Ideating Research to Practice Strategies for Opportunity & Justice-Impacted Youth
Criminal Justice Reform Prevention (CJRP) Community Regrant Initiative
The CJRP Community Regrant Initiative is actively building and strengthening research-to-practice partnerships with community and direct service organizations dedicated to criminal justice prevention.
Over a three-month period, our selected organizations are working closely with the University of Southern California (USC) project team and a technical assistance coordinator. They're developing strategic plans to enhance youth and community engagement, with a particular focus on opportunity youth. This collaborative effort aims to address systemic inequities and create prevention-focused solutions tailored to the needs of system-impacted individuals and communities.
Through this dynamic process, these organizations are defining actionable goals, analyzing the influence of current events, building strategic partnerships, identifying funding opportunities, and using data-driven strategies to communicate effectively with key audiences.
Each selected participant is receiving:
A $7,500 grant to support the implementation and expansion of their innovative solutions for addressing the root causes of crime and the inequities disproportionately impacting marginalized communities.
A 3-month research partnership to collaborate with USC Rossier faculty and researchers, documenting their vital work and preparing to share their findings with the broader field.
Applications for this initiative are now closed.
Want to learn more about the incredible work being done? Click here to discover the Regrant Recipient Organizations!
This project builds on a prior project that surveyed two decades of federal prevention policy and built a national network of prevention-focused scholars. Outcomes from the prior project led to the identification of key dimensions of criminal justice prevention that speak to the areas of policy, programming, and research that we can leverage to mitigate or eliminate interaction with the criminal legal system through reforms in education, economics, environment, health, and safety.
Expanding Criminal Justice Reform Critical Policy Research
About the Regrant Initiative
Grounded in the belief that effective policy is designed by those closest to the issues, this initiative prioritizes collaboration with communities to reverse traditional top-down policymaking. By centering the voices of marginalized populations, the initiative aims to foster impactful, sustainable solutions.
Learn more about the current landscape of federal policy, research, and events focused on criminal justice prevention
Researchers from USC conducted a systematic review in 2024 of the landscape of federal policy, policy research, scholarly articles, and contemporary events focused on criminal justice prevention reform across our dimensions of prevention (education, economics, environment, workforce, and health).
Our landscape analysis provides a summary of outcomes and recommendation for key constituencies (community organizations, institutions of higher education, K-12 leaders, local and city governments, educational and CJR researchers).
