The Brooklyn Family Justice Center, located at Jay Street and Metrotech, offers free services for those who have suffered domestic violence.
The office is located adjacent to District Attorney Eric Gonzalez’s office and he is a strong proponent. Instead of having to go to different offices around the borough, a victim can get counseling, legal help, child care, evaluations and more all in one place.
AMAiris Pena-Chevez, the deputy director, has been working at the Center for 15 years. She is an attorney who has spent her career working with survivors of intimate partner violence.
The previous agency that she worked at did not have partner agencies at the office. She recognized that it was necessary to have everything in one place, especially for those who do not speak English, like many clients at Brooklyn Family Justice Center.
This model was started in California, and the Brooklyn location was the first in New York City.
One benefit is when all services are provided at one location the speed that it takes to get help is much faster since a case manager can do a referral and a client can walk down the hall.
This Family Justice Center is made up of 30 independent agencies and their lead partner is the Kings County District Attorney, which was crucial to it’s formation.
Most of the agencies are community based not for profit organizations that are on site once a week to everyday. This is a walk in crisis center, so before the pandemic they offered their services in-person, but since the pandemic they have pivoted.
“When things shut down we did not skip a beat,” Chavez said. “We continued all of our services remotely, over the phone and by Zoom. Since August of 2021, we came back in person and have been doing a hybrid approach.”
Their services are criminal justice advocacy. The benefit of the partnership with the Kings County District Attorney’s office is that they don’t require a client to cooperate with the criminal case to get their services.
Pena-Chavez added that it is often complicated and difficult to leave an abusive partner. They offer services to help in these situations like a safety plan.
The domestic violence bureau supervisor at the District Attorney’s office, Kori Medow, spoke about how valuable the Family Justice Center is.
“We are a great partner with the Family Justice Center and you do not have to have a criminal case to come and get services,” Medow said. “When someone can come here and get all the resources they don’t have to travel all over Brooklyn to go to all these organizations. It makes it a lot easier for someone if there are immigration issues, housing issues and economic issues, that they can come here in addition to the prosecution side and get the access and services here.”
“We never push someone to go forward on the criminal side, and if they need resources on a non-criminal issue then that is what the Family Justice Center is here to help with,” Medow said.
According to Pena-Chavez, if something happens with a client’s criminal case and they want to go into family court, they can connect them with one of their civil legal attorneys. One person might be connected to multiple people but the case manager will coordinate services from the community side and reach out to the criminal legal side.
District Attorney Eric Gonzalez stopped by and talked to the tour that was put on showing what is offered on the floor. He is a strong advocate.
“When I first got elected as the DA–every newly elected DA gets to have a big ask of government–for Brooklyn my ask was that we expand the Family Justice Center here in Brooklyn,” he said.
The DA announced that they are in the middle of construction of a new Family Justice Center in the building and he thinks the new Family Justice Center will open in a year and a half. Instead of sharing the floor with the DA’s office, it will have its own footprint, which will allow even more agencies to come and do the services even better.
“This will ultimately be important for the fight to end gender based violence and crimes against children and sex crimes,” Gonzalez said. “The way it is going to work is that there will be my domestic violence bureau, my special victims bureau and my crimes against children and trafficking all in one place.”
Gonzalez has been in prosecution for 25 years. He remembers having to try to get a case before a grand jury while at the same time competing to make sure that the survivor has access to needed resources. Not having access to resources back then would discourage victims and survivors from continuing with the process.
“It often drove them back into the control of the abuser since it was so hard on their end,” Gonzalez said.
Doreen Jones is a domestic abuse survivor who spoke after the tour ended.
“I got a case worker, which was great because that was exactly what I needed at the time,” Jones said. “The workers are good at evaluating your needs because you might not know what you need, you just know you need help since your emotions are all over the place.”
A helpful service that they offer was the ability to get her apartment locks changed immediately.
That was a big deal since the man she had arrested was determined to come to where she lived when he was discharged. “He came out of prison after seeing the judge around midnight and made it to where we used to live together and tried to get in the apartment while I was asleep,” Jones said.
“He tried to get in and left me a message telling me why.”
She added how life saving this service was for her back in 2019.
She was able to get help with her safety planning when she started meeting with the Family Justice Center in 2019.
The pandemic disrupted this effort but recently she has been connected to a program called Emergency Housing Vouchers, which is through the President’s federal program for domestic violence.
Jones has been the chairperson of VOICES, a committee formed by survivors that meets monthly, for two years and has been a member for three years.
“Being connected with this office was a great support because they do connect you with whatever you need at that moment and when you are going through the process of leaving a situation, what you might need today might change tomorrow,” Jones said. “You might need support, you might need a therapist, you might need a referral for an attorney to represent you, you might need information on housing.”
A domestic abuse survivor named Christina told her story. Her case manager is Ana Maria. Christina was seeing a therapist through the hospital she was at but wanted counseling, so she came to the Center.
Ana Maria added that Christina was excited to see her and she helped her get an order of protection. Christina attempted suicide three times due to what she went through.
“When she was going through chemo, her husband, who is a police officer, tried to strangle her and tried to throw her dog off of the balcony,” Ana Maria said. “It was at that level of duress.”
Ana Maria started meeting with Christina in 2019. They were able to get the sheriff’s office to get him served and take away his firearm, and put her abuser on desk duty.
“We were safety planning and I helped her with protection, getting him served and getting her an attorney for her divorce and they took her case,” Ana Maria said. “She did not pay a dime for her divorce. She was also part of a support group. She enjoyed it and she gained a family.”
The New York Family Justice Center overall had 13,372 clients through 42,706 client visits in 2021. In that same year, in Brooklyn, they assisted 2,839 clients through 8,000 visits. They recommend that people call the NYC Hope hotline or 311.
You can call 311 to be connected to the Brooklyn Family Justice Center (or one in a different borough). Resources and support in NYC can be found by searching the City’s HOPE resource directory online at nyc.gov/NYCHOPE. The City’s 24-hour domestic violence hotline is 800-621-HOPE.
All Family Justice Centers are open and providing services by phone or in person. For in person services, clients can call the Family Justice Center to make an appointment or walk in if they cannot engage in remote services safely or effectively.
At the Family Justice Center facility, there is a hospitality suite with a computer lab where clients can do research and there is a children’s room with toys where the kids can meet with social workers while their mother is getting services.
They also have tutoring programs and the Brooke Jackman family literacy program where once a week at 5:30 they get dinner, books are handed out and there are often musicians.
“Books are carefully chosen,” Pena-Chavez said. “One cycle is in English and one in Spanish. The bulk of our programs are in Spanish. Almost half of our clients are Spanish speakers, so we keep that in mind.”
Some agencies focus on particular populations like the Arab American Family Support Center, which focuses on working with Arab, Middle Eastern, North African, Muslim and South Asian (AMENAMSA) immigrant and refugee communities. .
There is the criminal legal part of the floor, which has the domestic violence and elder abuse bureau.
There is the victim services unit that includes dedicated social workers.
Pena-Chavez added that an important service in this area is the NYPD dedicated domestic violence police precinct who will work with the case manager.
The Family Justice Center also maintains relationships with Brooklyn religious leaders. They will share information and do outreach in churches.
The purple area is the administrative staff to end gender based and domestic violence. Next to the administrative offices is a food pantry that is always stocked so clients can take what they need until they receive benefits they are waiting for.
Pena-Chavez added that the green section is where the civil and legal attorneys are. They will do consultations and are available to represent in family court, housing and immigration court.
