Black and white image with motivational quote about perseverance, growth, and resilience.

How do we accentuate the voice of an organization and help them create a centralized brand identity?

Challenge

The Columbia Justice Lab is a criminal legal system research and advocacy nonprofit, affiliated with Columbia University, whose work ranges from reentry and probation to parole and youth justice. With various research teams and no dedicated/centralized communications staff, the voice and messaging of the Lab was disjointed and unclear.

CJL asked KMSG to support with:

  • Direct support redefining the goals and trajectory for the voice of the Lab

  • Help with developing a collection of resources for the Lab’s non-communications staff to be able to draw upon for public, outward-facing content and commentary

  • Tools to improve the engagement and growth of the Lab on social media, particularly on Twitter (a platform heavily used by their peers)

  • Crafting communications collateral, including messaging, fact sheets, social media toolkits, op-eds and live event outlines/strategies to support and amplify the research, reports, and work the Lab was leading

Context

KMSG accomplished the following:

  • Placed a story in the Houston Chronicle highlighting the efforts the Lab and their partners led to reduce the number of youth incarcerated in Harris County, Texas

  • Supported the Columbia Justice Lab team with the creation of a donor-specific messaging brief to aid them in conversations with potential funders and partners

  • Led a series of workshops for all Lab staff on messaging and storytelling, grounding these new-found practices in the work they were currently leading

  • Crafted new narratives to support the research of their projects, including drafting, pitching, and placing an op-ed in The Hill, the foremost prominent policy outlet in the US, responding to a critical moment in history: the rollback of Roe v. Wade and its implication for people seeking reproductive care in prison and on parole

  • Live tweeted a series of webinars and expanded visibility on Twitter by creating a #JusticeLabLive hashtag

  • Drafted 7 social media toolkits used to share new reports, webinars, and call-to-action policies, which includes content for Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn, and email newsletters

  • Interviewed 21 attendees at two Lab-hosted conferences in New York City and Philadelphia to direct a visual storytelling project that captured the preeminent policy ideas in the youth justice and probation/parole spaces

Action & Impact

Newspaper article from Houston Chronicle about Harris County youth justice reinvestment fund, featuring a photo of Assata Richards speaking at a podium and a description of her work with the Redefining Youth Justice Coalition.

Read the entire article in the Houston Chronicle: Harris County youth justice reinvestment fund touted as model

A news article from The Hill discussing abortion access for incarcerated women, highlighting the impact of legal and systemic barriers on reproductive healthcare for pregnant women in prison.

Read the entire op-ed in the The Hill:
Abortion on parole: Access to reproductive care cannot exclude those in our prison systems

Example Social Media Toolkit

This toolkit is from the release of Process Matters, a report that “details the context, process, and challenges of the work, as well as Harris County's successes to date and lessons for other jurisdictions looking to transform youth justice through reinvestment funds and community-based support for youth.”

Report titled 'Harris County Report Social Media Toolkit' with a logo at the top. The report discusses strategies for social impact, including youth justice support efforts, community partnerships, and funding initiatives in Harris County, Texas.
Report by KM Strategies Group titled 'Strategies for Social Impact' showing bar charts of youth detainees decreasing between 2017 and 2021, with recommendations for community-based reinvestment efforts and juvenile justice system improvements.
Cover page for a report titled 'Strategies for Social Impact' by KM Strategies Group, featuring the logo of KM Strategies at the top, with text describing collaborative efforts for youth justice reinvestment and community support efforts in Harris County, TX.
Document titled "Strategies for Social Impact" discussing community efforts to reform youth justice, COVID-19 pandemic response, and social impact stories in Harris County, Texas. Includes links to reports and encourages sharing on social media.

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