The Reasons We Put Justice in Our Name
Court Innovation was our mantle for a quarter century. Justice Innovation is our calling card for the years ahead.
By Courtney Bryan, executive director
An organization’s name is its calling card. That has certainly been true of the name we had for 25 years—the Center for Court Innovation. It served us well, emphasizing our commitment to developing and implementing new, evidence-based ideas in the courts. But over time, we’d grown in such a way that we began to ask ourselves: Does the name still fit? After months of debate and conferring with staff, funders, partners, and members of our Board, we concluded that the answer was “No.” Our organization had evolved, and it was time for our name to catch up.
When we were founded by a small team of planners in 1996, putting “court” in our name made perfect sense. Our founders had worked closely with the New York State Unified Court System to establish the Midtown Community Court, a first-of-its-kind model that offered services and hope in lieu of fines and jail for low-level offending. Thanks to our efforts, many courts now offer rapid engagement with social services, alternatives to fines and fees, and initiatives that safely divert participants from incarceration and prosecution.
Even as we continue to work closely with courts in New York and around the world, we have, over time, expanded our collaborations to encompass the entire justice system and the communities most impacted by crime and disinvestment. We started our first community-based program in the late 1990s—Neighbors in Action (formerly known as the Crown Heights Community Mediation Center). Since then, we have been designing and operating community-based programs that have little or no connection to the courts or any part of the legal system. We have come to recognize that our strength and uniqueness lies in serving neither the system nor the community in isolation but serving as a bridge between them.
As a result, we have as many staff today working in or with the justice system as we do building initiatives hand-in-hand with communities to empower local residents to define and achieve safety on their own terms.
Our evolution as an organization requires a name that reflects our wide range of programs and research. We surveyed our staff, spoke to partners, funders, and Board members, and went through three rounds of name generation and feedback before embracing the Center for Justice Innovation and the tagline “Activating Ideas. Strengthening Communities.”
The word “justice” incorporates our legacy of court-based innovation while making room for our values—equity, fairness, humanity, and community empowerment. “Justice” also reflects our holistic approach to the legal system, an approach that recognizes the system as a continuum. The more we invest at the very beginning—in community resiliency and crime prevention—the safer and healthier individuals and their communities will be.
Personally, I think the beauty of the term “justice” is that it is spacious, with room for people to define what justice means for themselves, their families, and their communities.
Court Innovation was our mantle for a quarter century. Justice Innovation is our calling card for the years ahead.
Our new name reflects:
Our commitment to the values embodied in the word justice—equity, fairness, and humanity.
Our belief that improving the legal system isn't about one branch (i.e., courts) but the entire system.
Our investment in community development and co-leading safety initiatives with the communities most impacted by crime and disinvestment.