Make sure everyone in your family is prepared for disasters: Establish a meeting place that’s familiar and easy to for everyone in your family to find – for example, your church or community center. Fill

The Queens Defenders Summer Youth Internship came to a close on Thursday, August 27th. This eight-week internship was created when the status of New York City’s Summer Youth Employment Program was cut by 40,000 slots due to the financial impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on the City’s budget.

Queens Defenders attorneys have not let the pandemic stop them from advocating for their clients. From the moment offices and courts closed in March, our attorneys adjusted to virtual practices and did not skipped a beat.

Less than two weeks after Governor Cuomo signed a ban on police use of chokeholds into law, a young Black man was choked unconscious in Rockaway Park.

Today, Queens Defenders celebrates and reflects on Juneteenth: one hundred and fifty-five years since all people who were enslaved in our country finally learned of their freedom.

In the midst of the COVID-19 pandemic and city-wide closures, the grand opening of the long-awaited Rockaway Community Justice Center looked quite different than planned.

Queens Defenders’ motto is “we never give up.” We fight for justice every day for every client to ensure we achieve the best outcomes. The COVID-19 crisis has brought a new urgency to our mission. In light of the significant health risks facing inmates who contract COVID-19, we want to get all our incarcerated clients in New York City correctional facilities released.

I want to tell you a little bit about Zaire. We met him when he was a high school student In Far Rockaway. Smart as a whip, he lived with his parents, did well in school and had a million friends. He was also involved in some potentially dangerous, illegal activity – which he stopped once he became part of the Rockaway Justice Center programs.

I met Daniel Roserio, a Queens Defenders attorney, the first time I participated in a Youth Justice court at the Queens Library. At that time, my life was kind of crazy. I was hanging out with the wrong crew, my phone was stolen, and I had decided that was going to be it. I wanted to change my life, make better decisions, get off the wrong path.

Most fashion shows aim to showcase high-end merchandise worn by willowy girls. “Hour Fashion Night,” an event organized by Johanna Flores, Employment Coordinator at Hour Working Women Program (HWWP) and sponsored by Queens Defenders (QD), turned that concept inside out by featuring real women in affordable clothing.

Understanding the U.S. Constitution’s Fourth, Fifth, and Sixth Amendment rights is critical for black and brown people, especially adolescents and young adults. Queens Defenders is launching Justice 456, an educational tour of schools, community centers, churches, and other community venues. We want to teach those most at risk of a wrongful conviction how to protect themselves.

In 2012 I was just another teenager looking for answers. What would my life be in 5 years? Things began to take a turn that year. I was 17 years old and a junior at Grover Cleveland High School.