The Lighthouse Initiative
The Lighthouse Initiative, a collaboration between Co-Counsel NYC and the New York Immigration Coalition, supports immigrant New Yorkers detained by ICE far from home. Too often, these community members lose access to the robust legal services available in New York simply because they are transferred out of state so quickly. We aim to bridge this gap by ensuring continued access to critical legal support and information, regardless of where someone is detained.
Resilient Communities Project
Co-Counsel NYC’s Resilient Communities Project brings together a network of community-based organizations, faith groups, and volunteers whose aim is to help keep immigrant families and neighbors safe, informed, and empowered while strengthening the fabric of our communities.
The Project creates community support teams, pairing volunteer community members with impacted immigrant community members to provide urgently needed support while developing meaningful, long-term relationships. By creating a myriad of opportunities to be in relationship and support one another, including through immigration legal case support, accompaniment, and forging practical connections between neighbors, we will build knowledge and understanding, honor our interconnectedness, and stand strong within our communities. Register here to volunteer.
Community SIJS Project
The Community SIJS Project empowers young people and their caregivers to navigate the Special Immigrant Juvenile Status (SIJS) process on their own through accessible, step-by-step guidance. Co-Counsel NYC collaborates with community partners to deliver multilingual education sessions and pro se workshops covering each phase—from Family Court filings to USCIS applications—while training volunteers and staff to provide hands-on support. This innovative model expands access to justice for immigrant youth by demystifying the SIJS process and equipping families to act with confidence and independence.
Sacred Court Support
Launched in response to the crisis of immigration arrests at the New York City Immigration Courts, Sacred Court Support (SCS) is a relationship-centered, interfaith accompaniment program, grounded in solidarity and a commitment to resisting systems of oppression. SCS trains and organizes volunteers to accompany and stand alongside immigrants during their court proceedings, offering presence, compassion, and care in an otherwise oppressive system built to isolate and dehumanize. SCS is composed of people of many faiths and of no faith, united by a shared commitment to human dignity, collective liberation, and the pursuit of justice.
Co-Counsel NYC is part of SCS’s leadership team, helping launch this initiative. Since its inception, we have supported SCS with our legal and practical expertise. We train volunteers on what they should expect to see and experience at Immigration Court. We explain the legal basis (or lack thereof) of these arrests and detentions. We help volunteers, many of whom are brand new to the reality of the immigration legal system, understand its workings. We also actively participate in the initiative’s programmatic development.
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