“Our justice system has never lived up to its promise of safety, which is why we need to power, connect, and scale creative, community-driven solutions that actually do. That’s what the Accelerator is all about.”
– Neha Raval, Program Officer
The Safer Communities Accelerator – a project of The Just Trust – is a growing community of organizations that are advancing innovative models for preventing crime, repairing harm, increasing accountability, and building stronger, safer communities.
From deflection and diversion, to violence prevention programs, to restorative justice work, the Accelerator supports bold community safety solutions that actually meet the needs of real people, and where arrest and incarceration are not the default.
The Just Trust provides funding, strategy and communications support, and cohort-based programming to advance knowledge sharing. The program currently focuses on front-end, pre-arrest through pre-trial efforts.
“Criminal justice reform is not a magic wand for safety, but it MUST be part of a more proactive quilt of policies, programs and services that contributes to safer communities overall.” – Ana Zamora, Founder & CEO of The Just Trust
Our existing criminal justice system has never made the public safer. In fact, much of it makes us less safe – the way justice-involvement tears apart the social fabric that is essential to safety. It rips apart families, excessively punishes people (through both incarceration and criminal records), doesn’t help crime survivors heal, over burdens poor communities and communities of color, perpetuates violence, and contributes to generations of poverty.
Rethinking safety has to go hand in hand with rethinking the justice system itself. We can’t keep trying to solve SO much through punishment alone (over and over again) – criminalizing everything and everyone under the guise of safety.
It’s important to note this work is not about getting rid of police and prisons. It’s about recognizing that they aren’t the only option. These institutions are tasked with way too much, and it just isn’t working. They shouldn’t have to do it alone. By mainstreaming a broader menu of justice and safety solutions working both outside and alongside existing models – while simultaneously advancing policy to shrink the footprint of the system – we can get much closer to achieving the thing everyone wants: safety. We can build something that helps rather than harms, and holds people accountable for their actions in smarter ways.
At the end of the day, safety is not some abstract concept or messaging tool. And it’s not just the absence of crime. Safety is something we experience very personally…and safe, vibrant, thriving communities are the result of so many intersecting factors. Ensuring safety – in the most immediate term – also sometimes requires interventions, and that’s the piece we hope to help rethink.
Atlanta Policing Alternatives & Diversion Initiatives
The Atlanta Policing Alternatives Division (PAD) works to reduce the arrest and incarceration of people experiencing extreme poverty, problematic substance use or mental health concerns through two core strategies: pre-arrest diversion and Community Response Services - mobile response teams that are dispatched through a partnership with the city’s 311 line.
Baton Rouge Community Street Team / A.G.I.L.E. Planning Solutions
The Baton Rouge Community Street Team (BRCST) is a neighborhood-centered program that assists in the reduction of violence and crime in Baton Rouge. BRCST draws upon an evidence-based, trauma-informed approach to violence reduction that has been implemented in several cities across the country and aims to resolve relationship-based disputes toward a peaceful outcome.
Cahoots/White Bird Clinic
CAHOOTS (Crisis Assistance Helping Out On The Streets) is a mobile crisis intervention program staffed by trained White Bird Clinic personnel in partnership with the City of Eugene and Springfield, Oregon. Cahoots intervenes in precarious mental or emotional health crises without, or in partnership with, law enforcement.
Common Justice
Common Justice operates the first alternative-to-incarceration and victim-service program in the United States that focuses on violent felonies in the adult courts.
Community Based Public Safety Collective
The Community Based Public Safety Collective supports dozens of small, nonprofit, community-led, grassroots organizations helping forge peace in their neighborhoods. It is also a new training and technical assistance provider for the federal government, in recognition of its expertise as a partner to community organizations working at the heart of violence and trauma prevention.
Cure Violence Global
For the past 20 years, Cure Violence Global (CVG) has led an innovative movement grounded in epidemiology and community health to create greater public safety and reduce violence by treating violence as an epidemic.
Equal Justice USA
Equal Justice USA is a national organization that works to transform the justice system by building responses to violence that break cycles of trauma by centering community, healing, and racial equity.
Foundation for Liberating Minds
Foundation for Liberating Minds (FLM) aims to disrupt the root causes of oppression and marginalization through transformative education. Through both Restorative and Transformative Justice practices and approaches, FLM works with youth and the broader community to foster a growing awareness and knowledge about different responses to violence to achieve justice and accountability.
Impact Justice
Impact Justice works nationally to promote healing and accountability through the use of restorative justice as an alternative to prosecution and punishment. Its work diverts youth and young adults arrested for serious offenses, especially youth of color, away from the legal system – to center the needs of survivors of harm, and to equip impacted communities to be leaders in the restorative justice process.
Law Enforcement Action Partnership
The Law Enforcement Action Partnership (LEAP) is a nonprofit of police, sheriffs, judges, prosecutors, and other law enforcement professionals advocating for a new way of looking at the justice system and drug policy, employing innovative solutions and evidence-based best practices to prioritize community health and safety at the national, state, and local level.
LiveFreeOKC
LiveFree OKC is a community-based violence intervention program that aims to reduce gun violence in impacted OKC communities through intervention and effective provision of resources.
No More Red Dots
No More Red Dots, Inc (NMRD) focuses on reducing gun violence that often leads to homicides and shootings and helps participants identify the factors that keep them in conditions of risk while also teaching them how to remove their chances for injury and death.
Operation Good
Operation Good focuses on interrupting violence in Jackson, Mississippi. Credible, trusted, and highly skilled Violence Interrupters fulfill the mission of building unity in the community and creating environment changes that will ultimately change the mindset of those most impacted by violence. Empowered by strong relationships and close connections to the community, Operation Good is uniquely positioned to support those of the highest risk with mentoring and skill building opportunities, while also facilitating peaceful conflict resolution.
Selma Center for Nonviolence, Truth, & Reconciliation
The Selma Center for Nonviolence, Truth & Reconciliation focuses on reducing violence by reconciling relationships, counteracting the harmful narrative of the dominant culture, and providing holistic, client-centered, wraparound services to survivors of homicide, bereaving family members, and living victims of violent crime throughout Selma and Selmont.
Youth Advocate Programs
Youth Advocate Programs (YAP), Inc. is a national nonprofit that partners with youth justice, child welfare, education, behavioral health, and other systems to provide community-based alternatives to youth incarceration, congregate placements, and neighborhood violence. YAP Charlotte implements an Alternatives to Violence (ATV) program that combines the Cure Violence Global model with key features of YAP’s core principles and model to support violence interruption.
Thank you to these leaders for helping us to conceptualize and develop the Accelerator.
If you are doing front-end work that falls into one of these categories in your community, drop us a line via our open inquiry form.
