Program areas at JLUSA
Leadership: 255 community-based leaders completed emerging leaders, an intensive, community-focused training specifically designed for emerging leaders in communities most impacted by marginalization and incarceration that builds community power and coalitions so that leaders have the knowledge, skills, and resources to identify, organize, and advocate for change. Twenty-three individuals graduated from leading with conviction (lwc), a 12-month, cohort-based, advanced leadership training, coaching, and mentoring program for directly impacted individuals who are already engaged in transformative change; another 32 individuals were admitted to the next year's lwc cohort. Jlusa began planning and development of a new training program focused on c-suite level skills supporting the advancement of formerly incarcerated individuals into executive level positions in nonprofits, government, or the private sector.
Sustainability projects: projects focus on expanding professional knowledge and skills of individuals and the capacity and effectiveness of organizations around community sustainability and development towards a de-carceral state. These include (a) new federal subaward as a technical assistance partner in collaboration to improve corrections conditions by transforming culture, climate, and spaces and capacity building to other nonprofits that deliver training to individuals affected by the criminal legal system and (b) subaward management of macarthur funds for criminal legal systems training organizations.
Leadership in action (lap) : jlusa invests and activates its alumni network of more than 1,700 leaders across 45 states, plus d.c., to drive policy reform and community reinvestment strategies nationwide. Jlusa's justus coordinating council (jcc) continued its work as a national policy table led by systems-impacted leaders, community members, and national organizations committed to articulating a new national vision and implementing actionable steps that promote opportunity and justice for individuals and communities affected by the criminal legal system. Jcc published its second major policy report, building the table for healh equity, which highlighted dire needs for reform across all phases of the criminal legal system. Jlusa continued to advance public education around the need for emergency preparedness plans within carceral settings. Jlusa continued several innovative strategic partnerships with other organizations and funders: bard microcollege for just community leadership, the nation's first tuition-free college dedicated to advocacy, arts and sciences; the safety & justice challenge, a five-year challenge initiated by the john d. and catherine t. macarthur foundation that provides support to local leaders from across the country to tackle the misuse and overuse of jails; and a federally funded initiative designed to build the capacity of community residents to "reduce structural drivers of violence and to "heal and build equitable paths to safety and prosperity through collective action with government and private sector partners."