Poverty and injustice go hand-in-hand. Today, both are deeply rooted in our criminal justice system. So we're getting involved. We selected six organizations to partner with us in planning research projects focused on criminal justice, and we kicked off our work together with an August workshop.
Our managing director Heather Reynolds welcomed our partners: "We are excited to dig in, to teach, to learn, and to walk hand-in-hand with you as we work together to build evidence. We need to know what works to really disrupt the status quo. We owe it to the people we serve to provide interventions that actually make a difference. I believe that evidence is critical in advancing criminal justice."
Then, she invited our partners to share why they are committed to building evidence.
"We like to have at least one research project going at a time. It helps us see if what we are doing is making a difference, if we need to make changes, and lets us share that information with others to encourage them to support re-entry services." - Rhiannon, PACE Indy
"We believe leadership is a responsibility shared by all and that by working together we will leave our community better than we found it. Part of this is continuous quality improvement, sharing ideas, and working closely with organizations like LEO. Our currency is data-driven decisions." - Robert, Johnson County Department of Corrections
"Poverty caused by incarceration is the worst form of violence. So we look forward to gathering more evidence with LEO and proving up the effectiveness of our program." - Bill, Gatekeepers