Why did we form the NIA?

• Because every social problem we choose to ignore ends up packaged in a life and standing before a judge.
• Because of the out-of-control costs of protecting ourselves from repeated uncured criminal behavior.
• Because of our personal experience watching too many uncounted cases of individuals, children and families living in desperation at a growing and uncalculated cost to society.
• Because private-sector power players and many public-sector systems still need to feel this continual push to do business differently with respect to restoring and sustaining families.
• Because reform efforts are still too disconnected and fragmented yielding too little of measurable impact on families and their capacity to participate and consume.

Where are we today?

• In 4 short years, the NIA has attracted the attention and the working interests of scores of agencies and organizations as an authority with distinctive prowess in approaching problems and innovating systems.
• We have mapped out resolutions to hundreds of personal issues resulting in a customer/client portfolio of over 1,500 family cases who are becoming stronger, healthier, and more productive.
• Our sought-after and active engagement among poly-sector partners include over 20 active and completed initiatives and task force engagements.

MISSION STATEMENT:

To provide the community of families, loved ones and advocates of the incarcerated reliable information and resources to help them during their difficult journey while also coordinating actions among community and those who have the authority to make measured changes, and reform our system of justice for the better public interest and safety.

VISION STATEMENT:

Our vision is that the justice and corrections system of the United States becomes a system of dignity, safety and progressive personal improvement for all involved.

Where are we going in the next 2 years?

Grow our 3 program areas:

Expand the NIA CPR Program Model:

Our interactions with fellow family members evolved into a case-by-case model of Conflict Resolution and Personal Interactive Rehabilitation (CPR).  We are working to complete the building of this direct services program as a virtual call room/customer service command center for constituent families and their incarcerated loved ones as well as victims of crime with our integrated “restorative justice” program sub-set.  We are now facing a constituent/customer demand to provide more evidence-based best practices in our method of emotional de-escalation in the process of delivering prompt and appropriate referrals services.  We also want to expand our capacity to track this data; identify more problem and solution trends and offer reports to agencies and other stakeholders in regular communications or as we discover their situational need.

The NIA Informed Empathy Campaign:

Despite the 65 million families directly impacted by incarceration and the $100 billion cost affecting every American taxpayer, too many people remain distanced from the problem.  We call this an “empathy gap.” This Informed Empathy Campaign seeks to narrow that gap with ongoing mass-communication messaging and interactive events.  Over the next two years we will be intensifying our public awareness efforts.

Partner Asset Integration Projects & Initiatives:

The primary reason why we get involved in projects and initiatives is to take advantage of every opportunity to infuse into partner efforts our “working-together” culture.  We see these as opportunities to help local stakeholders realize the value of shared resources, an open exchange of ideas, cross utilization of assets, and more coordination in pursuing resources for program sustainability.

Expanding our capacity to play active roles in various local and national projects and initiatives helps to relax the costly walls of fragmentation and duplication and erase the unintended culture of competition among stakeholders.

We are working to earn much needed support…

The NIA is a 501c3 nonprofit. We have dozens of committed volunteers. We also have hundreds of families, primarily in Georgia, but also nationwide who count on us. We need hands-on, intellectual and financial support to grow this movement and meet the growing needs of our mission.

Our dashboard of other work:

1. Fulton County, GA Conviction Integrity: Sentencing Review Board Member
2. Second Chance for Georgia Campaign: Partner
3. Georgia Justice Reform Partnership: Steering Partner
4. Multifaith Initiative to End Mass Incarceration: National Strategy Team, Georgia Strategy
5. Fulton County Justice and Mental Health Task Force
6. Department of Community Supervision: GaPRI Steering Committee, Atlanta Circuit
7. DeKalb County Sheriff’s Inmate Rebound Program for Enhanced Public Safety
8. Legal Action Center No Health = No Justice Community Conversations
9. Justice Talk Tuesday’s and Justice Advocacy Day Steering Committee
10. ACLU National Smart Justice Campaign
11. Atlanta/Fulton Pre-Arrest Diversion Initiative
12. Sponsoring the Establishment of Arise Recovery Residences
13. Sponsoring the Establishment of Truth’s Place Family Restoration and Recovery Services
14. Georgia Department of Corrections Citizens Advisory Panel; Founding Member
15. Fulton County, GA: Heroin Working Task Force; Court Watcher Program; Records Restriction & Expungement Ad Hoc
16. US Department of Health and Human Services: Game Changers Working Group; Stay Strong! Stay Connected Summit 2018
17. Georgia Employment Working Group: Local Beyond Ban the Box Strategies
18. National Day of Empathy and Public Awareness Initiative with Dream Corps, Inc.
19. International Prisoners Family Conference - Advocacy in Action Coalition
20. Georgia Department of Behavioral Health and Developmental Disabilities: Family Reunification Working Group
21. Shatterproof Rise Up Against Addiction Annual 5K Walk/Run
22. Fulton DeKalb Hospital Authority Annual Health Summits: Institutions Committee