By organizing people in congregations and organizations, we build Justice Knox to possess power to successfully hold our community leaders accountable to justice and fairness. The organizing process follows a three step cycle of listening, research, and action. The whole process ends in our annual investment drive. Not one of these elements is more important to our mission than another, and each helps us grow, learn, and increase our faithfulness to the Knoxville community.
First, we engage in the LISTENING process. Through house meetings, we ask people “what keeps you up at night” and “what community problems make you angry,” and we invite people to engage in solving the problems they are worried about by joining us in our work. With results from house meetings from across the community, we identify and adopt problem areas to take on for research and action. This decision is made at an Assembly where hundreds of community member who have joined our work vote.
RESEARCH happens next. We research to clarify the problem in our community, to determine viable solutions to the problem, and to identify the power holders who have the authority to implement the solutions. Research always leads to
ACTION . Members from all congregations involved gather in a large public meeting called a Nehemiah Action Assembly (Nehemiah 5), to call for action from community officials who can implement the solution. Our first Nehemiah Action Assembly was held on April 24, 2017, and we successfully gathered 1,236 people securing commitments from the police chief and the sheriff to train 100% of officers in crisis intervention training in 2 years.
FOLLOW UP ensures that community officials carry out their commitments. After the Action, Justice Knox leaders meet with community officials to monitor the progress of their commitments and report the progress back to their congregations. We applaud and recognize community officials when they follow through and make our community more just and fair.”
Finally, we strengthen Justice Knox in our annual INVESTMENT drive. After the Nehemiah Action Assembly, we gather to celebrate our work and victories, and we invite people to own the work by investing in Justice Knox so that we can begin again.
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.