JDAIconnect Power Users Recognized at 2019 JDAI Conference

The Annie E. Casey Foun­da­tion has rec­og­nized an indi­vid­ual and a team for their extra­or­di­nary con­tri­bu­tions to JDAIcon­nect, the online com­mu­ni­ty for JDAI® prac­ti­tion­ers and peo­ple inter­est­ed in youth jus­tice. The indi­vid­ual hon­oree is Jared Gar­rett, the JDAI site coor­di­na­tor for Fayette Coun­ty, Ken­tucky. The New Mex­i­co JDAI team of prac­ti­tion­ers was rec­og­nized as a group.

The awardees are lead­ers in exchang­ing ideas among the 2,500 users of JDAIcon­nect, shar­ing hap­pen­ings in their state or site and cheer­ing oth­ers on with­in the com­mu­ni­ty. They con­tribute to the mutu­al sup­port and col­lec­tive wis­dom that makes JDAIcon­nect an empow­er­ing space for users to think dif­fer­ent­ly about what’s pos­si­ble with­in their sys­tems and feel sup­port­ed to do bet­ter. Their par­tic­i­pa­tion has helped real­ize the vision for JDAIcon­nect to inspire juve­nile jus­tice inno­va­tions and advance the well-being of youth, fam­i­lies, prac­ti­tion­ers and neighborhoods.

In addi­tion to his role in Fayette Coun­ty, Gar­rett has been a reli­able and impor­tant con­trib­u­tor to JDAIcon­nect, reg­u­lar­ly mak­ing his voice heard well beyond the bor­ders of Ken­tucky. Gar­rett ​“embod­ies the spirt of JDAIcon­nect with his will­ing­ness to con­nect and engage with peers thought­ful­ly and authen­ti­cal­ly,” said Beth Oprisch, the man­ag­er of learn­ing ini­tia­tives at the Pre­tri­al Jus­tice Insti­tute, and Jason Szanyi, deputy direc­tor of the Children’s Cen­ter for Law and Pol­i­cy who pre­sent­ed the awards togeth­er at the 2019 JDAI Inter-Site Con­fer­ence.

Juve­nile jus­tice reform­ers at the coun­ty and state lev­el in New Mex­i­co stand out for shar­ing their trans­for­ma­tive work with the net­work on JDAIcon­nect and using the knowl­edge and tools being shared in this space to improve out­comes for youth and fam­i­lies. The New Mex­i­co team par­tic­i­pat­ed more than any oth­er state team in the two major vir­tu­al events focused on equi­ty and data-dri­ven deci­sion mak­ing, the 21-day Equi­ty Habit-Build­ing Chal­lenge and the Demys­ti­fy­ing Data Chal­lenge, respectively.

Two years into JDAIconnect’s exis­tence, Nate Balis, direc­tor of the Foundation’s Juve­nile Jus­tice Strat­e­gy Group, reflect­ed on its suc­cess in bring­ing togeth­er ​“a remark­able col­lec­tion of peo­ple and places com­mit­ted to reform to com­pare notes and explore new approach­es.” The online com­mu­ni­ty has host­ed 907 dis­cus­sions among users, shared 300 blog posts, made over 900 doc­u­ments avail­able in its resource library, includ­ing videos and record­ed webi­na­rs, and offered 13 train­ing on-demand cours­es. ​“The JDAI com­mu­ni­ty has more access to infor­ma­tion, avenues to find sup­port and oppor­tu­ni­ties to share ideas and brain­storm solu­tions among their peers than at any time in JDAI’s his­to­ry,” Balis said.