The National Executive Council (NEC) at the Center for Justice is an entity of educators, researchers, and conflict resolution practitioners who support communities impacted by unhealthy outcomes correlated with the conditions of poverty.
We promote neighborhood wellness by bringing together neighborhood, business, and government leaders to co-design community-centered programs and policies. We take an ecological approach to foster personal, community, and social change that supports life-long healthy development. We build innovative public-private partnerships that respond to a community’s expressed needs.
Our process to addressing sociocultural determinants of neighborhood health is clear, straightforward, and grounded in data and research. Believing that lived experience produces vital knowledge, we center community-based participatory research (CBPR) and work directly with community partners to develop solutions.
We take an ecological approach to developing initiatives—with community partners, government agencies, nonprofit organizations and/or business entities—which allows residents to access, provide guidance, and inform all research, programs, and policies within neighborhoods. We analyze forces interacting across the macro level, dynamics flowing throughout the micro level, and how the interplay of both macro and micro conditions impact families and individuals within neighborhoods.
Systemic problems cannot be solved in silos, and each problem demands a unique analysis. Some chronic issues are structural and require policy changes. Other problems appear more communal and call for innovative programming. Through our dedicated council of researchers, educators, conflict resolution practitioners, organizers, policy experts, and community leaders, we are uniquely positioned to identify collaborative solutions grounded in data and research that respond to a neighborhood’s needs in areas such as poverty, violence, incarceration, gender inequity, and health.
Our current initiatives include:
1. Higher Education and Re-Entry Programs in South Carolina
2. Georgia Coalition For Higher Education in Prison (GACHEP)
3. The Urban League of Greater Atlanta (ULGA) Red Zone Initiative
4. NEC & Nickelodeon Elementary School Initiative (ESI)
5. Bringing Bard Clemente Program to Baltimore Maryland
6. Supportive Housing Fellowship for the Formerly Incarcerated College Student
7. New York City Department of Social Services (DSS) Benefits Outreach for Reentering Citizens
For more information about the National Executive Council, contact [email protected].