Community Engagement/ Racial & Ethnic Disproportionality & Disparity

The workgroup's purpose is to establish specific and innovative community engagement efforts to address racial and ethnic disproportionality and/or disparity (R+EDD) and support system improvement efforts. The workgroup strives to establish specific and innovative community engagement efforts to address racial and ethnic disproportionality and disparity (R+EDD) and support system improvement efforts. Strategic initiatives include community dialogues and forums, annual publications, disparate impact research and launching a race equity fellowship program.

Community engagement has always been a core aspect of the CJCC’s efforts. By working together, community members and system leaders have the best opportunities for overcoming longstanding, complex criminal justice challenges. It is also evident that the community wants to know more and have more ways to actively engage in improving the local criminal justice system, and much more must be done to advance racial equity. Therefore, the workgroup is advancing three specific initiatives:

INITIATIVE ONE: Ongoing Community Engagement

• Making information increasingly accessible and available to a broader audience through social media and community events in order to help inform and engage the community in helping to improve the criminal justice system.

INITIATIVE TWO: Updated Analysis of Racial and Ethnic Disproportionality and/or Disparity (R+EDD)

• Collaborating with partners to better understand disparities both qualitatively and quantitatively in order to inform actions that will address disparities. And,

INITIATIVE THREE: Race Equity Fellowship Proposal

• Developing agents of change in positions of authority to address disparities across a variety of disciplines.

Each of the workgroup's initiatives were developed providing concrete objectives for moving this important work forward. The initiatives are also intentionally adaptable given the ever-changing environment.