LFJA opens its 2019 year of action at The First Unitarian Church, corner of Third and York Streets, on Tuesday, March 12^th at 5:30. Healthy snacks will be provided. All individuals and organizations are welcome to join us in working for equitable policies and fairer practices for families with incarcerated loved ones in Jefferson County.

The action meeting begins with an exciting panel of folks who are BUILDING LIFELINES NOT PIPELINES IN CRIMINAL JUSTICE.

Local incarceration affects everyone in our community, and we need to work together build lifelines at every stage of impact. This panel will show how their work is building lifelines for:

• Early childhood development  
• Youth and juvenile justice
• Families visiting their incarcerated loved ones
• Re-entry

In September 2018, The Special Project, a lead partner in LFJA, partnered with Metro Louisville Center for Health Equity to complete a health impact assessment of parental incarceration on children in Jefferson County.  See our Research Reports (link) for the full report and also a summary of Highlights. The report shows that parental incarceration can be harmful to all children by increasing toxic stress, and that children of color in our community are disproportionately affected by this public health risk. LFJA will be acting on the recommendations in the report and addressing this public health risk throughout 2019.