The plan includes four goal areas, with each goal including specific implementation strategies and indicators for measuring success, all expected to lead to the results that characterize a highly effective, community oriented Public Safety organization at CUNY.

New evaluation findings show that Project Reset—a CJII-funded program that diverts people post-arrest to a community-based intervention—allows participants to avoid harmful collateral consequences and improves their views of the criminal legal system.

The CJII Training and Technical Assistance Initiative provides comprehensive and accessible capacity-building services to organizations across New York City that are furthering community safety. Doing so strengthens organizational sustainability, creates opportunities for peer-to-peer engagement, and deepens program impacts.

CIP has significantly expanded access to postsecondary programs across New York State, with many colleges and universities serving students at volumes near, or even exceeding, their targets.

ISLG’s evaluation of the CIP Initiative has sought to better understand implementation of CIP by documenting the CIP model over time, including: how programs are established and how they operate in correctional facilities, the challenges programs experience and how they navigate those challenges, and the successes programs experience in achieving the aims of the Initiative.

The current employment upheaval, or the Great Resignation, reminds us that the opportunity to pursue meaningful and fulfilling work—something more than just a job—should extend to everyone. However, people who are formerly incarcerated are a group who often can only access employment with low pay, stress, and little opportunity for advancement. They are often locked out of careers because of a lack of educational credentials, training, or other systemic barriers.

The Youth Opportunity Hubs have brought important benefits to young people and their communities, including a greater sense of safety, well-being, and opportunity. For funders and policymakers who are looking to support young people and increase cross-sector collaboration, the evaluation of the Youth Opportunity Hubs initiative points to key lessons.

Across New York City, many young people are in need of youth-centered spaces that meet their diverse needs and draw on and lift up their strengths. Unfortunately, funding constraints of the social service system often lead to siloes between organizations, making it difficult for youth to access all of the services available to them. The Youth Opportunity Hubs, opened with CJII funding in 2017, were created to address these challenges and better serve young people.

Historically, organizational silos and constraints in funding opportunities have made it harder for organizations to build on and complement each others’ strengths to holistically serve youth in their communities—organizations tended to be funded to provide particular types of services (education, employment, etc.) and compensated based on those services being successfully delivered, not based on comprehensive supports for young people. The Youth Opportunity Hub initiative was designed to address these constraints and strengthen collaboration through funded partnerships.

The annual report of the Criminal Justice Investment Initiative shows that CJII has provided transformative support for thou­sands of people in New York by making significant community-based investments to keep people out of the criminal legal system and help make New York City safer.

New evaluation findings show that Sanctuary for Families’ Career Readiness Training Program is helping intimate partner violence survivors develop professional skills and improve their sense of self by expanding the capacity of its program to create pathways to financial independence.

Through its CJII-funded Deaf Services Initiative, over the past three years Barrier Free Living has improved its support for deaf survivors of abuse by expanding service offerings, enhancing its means of communication support and technology, and engaging community partners in deaf-specific trainings and resources.