Reimagining Justice This Month: September
Reimagining Justice This Month highlights stories about effective responses to violence — responses that disrupt cycles of violence, heal trauma, and address structural racism.
Alternatives to Police and Prisons: Activists Share How to Better Address Violence, Teen Vogue
Justice reimagined is not only possible, it’s already here. Youth leaders in communities around the country know that punitive systems only continue cycles of violence and trauma. They envision a world without police and prisons, and are building the new systems that create true safety and well-being. Listen to these stories, let them stir your imagination and inspire you, and recommit with us to nurturing and sustaining this powerful work.
NJ Finds $10M for Anti-Violence Services after Outcry, NJ.com
Hospital-based Violence Intervention Programs (HVIPs) are vital parts of a community-centered public safety ecosystem that saves lives and breaks cycles of trauma and violence. When it looked like funding for HVIPs across New Jersey was about to dry up, a community-led coalition that EJUSA has been part of since its initiation responded with action. When we act together we succeed, and now essential funding for HVIPs is in place.
Learn more about Newark’s community-centered public safety ecosystem with a peak into the Newark Community Street Team’s work to keep students safe as they head back to school, and with a deeper dive into our report, The Future of Public Safety.
To Fight Gun Violence, Kids Need Places to Play, The Appeal
Safety is not just the absence of violence. It’s the presence of well-being. It’s thriving neighborhoods, including places to play, that nourish a love for community that can become the root of a true public safety ecosystem. While the city of Philadelphia continues to pour resources into a police-centered response to violence that continues to prove ineffective and deadly, pools and other places for kids to play are being forced to close. Instead of closing some of the only safe places for children facing grief and trauma, we can invest in the community-centered solutions we know can break cycles of violence.
To Build Public Safety that Protects Black Women and Girls, Money Isn’t the Only Resource We Need, Nonprofit Quarterly
The narrative that police and prisons are the solutions to violence has not only been driving billions of dollars away from the community-based initiatives that actually break cycles of violence. It is also built on the backs of Black people, including women and girls, whose experiences of both violence and powerful work are too often ignored. If we want a future in which the safety and wellbeing of Black women and girls matters, we need to both surface harmful narratives that dehumanize and erase Black women and girls, and build new narrative power.
In Case You Missed It: Read and Share What’s On the EJUSA Blog
- The Movement for Public Safety — check out Jaylah Cosby’s reflection on the community at the center of the evolution of the Future of Public Safety
- Victory in NJ — share this short post on the recent victory driving funding to HVIPs in New Jersey!
