Policy Analysis and Advising
A multitude of policy and program changes have emerged to address community safety. These changes are often complex and some may ultimately be misguided and counterproductive. It is helpful to call on policy experts with shared values to analyze these policies for impacts on marginalized communities, lasting solutions, and equity. CAA leads CCSJ’s policy analysis efforts to inform our coalition partners, other advocacy partners, and government partners.
Credit: Crystal Wong
Examples
Advising community-based organizations in our network
We conduct and share policy analysis within our coalition and with external partners to educate each other on policy developments. The policy analyses we share informs individual coalition members’ response to the policy, how they talk about it with their staff, and how they talk about it with external stakeholders. This ultimately progresses the dialogue around community safety toward community-based, long-term, and root cause investments. For example, we influenced the decisions of our partners to reject a police-only response to crime and to work on a more holistic response that emphasizes violence prevention/intervention models and community ambassadors. We have also conducted dozens of immigration Know Your Rights trainings for community-based organizations in response to increased federal actions against immigrants.
Advising government partners
Because we have cultivated a reputation of trustworthiness, having deep knowledge of community needs, and having policy and program expertise, government partners often reach out to us for advice on policies or regulations they are developing.
Preventing hate in K-12 schools and online
The California Commission on the State of Hate is exploring strategies to reduce hate in K-12 schools and online. It reached out to CCSJ to provide suggestions. We drew upon our experience with CCSJ programming as well as policy expertise to provide a suite of complementary strategies to reduce hate among youth. We recommended strengthening prevention and support programs, such as peer-education, embedding additional trusted adults to build youth socioemotional skills and connect them to resources, and programming to cultivate cross-racial healing and understanding, including ethnic studies and restorative justice. We also offered system-wide changes to set a baseline and support the implementation and accountability of changes, such as a more robust climate assessment program, improving complaint procedures and record-keeping, annual staff training, and notices to parents and caregivers.
We presented at a convening hosted by the California Civil Rights Department, Commission on the State of Hate, and UCLA’s Initiative to Study Hate, which focused on hate prevention in K-12 education and online platforms. We educated participants regarding the state policy-making process and contributed CCSJ’s ideas for comprehensive safety solutions in schools to reduce and prevent harassment and discrimination against students.
Mayor’s Office for Victims’ Rights
CCSJ worked with the Mayor’s Office to provide feedback on the legislation to implement the Mayor’s Office for Victims’ Rights (MOVR) and the direction of the office. For example, MOVR is exploring ways to improve the coordination of the city’s strategy on violence prevention. Given CYC’s decades of violence prevention experience and relationships with multiple violence prevention organizations, CCSJ is in continued conversation with MOVR to share its perspective.
Developing holistic metrics for community safety
Drawing from CCSJ’s community listening sessions, program experiences, and theory of change, CAA developed a set of data measures that captures a more accurate and holistic sense of community safety. Currently, crime rates are the dominant measure of success, but they are flawed and often do not reflect community member’s experiences. We proposed measuring multiple dimensions of community safety, including non-criminal acts of hate and other harm, community cohesion and cross-racial understanding, and healing. Policymakers, members of the media, and others can use these metrics to better understand conditions on the ground, measure success, and guide investments toward addressing the root causes of harm and promoting community healing and feelings of safety.
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