An effective core team is an integral part in the success of implementing TJC in your community. Unlike, the executive-level reentry council and the larger reentry implementation committee, the core team is the key mechanism for sharing day-to-day leadership of the TJC effort. This small group of people work closely with the designated TJC coordinator who is championing the TJC model in your community to monitor progress, identify priority tasks, and carry them out. Core teams create multiple keepers of the “big picture” regarding the TJC strategy and increase the ability of sites to make progress in multiple areas simultaneously. The most effective core teams include people from different agencies, representing both criminal justice and community spheres, who contribute varied perspectives and knowledge bases to TJC implementation planning.
A responsibility of the reentry implementation committee is to convene and oversee work groups tasked on specific implementation issues. Volunteers for these working groups can come from the reentry implementation committee membership or from key players outside the committee who have the skill set, subject expertise, and the interest in completing these tasks.
For example, a community provider with expertise in correctional programming may be involved in a curriculum development subcommittee but may not be on the reentry implementation committee. Work groups will complete concrete, discrete tasks delegated to them by the reentry implementation committee. The committee should give them clear, written directives with defined end products; the committee should bring its results to the executive-level reentry council for review and approval.
Experience from the TJC Phase 1 learning sites informs us that working groups are most efficient when they are assigned a specific purpose, accomplish their assignment, and then disband with the understanding that the group can be renewed whenever appropriate. Each working group automatically expires after 12 months, unless the reentry implementation committee determines the group should continue.
Click here to see the responsibilities, list of members, and invitees of The Howard County, Maryland, TJC Organizational Structure.
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