Avenues for Justice’s Spring 2023 Programming Calendar with Fitness Classes, Teen Empowerment, and Cooking Nights

As we begin the year anew, Avenues for Justice (AFJ) is not committing to any short-lived resolutions. Instead, we are renewing our commitment to empowering our Participants with services which facilitate healthy change year round. Beginning this month, the AFJ team of Court Advocates will host weekly classes focusing on fitness, body positivity, teen empowerment, culinary arts, and much more to activate the minds and bodies of our Participants for the Spring. Our Participants deserve the most diverse and robust programming to center and ground themselves in their conversations around growth and wellness in the new year.

On Mondays and Wednesdays at 4PM, AFJ will host a weekly fitness class at both our community centers led by facilitator Jalil. With more than 15 years of experience in the fitness industry, Jalil has helped clients achieve and exceed their personal goals for weight loss, muscle building, toning and conditioning. In addition to working as a community partner with AFJ, Jalil is also certified as a Boxing Instructor by Boxing Express LLC, and holds certifications from the American Sports &Fitness Association for Personal Training and Advanced Senior Fitness Instruction. After being incarcerated for over 20 years, Jalil’s background and story resonates with our Participants because he understands the circumstances, peer pressure and obstacles that many of our Participants experience in their communities. With the benefit of age and hindsight, he also has a vision for how to avoid making some of the same mistakes that he made as a teenager.

Also on Wednesday evenings after Jalil’s fitness class, AFJ will host a hybrid virtual and in-person Teen Empowerment class with Dennis. A high school Dean and Doctoral candidate from Brooklyn, Dennis started a podcast called Teen Empowerment (“Teen Empowerment Daily, T.E.D”) in 2019. The podcast focuses on providing middle and high school students with the opportunity to have a greater voice outside of the traditional classroom setting. In its organic form, T.E.D is an open forum discussion to empower youth. Through these T.E.D. sessions, AFJ will provide our Participants with a safe space to express, develop, and hone their activism voices through knowledge, conversation, and action. 

Holding down the Friday evening slot, AFJ will host Friday Food Nights. Twice a month and alternating between our centers, AFJ Court Advocates, partnered with an AFJ board member, will share a round-table meal and engage in healthy conversations with our Participants. Not to be outdone by our Court Advocates, Chef Quie (also known as the Fried Chicken Chef) will host “Cooking with Shirley's Son”. Chef Quie’s monthly class in meal preparation, cooking tips and tricks will take place at our Harlem community center, every last Friday of the month. The cooking class will also be live streamed to our Lower East Side community center.

Weare thrilled to be offering these workshops to all of our Participants in 2023and are looking forward to adding more as the year progresses. Stay tuned and follow us on Instagram @avenuesforjustice to stay up to date!