The Urban Justice Center serves New York City's most vulnerable residents through a combination of direct legal service, systemic advocacy, community education and political organizing. Our 11 Projects assist clients on numerous levels, from one-on-one legal advice in soup kitchens, to filing class action lawsuits to bring about systemic change, to pushing social justice legislation forward.
CDP provides legal, participatory research and policy support to strengthen the work of grassroots and community-based groups in New York City to dismantle racial, economic and social oppression.
Our mission at the Domestic Violence Project (DVP) is to help victims of domestic violence and their children live free of violence and abuse. We consider domestic violence in any type of relationship, regardless of gender or sexual identity, to be a human rights violation.
Be heard. Be free.
The Human Rights Project (“HRP”), a project of the Urban Justice Center, works at both the local and national levels to equip advocates with information and tools to promote domestic compliance with universally accepted human rights standards.
The International Refugee Assistance Project (IRAP) organizes law students and lawyers to develop and enforce a set of legal and human rights for refugees and displaced persons. Mobilizing direct legal aid and systemic policy advocacy, IRAP serves the world's most persecuted individuals and empowers the next generation of human rights leaders.
The Mental Health Project of the Urban Justice Center is a team of attorneys, social workers and advocates dedicated to enforcing the rights of low-income New Yorkers with mental illness. We represent individual clients, bring class action lawsuits, and engage in community education and outreach with the belief that low-income people with mental illness are entitled to live stable and full lives, free from discrimination.
Founded in 1994, PCYP is an innovative legal services project focusing on the civil legal needs of the thousands of homeless and street-involved lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, queer, and questioning (LGBTQQ) young people in New York City. PCYP works to interrupt the cycles of poverty and criminalization that prevent LGBTQQ young people from living fulfilling lives free from discrimination, abuse, and oppression. We have built unique expertise in the complex legal issues facing marginalized young people at the crossroads of youth and adult systems.
Casting a wider social safety net for all New Yorkers.
The Street Vendor Project is a membership-based project with more than 1,500 active vendor members who are working together to create a vendors’ movement for permanent change. We want more power and more respect. We are part of the Urban Justice Center, a non-profit organization that provides legal representation and advocates for marginalized New Yorkers.
Created in December 2001, the Sex Workers Project is the first program in New York City and in the country to focus on the provision of legal services, legal training, documentation, and policy advocacy for sex workers.
The Veteran Advocacy Project at the Urban Justice Center provides free legal services to low-income veterans, with a focus on those living with Post Traumatic Stress, Traumatic Brain Injury, and substance abuse problems.
MHP’s mission is to advance and enforce the rights of low-income New Yorkers with mental illness through direct legal advocacy, community education, legislative advocacy, organizing and coalition building, and impact litigation. MHP’s focus areas include disability rights, public benefits, eviction prevention, discharge planning advocacy, and criminal justice system reform.
Below are a few words about our mission from MHP's former Project Director, Eve Stotland:
