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Director's Corner
text saying "EJUSA is coming to SXSW 2024!"

What Lies Ahead

I hope that the new year has so far brought you peace, health, and excitement for what lays ahead. I speak for all of us at EJUSA when I tell you how eager I am for the opportunities to build community safety in cities and neighborhoods across the country.  There’s so much happening:  The Restorative…

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News
Jami Hodge and EJUSA Staff

The Momentum is Real

I recently got a text message from one of the most prominent district attorneys in the country. He thanked me for writing this op-ed on what survivors of violence need — and why meeting those needs, especially in the communities most impacted, builds community safety. He told me that his attorneys were talking about it. …

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Director's Corner
group of people bowing their heads for moment of silence

How We Respond to Tragedy

About six weeks ago, Najee Seabrooks sent out a call for help. He texted his co-workers at the Paterson Healing Collective — an EJUSA partner and ally in the movement to build community safety — that he was in crisis and he needed them. Najee was trained as a healer and a violence interventionist, so…

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News
man sitting in chair next to plant

Newark’s Community-Centered Public Safety Ecosystem

In 2018, I left the Department of Justice after a dozen years as a prosecutor. I had seen our criminal legal system up close and came away certain that it was too big, too rigid, and too steeped in its racist origins to ever deliver true justice. I wanted to find the solutions to violence,…

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Director's Corner
Ms. Sharon Redding

A Pillar of Newark

Meet our friend and activist Ms. Sharon Redding. I’m not alone in seeing her as a pillar of her city. She’s worked for the Newark Community Street Team since 2016 as a community advocate. Ms. Sharon is a vital voice connecting her community and its concerns with city and state leaders to build community safety…

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News
legislative building with blue sky

One Part of Transformation

After the dust settled on the 2022 elections, we spent the dark weeks of winter getting grips on the balance of political power across the country. And here we are. February. The plunge into legislative sessions is squarely upon us. Some states are already nearly done for the year, but the buzz is still loud…

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News
Will Simpson at The Future of Public Safety Convening

Our Priorities Must Shift

During his 2023 State of the Union Address, President Biden could mention investment into community violence interventions or non-carceral responses only by pairing it with his stated support for continued investment into policing (this comes on the heels of the Safer Communities Act, where the White House funded 100,000 police in communities across the U.S.). …

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News
street art on orange building

Ecosystem in Action

The night before Thanksgiving, legendary Newark street peacemaker Sharif Amenhotep found himself surrounded by legions of city police officers as they sought to confiscate his mini-bus from his vending area on Branford Place and Broad Street. The incident got particularly dicey when officers appeared to be cutting or doing something to the underside of the…

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News
book cover with illustrations of black women protesting

Imagining the Possibility of Safety

At the beginning of the summer, our executive director, Jamila Hodge, sat on a panel in a crowded gymnasium in Newark talking about transforming the justice system.  “The system is going to do what it’s going to do,” she said. “It is a machine, and it was built for a purpose, and that was to…

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News
trauma to trust

What Is Trauma-Informed Policing? 

Six Newark, NJ, residents and five police officers sit in a semi-circle in a local community center. They’re listening as a Black man, mid forties, recounts a tale of being hit in the head by a police officer as a teenager while hanging out with his friends after school. As he finishes his story, he…

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