Evaluation with the @Pretrial Justice Institute strengthens a robust online community for #juvenilejustice

This past October, I contracted with the Pretrial Justice Institute (PJI) to complete a brief but rigorous evaluation for the online community they manage, JDAIconnect. Over the past three months, we employed a series of focus groups and a user survey to collect information from a range of current and potential JDAI users. JDAIconnect users helped us analyze the information and assisted in drafting a set of recommendations to improve the site.

JDAIconnect is a virtual destination created by the Annie E. Casey Foundation for juvenile justice reformers to talk, find resources and learn. JDAIconnect is available to everyone—practitioners, policymakers, community-based organizations, advocates, youth, families, researchers and any others—who are interested in youth justice.

Our evaluation resulted in a host of findings and recommendations that will help improve the JDAIconnect user experience, offer new ways to build the JDAI community and suggest opportunities to increase the platform’s value to JDAI member organizations working to impact the juvenile justice system.