Jarrell E. Daniels is a Bronx, New York native, Truman Scholar and graduating senior at Columbia University’s School of General Studies. In 2019, one year after coming home from prison, Jarrell Founded the Justice Ambassadors Youth Council (JAYC) at Columbia’s Center for Justice. The Justice Ambassadors is an 8 week leadership and life skills development program for 18-25 year old, disadvantaged youth and local government officials to co-author policy proposals aimed at transforming systems, driving institutional change or addressing community challenges. Jarrell’s commitment to youth development and policy reform led to him giving a TED Talk that highlights the factors that led to his incarceration and introduces an innovative approach to collaborative education between community members and public officials.
Jarrell is Social Enterprise Executive and aspiring Civil Rights Attorney. His primary focus is bridging the divide between lawmakers, disadvantaged communities and businesses. As a lawyer and business owner, Jarrell will work to develop sustaining policies and best practices for effective community centered interventions. In 2020, Jarrell Co-Founded the Community Justice Alliance (CJA), an interdisciplinary social enterprise grass-roots led, adult-professional and community service organization that serves as a bridge between state and city governments, communities and higher education institutions. CJA has two primary focus areas: 1) we train and collaborate with adult-professionals (i.e. city/state agencies, service providers, academic institutions and other community organizations) through contractual service based efforts. 2) CJA works simultaneously to empower disadvantaged communities through volunteer services which including hosting food, clothing and toy drives and our annual Anti-Gun Violence rally. We offer no-cost life skills and civic awareness community workshops aimed at building social awareness and supporting emerging community leaders. CJA provides instructional programming, conducts professional trainings, organizes community events and collaborates with professional entities and serves as an advocate for vulnerable communities throughout NYC. Our ultimate goal is to address community challenges like gun violence, food insecurity, health care and access, food insecurity, police accountability, and advocating for policy change and community reinvestment.