We did it! A huge thank you to all the amazing supporters who helped us reach our goal! With your help we raised $15,643 for our summer Youth Education program with the Red Hook Community Justice Center.

Thanks to your support, students will investigate how Conspiracy Laws are used by the NYPD to police youth and charge them with “gang involvement” just because of who they know. Students will learn how to be investigative journalists, and most importantly, learn that the places where they live are products of decision-making that they can shape.

Stay tuned for more updates on the project!

Why is this issue important? Summer is here again! Time for kids to enjoy time with friends, hang out at the park, pool, or just around the neighborhood. But for many low-income teens of color, those basic activities are used to justify arrest at alarming rates. Conspiracy Laws—originally used to bring down organized crime like the mafia—are being used by NYPD to police youth and charge them with “gang involvement”, simply because of who they know. 

"I think this is important to the youth we work with because “guilt by association” is a term they use frequently. If their friend or someone [they know] does something wrong and they happen to know, hear, or be associated with them, why is it that they can get into trouble? Why is it they are characterized as being gang affiliated?"

—Sabrina Carter, Associate Director of Youth and Community Programs, Red Hook Community Justice Center

What is the project? CUP is partnering with the amazing Red Hook Community Justice Center to take students out of the classroom and into the city to ask—and answer—tough questions about how the city works.

The students will learn how to be investigative journalists, interviewing a broad range of stakeholders—from elected officials to criminal justice advocates to communities impacted by policing. They will learn technical skills and work with a CUP Teaching Artist to create a project that explains what they learned to their community and peers.

Most importantly, students will learn that the places where they live are the products of decision-making, and that they can talk to decision-makers themselves and hold them accountable. 

Special thanks to our fundraising champions who made this peer-to-peer campaign a success:

Pema Domingo-Barker, Neil Donnelly and Iben Falconer, Sean Flynn, Jonathan Garnaas-Holmes, Christine Gaspar, Fielding Hong, Inbar Kishoni, Jason Kim, Raj Kottamasu, Francis Lam, Sarah Madigan, Jeff Maki, sara lopergolo, Tal Schori, Tyler Survant, Leigh Taylor, Frampton Tolbert, Irina Verona and Guido Hartray, Dan Wiley

And thank you to our generous supporters (as of 8/13/19):

Liya Aklilu, Jason Anderson, Paul Anderson, Melissa Jane Andrada, Caron Atlas, Bindu Balan, Matt Balik, Ruth Ballenzweig, Charles Bardey, Allison Barlow, Hana Bendy, Elizabeth Boyd, James Boyd, Peter Bray, Ian Brownell, Erica Brusselars, Tei Carpenter, Nicole Carroll, Stephen Cassell, Daniel Cawley, Tess Chalifour-Drahman, Cindy Chang, Yawen Chen, Colette Chisholm, Ahra Cho, Yoonjai Choi, Lucy Christiana, Christine Coletta, Caitlin Cowger, Marika Crider, Rebecca Crimmins, Diana Crum, Olivia Crumm, Donald D’Aries, Elizabeth Daly, Jennifer Damm, Holly E Dowell, Susannah Drake, Keller Easterling, Nisrin Elamin, Crystal Ellis, Ellen Epstein, Ariel Fausto, Birte Falconer, Madeline Firkser, Benjamin Flanner, Katherine Fleming, Sean Flynn, Tara Foster, Alice Friedman, Gideon Friedman, Meryl Friedman, David Frisco, Samuel Frommer, Lily Francis Rosenthal Williams, Sophie Green, Peter Gee and Jeff Helfgott, Allen Gorospe, James Graham, Michael Grinthal, Vincent Guerrero, Dave Hadden, Elizabeth Hamby, Brian Hamlin, Damian Harris-Hernandez, Chris Havens, Kennis Hawkins, Naomi Hersson-Ringskog, Julie Hertzog, Everett Hollander, Samuel Holleran, Joseph Holtz, Anne and Brad Hong, Jenny Hong, Maddie Hopfield, Michael Hopper, Mandy Hu, Alan Hui-Bon-Hoa, Kemi Ilesanmi, Valerie Jackson, Jerry Kajpust, Michelle Kaucic, Trevor Kenmure, Franny Kent, Beom Jun Kim, Eddy Kim, Isaiah King, Inbar Kishoni, Sarah Klevan, Aaron Koffman, Joel Kolkmann, Raj Kottamasu, Karen Kubey, Charlotte Laffler, Jessica Lax, Eric Lee, Nolan Levenson, Sasha Levites and Zach Banton, HECTORLLC, Sara Lopergolo, Rosa Luna, Daphne Lundi, Ellen Lupton, Jeff Maki, Jeff Malamy and Andrea Davidson, Grant Marani and Anne Rieselbach, Bryan Markovitz, Samuel Marks and Lauren Pesso, Dan Martensen, Duncan Maru, Erin McCue, Meghann McKale and Chuck Mazzone, Mehretu-Rankin Family, Rustam Mehta, Yael Meridan Schori, Metropolitan Recycling Paper Inc., Kate Mollison, David Moore, Shahin Motia, Ethan Mulligan, Monica Munn, Emily Ng, Minna Ninova, Oscar Nuñez, Luke Ohlson, Noa Osheroff, Anna Ostow, Peter Park, Dennis Parker, Zoe Parker, Daniel & Lucy Payne, Kate Pedatella, Hillary Petrie, Adam Pogoff, Angelika Preschitz, Sean Quinn, P R, A Ramirez, Alex Ramirez-Mallis, Kate Reil, Ashraf Rijal, Joshua Ring, Cameron Ringness, Jeremy Robinson-Leon, Margaret Ross-Martin, Joan Scholvin, Jacob Schori, Asher Schranz, Perry-Elena Segura, Richard Semegram, Sierra Shaffer, Jesse Sherrill, Andrew Shurtz, Mikhaela Singh, David Smiley, Jonathan Solomon, Jay Sterrenberg, Jeff Sterrenberg, Will Stewart, Alexandre Su, Caitlin Sullivan, Patrick Sullivan, Tyler Survant, Anna Tabet, Kyle Taylor, Kenny Ulloa, John Valladares, Julia van den Hout, Vyoma Venkataraman, Irina Verona, Roxana Verona, Joseph Vidich, Emily Viola, Elisa W Almino, Andrew Watanabe, Erica Weiner, David Weiss, Natalie West, Tony Wheeler, Dan Wiley, Barbara Wilson, Anna Witenberg, Madeleine Witenberg, Nathaniel Wojtalik, Helen Yentus, Jejon Yeung, Danny Yoder, Abdul-Razak Zachariah, Andros Zins-Browne, and Anonymous (50).