The Justice Education Center, Inc. Signature Programs
For over 48 years, The Justice Education Center mission has been to improve the lives of children, youth and adults through increasing community safety, reducing crime and violence, and providing educational and wellness opportunities for Connecticut’s children, youth, and families.
​The Center’s core belief is that these efforts cannot be waged by systems alone. They require long-term working partnerships between state and municipal governments and the communities they serve.
Membership of The Center’s Board of Directors reflects this belief and includes leaders within Connecticut’s education, juvenile and criminal justice, health, and business communities
The Justice Education Center responds to needs identified by state, municipal and community leaders through targeted investments and innovative programming.​
2025 Initiatives
For Children & Youth
Inspire Girls
Inspire Girls is a statewide town and city sports, arts, and wellness program for girls in elementary, middle school and high school with an emphasis on at-risk communities. Inspire programming is offered throughout the year, holding clinics, summer camps and special events in collaboration with the WNBA’s Connecticut Sun. A recent congressional earmark will enable Inspire to expand its offerings to include boys and opportunities to collaborate with a select number of other states.
Inspire Invitational Golf Tournament
In May of 2024, The Justice Education Center hosted its first statewide golf tournament. 100% of the proceeds of the Inspire Invitational are going to support the Center’s newly-established Inspire Scholarship Fund. Whether it be in sports, arts, music, the sciences or technology, the goal of the Fund is to provide young people with the resources they need to explore their passions and pursue their dreams.
Camp Inspire
Building on the establishment of the Inspire Scholarship Fund, The Justice Education Center received bonding funds to purchase the 100-year-old Almada Times Farm (Channel 3) Camp in Coventry, Connecticut in June of 2024. Sitting on over 120 acres, the camp’s mission is to serve under-privileged children, youth and families. The property has many accessible trails, seven year-round buildings, two of which are equipped for special needs children and families. Plans are underway to completely refurbish the property and, in addition to traditional camp experiences will include a therapeutic riding and animal therapy programming, with a projected opening in the Spring of 2026.
Project MOO
Project MOO, one of the newest Justice Education Center initiatives, is a 30-week program launched in January of 2024, introducing 8 to 14-year old Hartford children and youth to farm life, culinary arts, and the caring of animals. The program will be entering its second year in September.
Summer Exploratories
The Justice Education Center’s Summer Exploratory offers rising 6th and 7th graders the opportunity to spend 9 days in at the beginning of the summer in a technical high school. Project-based learning coupled with sports and art projects offer students with an exciting introduction to a number of technology shops, providing them with a unique introduction to attending a high school that has a focus on technology.
ECHO
ECHO (Empathy, Character, Hope and Opportunity) is an emotional and physical development and wellness program using 10 core values to instill positive attitudes and behaviors in young people. ECHO focuses on building resiliency and self-esteem with caring adults modeling and reinforcing positive attitudes and behaviors.
ECHO Health Wellness “Fit Kits” introduces cardio, core upper and lower body and yoga to children and youth from elementary through high school.
ECHO Perfect 10 is a three-tiered pre-employment preparatory program, provides high school seniors in the cities of Bridgeport, New Haven and Hamden with classroom training, job shadowing and internships in partnership with Connecticut corporations to be strengthen their skill sets for entry into college or the workforce.
For Older Teens and Adults
Career Pathways Technology Collaborative
Career Pathways Technology Collaborative, is a national award-winning program offering a range of technology trainings for young adults through in-school, after-school, and summer classes. In partnership with Connecticut’s technical high school system, unions, and specialized summer STEAM programs, carpentry, culinary arts, manufacturing, automotive, and plumbing are among the technologies offered. In the majority of the programs, students receive industry-recognized credentials upon completion.
Project Longevity
Project Longevity, in the cities of Hartford, New Haven, Bridgeport, Waterbury. Norwich and New London focuses on reducing group and gun violence, minimize harm to communities through deterrence and targeted enforcement, care coordination and community outreach for returning offenders, victims, and their families.
Building Bridges
Building Bridges works closely with labor unions, most especially the United Brotherhood of Carpenters and Joiners and the Laborers International Union of North America to offer comprehensive training and credentialing programs for at-risk youth and young adults and those returning from incarceration.
Examples of State and National Symposia
Safe Harbor Symposium
On June 27th, 2023, The Justice Education Center developed a statewide symposium on the prevention and reduction of violence and trauma in Connecticut’s cities and towns at the State Capitol and Legislative Office Building. The topics, presenters, and attendees represented justice, education, law enforcement, community advocacy, healthcare, domestic and sexual abuse, and trauma.
Connecticut Eyewitness Identification Task Force
Under the guidance of the late Connecticut Supreme Court Justice David Borden and retired Justice Richard Palmer, The Justice Education Center staffed the Connecticut Eyewitness Identification Task Force. The Task Force focused on reforms to reduce the number of convictions due through wrongful eyewitness identifications. This paved the way for The Center to develop and coordinate the one of the first National Symposium on Eyewitness Identification Reform, which was held at Yale Law School in June 2016. In 2024, The Center coordinated a statewide training in collaboration with the Office of the Chief States Attorney for police and states attorneys to update participants on Connecticut’s current statutes and national trends.
Curricula and Federal Grant Administration
Bias and Bullying School Diversion Project
The Bias and Bullying School Diversion Project is an educational approach to counter school-based incidents of bullying and bias and the Hate Crimes Diversion Project. This 10-week interactive, research-based curriculum focuses on attitudinal and behavioral change and can be used as both a prevention and intervention tool.
Project Safe Neighborhoods
Project Safe Neighborhoods is a multi-year crime prevention and reduction partnership with the Office of the US Attorney and Department of Justice focusing on juvenile gun and gang violence. The Justice Education Center serves as the coordinating and fiduciary arm for the project