BOLD Justice

Building relationships across religious and racial lines. 304 participated in a 3 month relationship building process. This process involved training hosts to run house meetings. Each of these house meetings were held in person in someone's home or congregation. 35 house meetings occurred with an average of 8 people attending each meeting. During the house meeting the host leads a discussion in which participants share stories of community problems impacting themselves, their family, and their friends. This process resulted in gathering of stories related to organization's three priority issues: criminal justice reform, affordable housing and extreme heat. Participants were free to share other community concerns as well. These stories provided context to continue the research into solutions for these community problems. These leaders continued relationship building throughout the year at various organizational meetings and on their own. In addition, staff conducted more than 1,000 1-1 conversations to strengthen relationships.

Leadership Development. 9 trainings (5 local and 4 national with organizations with common goals) were held to develop leaders skills. 142 leaders participated in these trainings. Topics covered include: relationship building, developing and maintaining networks, conducting research, planning and conducting meetings, evaluating activities, public speaking and long term organizational planning. In addition to the formal trainings, experienced leaders within member congregations are also trained to be able to help conduct the training events. Staff and experienced leaders work 1-1 with new leaders to help develop their skills in these areas.

Learning about community problems: Research was conducted on the following community problems: juvenile arrests, adult arrests and extreme heat. A total of 17 research meetings were held on these four topics. Leaders sought to better understand the range and scope of these problems, as well as best practices for addressing the situations. Results of this research was presented to local decision makers to aid them in developing solutions. When solutions were adopted, follow up meeting were held with experts to assess the impact of those solutions.