Resilience Advocacy Project

Resilience Advocacy Project (RAP) is a New York-based public advocacy organization focused primarily on impoverished and low income New York City youth.
Resilience has several programs intended to create youth empowerment and teach self-advocacy skills. RAP also has legal, policy and advocacy trainings and resource developments intended to assist community organizations. Additionally, they engage in system-level policy efforts to provide feedback on services low-income youth utilize, and raise awareness about the issues they face. to advocate for low-income youth in New York City. Their mission is to use the law to build resilience in low-income youth (0-22), and by doing so, break cycles of intergenerational poverty.
Projects
Youth Empowerment Programs
Youth LEAP
Youth Leadership, Empowerment and Advocacy Program (Youth LEAP) is a peer-advocacy and teen leadership program. Low-income young adults ages 16-19 are trained to serve as leaders and advocates for other youth in their communities.
Youth Advocate Program
In partnership with community-based organizations, Resilience sends out trained law students to engage in on-site legal advocacy assistance and self-advocacy empowerment training.
Youth Empowerment Discussion Forums
RAP conducts legal rights education and self-advocacy workshops and discussion forums for low-income youth.
Community-Capacity Building Initiatives
Resilience hosts several advocacy training workshops and seminars intended for youth poverty advocates and pro-bono attorneys representing low-income families and children. One series provides an overview of the legal and administrative systems impacting low-income youth, the other provides an overview of youth advocacy processes.
RAP also provides free legal and advocacy assistance for lawyers, youth advocates, and youth service providers over the phone.
System-Level Advocacy
City Council Testimonies
In Brooke Richie's testimony "Effects of the Recession on the Public Assistance Caseload and the Barriers Public Assistance Applicants Face" at the September 13, 2010 New York City Council Committee on General Welfare Public Oversight Hearing, Richie claimed:

Through our direct work with youth, as well as through our community surveys, FOIL requests, interviews and focus groups, RAP has gained great insight into the barriers that young people face accessing services through HRA. Certain patterns have emerged:
* Teens being illegally denied the right to apply, and being incorrectly told that they are automatically ineligible until the age of 21;
* A systemwide lack of understanding among front-line workers about the rights of minors, or about the laws and policies pertaining to their eligibility;
* Serious administrative barriers, including an overwhelmingly complex application process and an extraordinary number of mandatory meetings.

The study's finding that many young applicants are unlawfully told by workers they must be 21 to apply for benefits particularly struck Council member Annabel Palma, who herself had been turned away for public assistance as a teen mother.

At the June 22, 2011 New York City Council Committee on General Welfare Public Oversight Hearing, Richie gave the testimony "Barriers that Youth and Young Adults Face In Accessing Public Assistance," prepared with the help of Tanya Wong, Government Benefits Coordinator, [http://www.legalservicesnyc.org/index.php?optioncom_content&taskview&id418&Itemid158 Legal Services NYC - Legal Support Unit]. The testimony, and hearing itself, came as the result of the report ' RAP had released in partnership with the Community Service Society. The report is on the dealings with young adults applying for public assistance, and specifically criticizes HRA's Back to Work program. In the report, HRA is accused of putting obstacles in the path of young adults hoping to pursue educational goals due to HRA's "work first" policy.
Other Advocacy Efforts
In the effort to increase advocacy and policy awareness of the unique challenges facing low-income non-custodial teen fathers and to help address some of those issues, RAP has begun a Teen Dad Video Series.
RAP also works in teen motherhood and child care advocacy.
Funding
New York Foundation, New York Community Trust, and North Star Fund are all providers.
In 2010, RAP was a program participant in the New York Council of Nonprofits, Inc.'s Strengthening Communities Fund (SCF).

Main Menu

See Also

Main Menu