JustLeadershipUSA

LEADERSHIP DEVELOPMENT

At JustLeadershipUSA, leaders are created to produce quality outcomes that are sustainable and transformative. Employing an inclusive leadership model, JustLeadershipUSA fosters an environment where the contributions of all stakeholders will be included and valued. We are committed to not only ensuring that all stakeholders are invited to the table, but that all stakeholders are prepared, being valued as contributors, and are fully responsible for their contribution and the ultimate result.

JustLeadershipUSA is committed to partnering with individuals and organizations—both for-profit and non-profit—in its efforts to further develop smart and talented people to become equipped leaders on both local and national platforms. In addition to traditional individual and organizational leadership trainings, JustLeadershipUSA recognizes that communities impacted by crime and the criminal justice system often experience unaddressed challenges that may serve as barriers to effective leadership. To meet this challenge, JustLeadershipUSA and it partners will work with impacted communities to identify obstacles, create solutions, and truly create valued, informed, and confident leaders of reform.

JustLeadershipUSA is also committed to working with criminal justice organizations and other efforts that are seeking to strengthen the leadership of impacted communities. Using various tools, JustLeadershipUSA will assist organizations to: redefine their goals; create more effective problem-solving and conflict management strategies; and increase programming aimed at inclusion and engagement with diverse communities.


RESHAPING PUBLIC OPINION

We will partner with myriad stakeholders to reshape public opinion by reframing and restructuring the existing narrative, debunking myths, redefining how Americans view those directly impacted, and collaboratively identifying and adopting a unified vision for success. Meaningful policy reform is potentially impossible given our historically misguided criminal justice narrative about “good vs. bad,” “right and wrong,” “victim vs. perpetrator”, “deserving and undeserving,” and “violent vs. non violent.” When this type of othering is compounded by the number of stakeholders who benefit from investment in punishment, the feeding of stereotypes by the media, and the proliferation of misplaced incentives for criminal justice decision makers, the opportunity for systemic change gets compromised. JustLeadershipUSA works with impacted persons and communities to identify their stories, create adequate space for such stories to be shared, and ensure that their voices are included in transforming criminal justice narratives and frameworks.

JustLeadershipUSA recognizes the strong correlation between communications and social change. Recent campaigns—ranging from the quest for democracy in the Middle East, the quick organizing due to the “War Against Women”, to the rallying cries of the labor movement—were all enhanced by communication tools, including social media, network coverage, and internet videos. In short, it is not enough to have a story: one must employ a story with strategic messaging. JustLeadershipUSA will use the power of stories, media and technology to retell the tales, provide fresh faces to the cause, and ultimately make the world a more enriched place by diversifying the field. Storytelling will also be used to ensure the voices of those impacted are the voices heard, providing a human context to a national problem that has been historically influenced by deeply-ingrained stereotypes rather than by direct interaction with real human beings.

Our goal will be to coordinate the organization’s communications with existing efforts. Emphasis will be on national television exposure, placement of stories, columns, editorials, and letters to the editor in national and key regional print, and a visible presence on various digital outlets. Priority targets will include markets in the states and districts of key members of Congress.

JustLeadershipUSA will reach out to a broad range of individuals and organizations nationally and globally to participate in media outreach and other educational activities. Pursuant to our commitment to service, we will also assist such partners in messaging, delivery, and strategy. We are also dedicated to grassroots messaging, and will support local members, partners, and allies in their outreach with both local and national press, opinion leaders, service providers and advocates around the country.

Diversity in the organization’s media outreach will be critically important: the face of incarceration is as diverse as America, and that is what policymakers and the public must see. The organization will utilize the full range of diversity in the advocacy communities to ensure that those who carry its messages to the media, policymakers, and the public come from every socioeconomic demographic, race, ethnicity, gender and sexual orientation.


ADVOCACY

JustLeadershipUSA will, in partnership with our members, engage in policy advocacy efforts on the federal, state and local levels, making space in our collective advocacy work for constantly and meaningfully infusing the voices, vision and leadership of people and communities directly impacted.

Formerly incarcerated persons and their communities are rarely sought after as reform advisors and counsel, and they are rarely cultivated to be change agents, messengers and reformers. To gain the momentum needed to achieve a tipping point in criminal justice reform, such persons and communities must have a seat at the table—not “translated to” after the fact. People directly impacted by crime and incarceration must be the momentum behind any and every change, and must set the general standards for how such change will occur. In order to eliminate mass-incarceration as a response to crime and move America towards decarceration, JustLeadershipUSA aims to truly “re-form” how advocates reach tangible results in the criminal justice arena. Cultivating our membership, while focusing on messaging, policy advocacy, and leadership development, we create a unique space for those closest to the problem to move our nation closer to the solution.

With the unwavering goal of decarceration, JustLeadershipUSA believes it is far more effective to support various advocacy efforts to reach that goal than to create one agenda for others to follow. We are committed to preparing our members to dialogue with leaders, thinkers, and change agents about the issues that are most important to them and their communities. Our focus is to empower others to reshape the national conversation, create “plans of action” and agenda-setting items, recognize that all environments—from the church, to the college campus, to the boardroom—are opportunities to advocate, and strategically organize within communities. From the statehouses to the halls of Congress, JustLeadership will support members at every stage of every level to fill the void that currently exists in criminal justice efforts.