The hope is to help people solve their problem before it escalates into legal action. Civil law issues, if left unaddressed, can seriously harm low-income communities, resulting in the displacement of people from their homes, the separation of families or the imposition of devastating financial burdens. Legal Hand`s neighborhood façade centers respond by providing community members with information to try to solve their problems and prevent them from becoming lawsuits. Legal hand centers are easily accessible, welcome visitors without an appointment and no appointment is required. For three hours a week, biology professor Stephanie Vernooy receives calls from people seeking legal information. She is not a lawyer, but as a trained volunteer at the Legal Hand Call-In Center, she is ready to provide information, support, and recommendations. Legal Hand trains local volunteers at shopping malls in some of New York`s most vulnerable neighborhoods. These volunteers provide free legal information and recommendations to their neighbours. Support can take many forms, including help navigating the social assistance system, filling out online legal forms, and writing form letters. Legal counsel is on hand at each Legal Hand office to train and assist volunteers.
This form is intended for general administrative matters. If you are trying to contact a Legal Hand centre, please visit the Legal Hand website (www.legalhand.org) and find the centre near you. NYLAG participates in the Legal Hand Project, which brings together volunteers from New York City boroughs to provide free legal information, support, and recommendations to residents. A NYLAG attorney is on hand to train and assist Legal Hand`s volunteers in Crown Heights Brooklyn. Volunteering at a Legal Hand Centre is a great way to give back to your community, learn more about the law and the work of Legal Services, and make a real difference in the lives of those affected by civil law issues. Legal Hand recruits new volunteers every six months. Volunteers commit to working at least one three-hour shift per week for the next six months. The training, which begins with a two-day workshop on the fundamentals of legal information support, focuses on areas where emergencies are common, such as housing, physical security, immigration, family issues and benefits. Volunteers also learn cultural competency, interview skills, the limitations of legally permitted counselling for non-lawyers, and the availability of referrals to other services, including full legal representation. Legal Hand`s volunteers come from all walks of life and backgrounds – from students to retirees who live in the neighborhoods where Legal Hand has operated for decades, and no legal work or advocacy experience is required.
Community volunteers are trained to work one-on-one with visitors to resolve their legal issues. Legal Hand Call-In Center for Schenectady and Albany Counties, operated by the Center for Community Justice. You can call or text (518) 400-5544 or send schenectadyalbanyhelp@legalhand.org an email. Reliable legal information can be expensive, and when you`re in a difficult position, it`s sometimes hard to know where to start. A new free legal service hopes to solve this problem. Legal Hand`s trained, non-legal volunteers work in neighborhood centers in New York City`s most vulnerable neighborhoods, providing residents with free legal information, assistance, and referrals. They provide information such as navigating the welfare system, helping people fill out legal forms online, and designing form letters. Each Legal Hand Center is managed by a volunteer coordinator and a legal advisor is also on hand to train and support volunteers. Legal Hand is operated by the Center for Court Innovation in partnership with three legal service providers: The Legal Aid Society, Legal Services NYC and New York Legal Assistance Group (NYLAG) and has storefronts in Crown Heights, Brooklyn, Brownsville, Brooklyn, and Jamaica, Queens, where they are located in easy-to-find locations, have weekend and evening hours, to take into account the working hours of parishioners. and are equipped with computers, Internet access and printers.
Legal Hand Community volunteers provide support in problematic areas including housing, family matters, immigration, divorce, domestic violence, and public services. The aim is to prevent problems faced by community members from turning into legal actions that could seriously harm vulnerable residents, force people from their homes, separate families or lead to additional financial burdens. « We really hope that this kind of common ground between me has a problem and that I need a lawyer, » Cereo said. Our volunteers are neighbours who help neighbours. Many of our volunteers know someone who has experienced similar situations to our visitors or who has experienced them themselves. Legal Hand provides visitors with information and support to help them resolve issues before they become lawsuits, and allows visitors to help themselves. Promotes the contribution that non-lawyers can make to expanding access to justice. « It serves everybody, » Cereo said. « There are no income requirements. We do not ask about immigration status. Absolutely anyone can call.
The only thing we need is for them to live or work in Albany or Schenectady County. « We`re really filling a void, » Cereo said. It can be very difficult to get information, and having this platform where it`s free and where people are trained to give to other members of the community is very special. The program began in early January and currently has 18 volunteers. In the first two months, volunteers assisted 140 callers. Vernooy`s goal as a volunteer is to allow each caller to know their rights and options and to feel confident about their next move. Legal Hand operates in Brooklyn`s Crown Heights, Jamaica, Queens and the Bronx`s Tremont neighborhood. The program is managed by the Center for Court Innovation in partnership with the New York State Court System, the Legal Aid Society, Legal Services NYC, and the New York Legal Assistance Group. All are covered, regardless of income, immigration status and place of residence. New York Chief Justice Janet DiFiore, third from left, and Chief Administrative Judge Lawrence Marks, third from right, visit Legal Hand in Brownsville, Brooklyn. In addition to weekday hours, Legal Hand Centers are open evenings and weekends. « I`m excited to feel like I`m doing something that makes a difference for people and can help them, » Vernooy said.
NYLAG supports the simplification of the courts and calls on the Committee to review and reform the process for appointing and electing judges to these courts. « We truly believe that there is a place for ordinary people who are not advocates to give information to people in their communities and be trained to do so, » said Bethany Cereo, the center`s lawyer. NYLAG`s Abby Biberman is calling for city and state collaboration to fund comprehensive services to prevent homelessness. Legal Hand is also involved in public relations, organizing workshops at community events on Know Your Rights sessions and building relationships with local community organizations. — Jonathan LippmanFormer Chief Justice of the State of New York « I like the fact that it`s local and connects them to local resources, » Vernooy said. « If you search the internet yourself, there are so many things you`ll find that may not be relevant to you that it can be difficult to sort it all through. » Volunteers undergo a three-week training and a supervisor is always ready if they need help during an interaction. They are trained to help in areas such as housing, employment, immigration, family, domestic violence, and government benefits. Legal Hand is looking for new volunteers. Most work from home and are asked to work three hours a week.
« I like being on the preventative side and feeling like we can do something to ease the pressure on justice systems and then just for individuals to keep them out of situations they don`t need to get into, » Vernooy said.