OUR TEAM
We are a small passionate group of legal advocates, and activists, working to provide direct legal support to at-risk, street-involved, and unhoused LGBTQ+ youth across all five boroughs in New York City. Our work addresses the personal dignity and life-threatening vulnerability that runaway and homeless LGBTQ+ youth experience on the streets. Founded in 1994, we temporarily closed our doors from 2021 to early 2023. Since we reopened, we have strived to create welcoming, non-judgmental spaces, where young people know that they will be respected and supported in setting the goals of their own legal advocacy.​​
Amy Leipziger
she/her
Project Director​
"One of our most powerful weapons is knowing we can, & will, meaningfully help individuals in the face of broken systems. We must be ready to adapt, organize, and engage on all fronts as we continue the fight of our lives."
Amy Leipziger is the Project Director of the Free to Be Youth Project at the Urban Justice Center which works to interrupt the cycles of poverty and criminalization that prevent homeless and street-involved LGBTQ+ young people from living fulfilling lives free from discrimination, abuse, and oppression. She is dedicated to representing and advocating around the issues of gender, poverty, and discrimination. Amy has been published in Teen Vogue, Ms. Magazine, The Hill, Education Week, the Daily News, amNY, CityLimits, and law journals including the Harvard Journal of Law and Gender, the Brigham Young Education and Law Journal, and Margins Magazine of New York Law School. She regularly presents at conferences, and panel discussions, on topics including gender and sex-based discrimination, rights of immigrant youth, and impact of trauma in education settings. She is an adjunct professor at New York Law School. She received a J.D. from CUNY Law School, an M.A. in Gender Studies from George Washington University, and a B.A. from the University of Oregon.