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Justice Initiatives

SPA faculty and staff maintain a portfolio of multi-year projects, as well as smaller, short-term engagements, where our expertise can be of significant benefit. Recognizing the value of collaboration, we often partner with other organizations to provide the most comprehensive services to the field.

Racial Equity Communities of Practice
American University (AU) is partnering with All Rise (formerly the National Association of Drug Court Professionals), in the creation and delivery of two Communities of Practice training programs. One program will serve six to eight Adult Treatment Court teams, and one six to eight Veterans Treatment Court teams. The Communities of Practices Cohorts will be focused on identifying, addressing, and ultimately reducing or eliminating racial disparities in access to, treatment in, and graduation from, treatment court programs.

These Communities of Practice cohorts will last approximately 18 months. The first part of the cohort will be an intensive 4-month training period where courts will learn from experts in the field, and each other, how to apply evidence-based practices to reduce disparities in their context. Teams will then receive coaching on developing an action plan to address specific policies or practices related to racial and ethnic disparities (RED) in their court and create at least three SMART goals to achieve over the subsequent year. Once the courts have finalized their plans with the coaches, they will present their plan to their cohort, receiving expert and peer feedback on their plan components and implementation strategies. The teams will then receive expert coaching and peer feedback during the implementation of their action plan. The cohort will conclude with each court their success and areas for continuous improvement

Documenting and Addressing Disparities in New York State Adult Drug Treatment Courts
New York State Unified Court System (UCS) Office of Justice Initiatives – Division of Policy & Planning (DPP), partnered with American University (AU) and the Center for Justice Innovation (CJI) to assess equity and inclusion in New York Unified Court System (NYS UCS) treatment courts. American University will administer the Racial and Ethnic Disparities in treatment Courts assessment (RED Tool) to all 96 adult treatment courts under the jurisdiction of the NYS USC. AU will provide access to all court teams to the RED tool, provide technical assistance and support in completing the assessment, and provide a statewide aggregate report back to the NYS USC detailing the areas of success and areas for intervention by the state to address disparities. Approximately 30 NYS courts completed the RED assessment in 2020 & 2021, and their progress towards addressing disparities will form a crucial part of the statewide report.

Color in the Court: Racial and Ethnic Disparities Initiative (REDI) Program Assessment, Training and Technical Assistance
Housed in the School of Public Affairs (SPA) at American University (AU), the Racial and Ethnic Disparities Initiative (REDI) is a multi-year project funded by the U.S. Department of Justice, Bureau of Justice Assistance. The project’s mission is to use research, policy development, and training and technical assistance (TTA) to work with justice system stakeholders to rectify racial and ethnic disparities in treatment courts. Below is a list of the project’s overarching goals based around creating content (e.g., fact sheets, webinars, and issues briefs), delivering mid-level TTA to treatment court teams, developing an online module curriculum, and evaluating project components. REDI’s goals include: (1) raising awareness about RED in treatment courts and assisting courts identify RED in their systems and processes, (2) rectifying RED within treatment courts and assisting with implementation of RED Program Assessment Tool recommendations, and (3) conducting a program evaluation of REDI.

Learn more about REDI.

Assessing Racial and Ethnic Disparities within Drug Treatment Courts in Ohio
As treatment court professionals adhere to best practice standard Equity and Inclusion, it is vital that programs are examined for disparities. To support this effort, the Racial and Ethnic Disparities Program Assessment Tool (RED tool) was created to identify and rectify racial and ethnic disparities that may exist in programming. The goals of this project are to: 1) provide training and technical assistance on the RED tool to local treatment court professionals, 2) analyze and report data from RED tool submissions, and 3), create and deliver racial and ethnic diversity training based on regional and statewide needs identified from our analyses.  

The RED Tool team at American University is providing training and technical assistance to local treatment court administrators in the State of Ohio on assessing racial and ethnic disparities within treatment courts. As part of this initiative, we assist treatment court administrators in completing the online RED tool which assists treatment courts professionals in identifying and rectifying racial and ethnic disparities that may exist in programming. The RED tool team will also create and deliver racial and ethnic diversity training based on regional and statewide needs identified in the statewide aggregated report.

For more information, please contact the RED tool team at redtool@american.edu

Racial and Ethnic Disparities Assessment within Drug Treatment Courts 
SPA faculty and staff, in partnership with the Center for Justice Innovation is providing training and technical assistance services to state and local drug court administrators on assessing racial and ethnic disparities within treatment courts. As part of this initiative, we assist drug court administrators in completing an online Racial and Ethnic Disparities Program Assessment Tool (RED tool), results from which will assist treatment court professionals identify and examine areas where racial and ethnic disparities may exist in their court programs. During the project period, we are working with treatment courts in three states on completing the RED tool, aggregating statewide data, conducting data analysis and producing a statewide assessment report for select states.

RED Program Assessment Tool

Our Racial and Ethnic Disparities (RED) Program Assessment Tool helps treatment court professionals identify and examine areas where racial and ethnic disparities may exist in their court programs.

 

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Rural Drug Court Listserv

We host active listservs for the treatment court community. Members of the listservs can communicate with colleagues throughout the country and exchange ideas, best practices, and together solve the unique challenges that face treatment courts.

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Project Archive

Since 1989, SPA faculty & staff have conducted over 1,800 technical assistance, research, training, and evaluation projects for local & state governments, federal agencies, and international organizations & agencies.

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