Brooklyn Family Justice Center leads in resources for survivors of domestic and gender-based violence
The Mayor’s Office to End Domestic & Gender-Based Violence (ENDGBV) program offered a tour of its Brooklyn Family Justice Center on August 10, alongside a discussion with survivors.
The Brooklyn Family Justice Center (Brooklyn FJC), part of the Mayor’s Office to End Domestic & Gender-Based Violence, has become the model of a successful resource center for survivors of domestic and gender-based violence.
The center pioneered the “one-stop shopping” concept for survivor support when it began in 2005, placing lawyers, police, dedicated domestic violence prosecutors, counselors, clergy and other service providers under one roof. The Brooklyn FJC was the first of 15 centers planned under the Federal Family Justice Center initiative, and the oldest FJC internationally.
Amairis Pena Chavez, Deputy Director of the NY Family Justice Center dubbed “pro of all things Brooklyn FJC,” led a tour of the center alongside a discussion with a group of survivors on Wednesday. Before Chavez became involved with the Brooklyn FJC 15 years ago, she was a project director at Sanctuary for Families.
“When a woman would come in with a concern, time after time, she would walk away with a list of things she needed to do that were not available to her,” Chavez said about the lack of resources available to women before the Brooklyn FJC. “Now, we have all the agencies that can provide services under the same roof.”