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Mobilizing Community Resources for Law-Related Education Programs (From Law-Related Education and Juvenile Justice, P 187-199, 1997, Deborah Williamson, Kevin I Minor, and James W Fox, eds. -- See NCJ-167087)

NCJ Number
167099
Author(s)
P Knepper
Date Published
1997
Length
13 pages
Annotation
This discussion of the mobilization of community resources for law-related education (LRE) programs focuses on the formulation of a purpose statement, the solicitation of community support, the generation of public awareness and publicity for programs, the pursuit of outside funding, and the use of program evaluation.
Abstract
In mobilizing community support, the LRE program director must explain to the community what an LRE program is and why it is important for the community. The statement of purpose should contain a descriptive sentence that tells what LRE means, a sentence that reveals the importance of LRE to youth, a sentence that makes LRE relevant to public policy/juvenile justice, and several sentences that explain how the development of an LRE program will benefit the local community. Building local support for a new LRE program requires the drafting of a plan for presenting the concept to the community. This plan should identify community resource persons, incorporate a strategy for making contact with them, and then articulate a long-term strategy for incorporating their support. After analyzing various interest groups, this paper addresses the making of initial contact with potential community resources and incorporating support. A discussion of the generation of publicity for the program encompasses working with print media and with broadcast media. A section on the pursuit of outside funding focuses on funding sources and grant writing, and a section on evaluation considers kinds of evaluation and information systems. The paper concludes with a list of "seven deadly sins" sure to undermine efforts at mobilizing community resources for an LRE program. 9 references