As our work has evolved, our mission has only become stronger and clearer. That’s why we’re updating our mission statement to reflect the approach at the heart of all of our work: Community Justice.
For nearly three decades, the Center for Justice Innovation has worked in partnership with communities and courts to build safer, stronger, thriving neighborhoods.
That work takes many forms—connecting people in the justice system to care instead of jail; helping tenants resolve issues that might lead to eviction; or leading groundbreaking research into the root causes of gun violence. Throughout our history, we’ve gone where we’re needed most, adapting to new challenges as they arise and incorporating what we learn from community members, people who work in the courts, and those most impacted by crime and the justice system.
As our work has evolved and expanded, our mission has only become clearer. That’s why we’re changing our mission statement to reflect our singular call of Community Justice:
The Center for Justice Innovation is a community justice organization that centers safety and racial justice in partnership with communities, courts, and the people most impacted.
Read our Executive Director Courtney Bryan explain, “What is Community Justice?”
While the words we use to articulate it have changed, that really is the core of the mission that has guided us since we launched our first program in Midtown Manhattan in the early 1990s. Through it all, we have been committed to building equitable, holistic solutions to the challenges facing our communities—solutions that create healing instead of harm, address widespread racial disparities in everything from housing to system involvement, and lay the groundwork for lasting safety for all.
Those solutions come from bringing everyone to the table – judges and attorneys; residents and social service providers; court administrators and community leaders. That collaboration has always been at the core of what we do at the Center; that is how we achieve Community Justice.