Justice Center to celebrate expansion

The Queens Community Justice Center is celebrating its programming and physical expansion with a week’s worth of community events. Photo courtesy of the Queens Community Justice Center

By Jacob Kaye

The Queens Community Justice Center is celebrating the opening of two new community centers this week with a packed schedule of celebrations and programming.

Formerly known as the Queens Youth Justice Center, the center, which works to support people in and outside the justice system, recently expanded its programming to connect with more of the Queens community. While they are currently operating out of a recently opened Jamaica-based location, a Far Rockaway location is on the way.

The new spaces are part of that mission to expand, according to the center’s Director Erika McSwain.

“In recent years, we were awarded several different grants that allowed us to expand our work beyond youth and beyond court work, and really expanded to doing a lot more community work and community engagement,” McSwain said. “With all this programming we needed a new space – so we were able to move into this new building. But it's become a building for the community.”

The Queens Community Justice Center offers programs to prevent community-based violence, provide alternatives to incarceration, reentry initiatives and court-based programs to reduce the use of unnecessary incarceration.

Its new location at 90-01 Beach Channel Dr., will offer similar services as well as a first-floor community space that will be open to all.

“We really want to open that up to community organizations and collaborations with other community partners that want to hold events,” McSwain said. “If there are churches that want to come in and hold events, elected officials, town halls that may want to happen, that space is available for anyone to come in and utilize.”

Beginning Monday, July 19, the Justice Center will host a health and wellness day from 12 to 4 p.m. at Rufus King Park, replete with fitness lessons, health providers on-site and food vendors offering healthy foods.

A day of service will follow on Tuesday, during which volunteers will work alongside Justice Center staff to help paint park benches in O’Donohue Park at Beach 14th St. and Seagirt Blvd. in Far Rockaway.

The group will be back in Rufus King Park on Wednesday for a music and arts day, which will feature local singers and spoken word artists. Community members will have the opportunity to contribute an art piece to be displayed at the center.

On Thursday, community members will be able to meet with local employers during a Career Day inside the Justice Center’s Jamaica location at 148-15 Archer Ave. Staff will also be available to help facilitate workshops on interviewing and resume writing.

A ribbon cutting ceremony at the Jamaica location will cap off the week on Friday beginning at 12 p.m.

The Justice Center, which was founded in 2007 in partnership with the state’s court system, hopes that as it grows, more members of the community join in.

“We are here not just for Jamaica, Queens, but we truly are a Justice Center for the entire borough of Queens,” McSwain said. “We want for everyone to come and enjoy the space and come in and utilize it in whatever fashion they feel is needed and we would definitely work with them to make sure we're able to make that happen.”