On Nov. 14, 2016, 230 leaders from 14 congregations officially formed Justice Knox and voted to choose mental health and education as the first problems to tackle.
Mental Health:
*Crisis Intervention training for all city and county patrol officers.
*Annual evaluation of local mental health system funded by county including key system stakeholders.
Affordable Housing:
*City Affordable Housing Fund established through ordinance guaranteeing $5 million annually for affordable housing development over 10 years.
*591 affordable homes built in 2022 alone for low income families with housing fund money, including homes for extremely low income families and permanent supportive housing.
Education:
*Contract between the International Institute of Restorative Practices (“IIRP”) and Knox County Schools to deepen restorative practices in a middle and high school and introduce in 3 elementary schools.
*Commitment from Superintendent to meet quarterly with Justice Knox leaders during life of IIRP contract. The initial contract is 1 1/2 years. Through monitoring, we’ve encouraged and learned of efforts by KCS to extend contract for an additional 2 years.
*Release of school discipline data in March 2024 including risk ratios by vulnerable populations and commitment to update this report twice annually on the Knox County schools website beginning fall 2024.
Gun Violence:
*A problem analysis of our local community gun violence problem facilitated by national experts.
*A seat at the table for Justice Knox leaders to develop an evidence-informed violence reduction strategy responding to the problem analysis, alongside city officials and law enforcement facilitated by national experts.
*With support from Justice Knox and other community stakeholders, city secured a grant of $2 million to be used over 3 years from the federal government to fund implementation of the strategy, which includes training for evidence informed violence interrupter work, efforts to physically improve high crime areas with input from neighbors living in the areas, and support for evidence informed targeted group violence intervention. Justice Knox is named as a stakeholder in the grant, and our leaders continue to be at the table monitoring and informing this work.
*In first year of implementation of the violence reduction strategy (2023), Knoxville saw a 35% decrease in fatal shootings and a 12% decrease in non-fatal shootings.
Homelessness
Public Transportation
Economic Instability
Currently 23 congregations, including Lutheran, Catholic, Episcopalian, Baptist, United Methodist, Presbyterian, Non-Denominational Christian, Quaker, United Church of Christ, Jewish, and Unitarian Universalist are participating as member congregations. People from other traditions, including members of AME Zion churches, Muslims, and Buddhists also regularly participate in our annual Nehemiah Action Assemblies. Justice Knox continues to recruit member congregations and invites all congregations and organizations who want to “do justice” to join!
Justice Knox is building our network to reach 3000 participants at our Nehemiah Action by the year 2030. We aim to have the capacity to solve any community problem we face!
Established in 2016, Justice Knox provides congregations from diverse faith, economic, and racial backgrounds from across Knox County a vehicle to act together in response to the scriptural mandate to “do justice.” We are politically non-partisan. We are inspired by the work of 30 broad-based justice ministry organizations in other cities.