s Community Justice Unit (CJU) to ensure that New Yorkers have access to critical legal services and other resources right in their communities.

CJU adopts the Cure Violence philosophy – that violence can be curtailed with early intervention and community engagement – and provides comprehensive legal services to CMS partners, participants, and community members to reduce gun and gang violence in their neighborhoods. CJU offers direct representation to thousands of New Yorkers experiencing legal emergencies. CJU’s comprehensive legal services empower at-risk youth and their families to navigate criminal, housing, immigration, and any other legal issues that require assistance so they can improve their circumstances.

In addition to legal counsel, CJU conducts extensive community outreach, including providing legal clinics and trainings at over 40 Cure Violence/Crisis Management partner locations and the catchment areas they serve. CJU staff and attorneys hold community events across all five boroughs, including Know Your Rights events, rallies, and educational clinics.

Funding CJU is an investment in communities that are in crisis. In Fiscal Year 2023, CJU provided 7,045 legal services, including 5,378 services to Cure Violence partner organizations and 1,667 to non-affiliated community members throughout New York City.

“Our vital legal wrap-around services enable healthier communities and co-produce public safety in our city by proactively responding to people who are in crises and by defending them in the punitive and racist criminal legal system, educating them on their rights, and helping families organize to keep communities whole,” said Anthony Posada, Supervising Attorney with the Community Justice Unit. “The Mayor’s decision risks undoing the cure violence model’s progress in reducing gun violence in our communities. We call on the Adams Administration to immediately reverse this proposed cut.”