Administer a Community Outreach Program for an Under-Represented Population

Strategic Planning in a Diverse Community

In every community within the United States, there are groups of people who are isolated from that community itself due to their status within the community (Potter, 2013). This can include people who are members of a newly arrived immigrant group, participants in a religious organization, or members of an indigenous group who do not regularly engage in contacting law enforcement or using the court system when facing criminal justice matters (Police Executive Research Forum, 2020). This form of community isolation to a degree can be due to a historical basis in discrimination against them by the community at large, language and cultural issues, or a failure by authorities or other members of the community to engage with this population in terms of communication and to educate them concerning their rights as fellow members of the community (Potter, 2013).

The success of a strategic plan in a community can often fail because planners neglected to address key areas concerning these people who very often are members at risk for being criminal offenders or victims and whose circumstances are not reported to the police. For example, law enforcement can seek to develop a program to stop domestic violence and child trafficking in a particularly isolated part of the community. However, such a plan can fail if that law enforcement agency does not have officers who speak the language, know the customs, and are in fact members of that isolated community itself who are now serving their local enforcement agency. In addition, a strategic plan should be written from the mindsight as having a broad approach that seeks to engage “all” members of a community. A strategic plan should not be seen as having policies that do not benefit everyone or exclude others. It should seek to instill confidence in the criminal justice system itself by engaging people and protecting their civil rights while improving the community itself.

Consider for example the nature of policing in the Chinatown district of New York City. As a Chinese-based close-knit community, many individuals arrive from China without speaking English nor understanding the full nature of their rights as members of the New York City community at large. In turn, people within the Chinatown district are not likely to report criminal activity nor speak with NYPD officers who do not know their language. There is also the added problem that specific types of crime such as domestic violence or human trafficking are harder to combat when people do not know how to access or reach out to people within the criminal justice system to help them, nor do they trust that law enforcement is there to help them. Very often in this community, there is a mistrust of law enforcement as serving the interests of politicians versus acting as agents of public service and good for the local community. Without having a plan to be able to identify and stop such criminal activity that victimizes an isolated group of people, law enforcement is unable to know the true extent of such criminal activity. In turn, without having the members of the Chinatown district working with law enforcement officers to address these criminal matters and remaining silent, you have people in shadows being victimized continually without any form of reporting, nor any real way to know and stop crime from happening.

With increases in hate crimes against the Asian community members in recent years, the NYPD has learned to recruit and promote Chinese members of the community as working officers of the NYPD who know the language and culture, along with the people living in the Chinatown district. This includes using officers of the NYPD who are dressed in plain clothes to be able to interact and solve crimes within the Chinatown community without being noticed or raising an alarm within the district (Offenhartz, 2021). This is an example where a criminal justice plan has to realize if the people will not come to them, then the organization employing the plan must devise a way to come to the people on their level so that their full participation in community efforts can be realized (Police Executive Research Forum, 2020). Keep in mind this is just one example in which there is a segment of a community in which a unique and specialized focus must be taken for any criminal justice-based strategic plan can be successful.

Every state and every location (urban and rural) often have at least one segment of people in the community who fall into this type of criteria. Therefore, it is then key to know the people in the community before extensive planning is put to task to make positive changes on a large scale.

References

Police Executive Research Forum. (2020). Building trust with immigrant communities. https://www.policeforum.org/assets/BuildingTrustImmigrantCommunities.pdf

Offenhartz, J. (2021, March 26). NYPD uses plainclothes Asian officers in new hate crime sting operation. Gothamist. https://gothamist.com/news/nypd-use-plainclothes-asian-officers-new-hate-crime-sting-operation

Potter, G. (2013, June 25). The history of policing in the United States. https://plsonline.eku.edu/sites/plsonline.eku.edu/files/the-history-of-policing-in-us.pdf

Wadhwa, A. (2016). Restorative justice in urban schools: Disrupting the school-to-prison pipeline. Routledge.

Assignment: Administer a Community Outreach Program for an Under-Represented Population

Throughout the United States, there are groups of people who are in immigrant, religious communities or indigenous people who are reluctant to trust members of law enforcement, nor wish to participate in any governmental or non-profit program even if their members would substantially benefit from participating in the design and implementation of a strategic plan. In many cases, this distrust of the criminal justice system can be due to language differences, cultural issues, or a previous history of discrimination within the criminal justice system against a group of people. The CEO of a non-profit that employs you has requested that you prepare a presentation.

Assess and recommend how you would be able to reach out and build participation with any such group in your state that has traditionally avoided participation in the development of criminal justice services in their community as it relates to the criminal justice system.

In addition, you will provide one or two slides that discuss the history and unique cultural nature of a group in your state you are focusing on, along with a news story that highlights the difficulty in getting their cooperation with law enforcement and the criminal justice system.

Support your conclusions with references from a minimum of five (5) journal articles or publications.

Incorporate appropriate animations, transitions, and graphics as well as “speaker notes” for each slide. The speaker notes may be comprised of brief paragraphs or bulleted lists.

Create a PowerPoint slide set or MS Moviemaker project creating the presentation. Include a recorded voiceover to pair with the PowerPoint or MS Moviemaker project. Think about who your target audience is and how your topic affects them.

Length: 10 to 12-Slide PowerPoint presentation with notes (200-350 words per slide)

References: Include a minimum of 5 scholarly resources.

The completed assignment should address all of the assignment requirements, exhibit evidence of concept knowledge, and demonstrate thoughtful consideration of the content presented in the course.

***Just looking for the content. I will design it and do the voice-over, of course****

https://naacp.org/resources/criminal-justice-fact-sheet

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