NCJ Number
179625
Date Published
January 1999
Length
10 pages
Annotation
This document is a guide for community justice planners who are seeking to build stronger links with individual communities.
Abstract
Community justice initiatives are designed to build stronger connections between citizens and the justice system; community outreach is therefore a crucial component of any planning efforts. Engaging the community should be the top priority in a project's early stages. In the initial stages, planners should spend time with individual residents and community groups, in order to explain their ideas for the community and hear the residents' responses. Planners thus learn about the neighborhood while the community learns how community justice differs from traditional approaches and how it could enhance local efforts to improve residents' and the community's quality of life. The initial outreach process also publicizes the planning effort with and through community groups. A variety of tools can be used to engage community stakeholders in the process of identifying and prioritizing local strengths and weaknesses. This paper explains the planning value of focus groups and neighborhood meetings, as well as the importance of developing a partnership with government agencies that are responsible for providing various services to the community. Effective planning also involves setting early attainable goals that can be achieved over a short term. This boosts residents' morale and develops the attitude that planning and action can achieve change in the neighborhood. At the end of the community outreach process, planners should draft a report that summarizes what they have learned from their various contacts, followed by a discussion of ways the criminal justice system might respond in cooperation with other local institutions.