This article is the first in CPJ’s Shared Justice series on involving families and communities in the juvenile justice system. In the United States, courts will hear nearly 800,000 juvenile justice cases per year. In the current complex system, probation officers and parents often work against each other rather than with each other; this series outlines the tangible ways families can be involved in the restorative process for their children who are in the justice system. Parents, grandparents, aunts, uncles, cousins, and friends-as-close-as-family, because of the significant role they play in our lives, have an outstanding impact on our formation. […]

This article is the first in our series looking at the Invisible Social Safety Net — all of those houses of worship and faith-based organizations that provide essential social services to their communities, sometimes with the help of government funding and sometimes without that assistance. In order to unleash the power of the social safety net to support our most vulnerable neighbors, CPJ advocates for state, local, and federal governments who need to understand how to partner with and support these “invisible” links who serve not because they have to by law, but because faithfulness to their tradition calls them […]

Have you ever played the acronym game? My first time was over a decade ago with a colleague at a nonprofit association. It’s simple, really. During a training for nonprofit leaders on sector excellence, whenever the trainer used an acronym or technical jargon without providing an explanation, she had to give candy to the first person who called her out. Spiritual Root Systems of Faith-Based Organizations In any field, subject-matter expert language becomes second nature when communicating with peers. After 15 years working in religious freedom, public policy, and faith-based nonprofits, I’m acutely aware that I do this myself. Acronyms […]

To read the full research behind this op-ed, visit our 2024 Hatfield Prize page here. Roughly every five years, Congress debates changes to the omnibus Farm Bill, a multilayered law covering a plethora of agricultural and food programs. The first Farm Bill was passed in 1933 to bolster food supplies during the Great Depression and help keep food prices in check for average Americans.  Today, one of the largest programs in the Farm Bill is the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, known as SNAP, which supports 41.1 million Americans every month by supplementing their grocery budgets. While SNAP benefits vary from […]

To read the full research behind this op-ed, visit our 2024 Hatfield Prize page here. At just 15, Carlos fled his home in Honduras to seek medical treatment for an eye condition, a better education, and safety from gang-related violence in his hometown. Carlos crossed the U.S. border alone and was immediately arrested and held at a Texas detention facility. Soon he was transferred to a Miami shelter care facility for unaccompanied children that was his home for the next two and a half months. After 82 days, Carlos was placed under the care of his “sponsor”— an aunt in […]

To read the full research behind this op-ed, visit our 2024 Hatfield Prize page here. My shirt is soaked with sweat after a long day framing on a residential construction crew in the sweltering Western Kentucky summer. I glance back on the day’s work, the house’s wooden exterior taking shape, before hopping into my truck. I think about how this journey began five years ago when I took a carpentry class at my high school’s vocational center. That class turned into another, and then another. Before I knew it, I was cutting boards and hammering nails the summer before attending […]