A. Conduct research on your state for PfCJR’s policy map. How?
Find one initiative that PfCJR can support (i.e. a local campaign to pass a pending bill, a coalition of organizations protesting against an existing bill or practice).
List 1-3 ways that our members can directly get involved. Examples include:
Write an op-ed about the particular issue at hand.
Call your local legislator and support/protest a given law.
Sign an online petition in support of a campaign.
B. Develop partnerships with other like-minded organizations. How?
Step 1: Select an organization with whom you would like to partner. Don’t have one in mind already?
Think of organizations that you are already a part of — they can be related to medicine or to criminal justice reform. Can you think of any opportunities for collaboration?
Take a look at the organizations that have responded to George Floyd’s killing with statements against racism and police brutality (see full list here). Are you interested in connecting with any of those organizations?
Ask around — get ideas from friends to discover like-minded organizations that might be interested in partnering with PfCJR.
Step 2: Initiate a formal partnership.
This includes first Identifying a contact person in the partner organization. This could be done through a cold call, email, or reaching out on LinkedIn. If you would like additional support in this process, feel free to reach out to our leadership intern: heewon.park@pfcjreform.org.
Step 3: Develop a strategy for a joint initiative. What might this look like?
For a medical partner organization, this could be a white paper on specific medical issues intersecting with criminal justice in your city/state.
You could develop a policy toolkit outlining different laws that you support/oppose in your community. Outline the ways in which your community can work to push certain policies forward, and fight other existing ones. Some specific strategies might include joint public statements, raising donation funds, online petitions, educational webinars, letters to Congress members, call-ins, or even rallies/protests.
C. Conduct PfCJR member engagement in your state.
Find out if there are any other PfCJR members living in your state! You could coordinate with them on organizing and executing state events, campaigns, or research.
Recruit new members from your community. This could be medical students, residents, or current physicians — anyone who might be interested in leveraging public health and medicine as a platform for criminal justice reform.
