Soros Justice Fellowships

W. Haywood Burns Institute

A grant to launch Community Connections, which will work to reduce the harmful consequences of incarcerating young people, particularly poor youth of color. The project will foster effective, cost-efficient alternatives to detention that are rooted in the communities where the young people live.

Austria is the founder of BronxConnect, a community-based alternative-to-incarceration program for court-involved youth in the Bronx. Austria sits on the Regional Organizing Council of the national Community Justice Network for Youth, and on the Steering Committee of the New York City Juvenile Justice Coalition. He has been the recipient of the Mentoring Award from the National Mentoring Partnership and the Esther House Prison Ministries Award. Austria has guest lectured at Columbia University, Cornell University, New York University, New York Theological Seminary, and Yale University. He is a founding member and elder of The Promised Land Church in the South Bronx, dedicated to bringing liberation to socially and economically marginalized people. In 2005 he was invited to the White House in honor of his work with young people. He earned his undergraduate and graduate degrees from Cornell, and is also a graduate of Columbia's Institute for Non-Profit Management.

Bronx, NY |  1 Year |