This is a blog by CJA Director, Nicola Dawn.
Back in March I wrote a blog launching our member survey and we are so grateful to everyone who took the time to let us know their thoughts.
Over the last few months, a lot has changed at the Criminal Justice Alliance (CJA). We have welcomed brilliant new colleagues to the team and said goodbye to equally brilliant colleagues who have gone on to new opportunities. We have achieved things I am really proud of, including:
- Winning a silver award in the Smiley Charity Film awards for our film The Cycle.
- Facilitating a meeting with some of our ELEVATE alumni, the then Minister Timpson and Special Advisers at Number 10 to work to ensure public appointments are more accessible for people who have had contact with the justice system.
- Achieving a policy win – the College of Policing updated their guidance for stop and search partly in response to our 2021 super complaint.
But the results from our member survey show us that there are areas for improvement. A huge thank you to everyone who took the time to fill out our member survey. We heard from just over 25% of CJA members.
You told us that networking and peer connection are often reasons for joining the CJA and are the most valued benefit of membership. The CJA Awards were frequently mentioned as a highlight, and face-to-face contact at events was cited as important for feeling connected. Our weekly bulletin is the most consistently used and valued benefit and helps you to stay informed about sector developments and policy changes.
Many members joined the CJA because you believe in collective action and want to contribute to criminal justice policy change. This is both a motivation for joining, and what you want to see us doing more of.
And you also told us things that we could build on, develop or just do differently. We heard you want us to have-
- Clearer policy priorities – many want the CJA to identify and commit to a focused agenda of policy/influencing priorities.
- More structured member involvement – calls for better ways for members to actively contribute to campaigning and policy work, not just receive communications.
- More opportunities to network – members wanted more opportunities to network and come together.
The results from the survey have been invaluable and have helped us really understand what’s important to you, and what we need to develop to make our Membership offer even better. We are using the results from the survey to inform our work, including our organisational strategy.
As we develop our strategy, we want to hear more from you about what you want to see from us in the next three years, and how we can ensure we are addressing the areas you highlighted for improvement above.
We are holding a series on consultation events and would love to see you there. We know how busy you are and how precious your time is, but we really want to ensure our strategy places the views of our members at its heart.
If you are able to join one of our consultation events, please sign up below:
- 15th September, 2:30-4pm, Online
- 22nd September, 2- 3:30pm, in person (London)
- 23rd September, 2:30- 4pm, Online
- 28th September, 10:30- 12pm, in person (London)
If you can’t attend the events above but would still like to feed in, please do contact me at Nicola.dawn@criminaljusticealliance.org.uk to have a 1-2-1 conversation.
