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.
CoCounsel 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.
Learn More