Probation, Parole and Community Corrections...
The American Probation and Parole Association (APPA) is proud to support a new identity program that we believe will set the stage for greater awareness of the role of probation, parole and community corrections in community safety. The program is a new national initiative - being rolled out in states, cities and towns across the country - aimed at better communicating the important work probation and parole and supporting professionals play in keeping our communities safe.
What is a brand, and why should our profession concern itself with a discipline that sounds like something to do with cereal boxes on a supermarket shelf? It all comes down to what experts call share-of-mind or awareness. We need to make sure our profession is competing effectively for this valuable "territory." Awareness contributes to better public understanding, support and potentially increased funding from state, county and local leaders.
Since the beginnings of the nation's probation and parole systems, juvenile and adult corrections professionals have been a critical but often overlooked and under-appreciated link in the justice system. The community corrections field significantly affects people, communities and the nation. Some 70 percent of the adult correctional population is under the jurisdiction of probation and parole officers. Six in 10 adjudicated juvenile cases fall to community corrections for supervision.
You provide supervision and treatment resources to help people, families and communities address the issues that drive problem behavior. And importantly, you're doing it with a suite of new technologies and processes that make you increasingly more effective in responding to the steady rise in numbers of adults and juveniles under your jurisdiction.
To assist you in implementing this brand identity in your agency and community, APPA has worked with marketing firm, Fleishman-Hillard International Communications, to produce a kit of materials and ideas. The kit contains sample news releases, tips to engage staff, sound bites for interviews, points to consider when dealing with the media and statistics that you can customize to your own needs to emphasize the importance of your community corrections agency and system. The kit can be downloaded here.
This project also introduces a logo and tag line that we are asking you to use in a number of ways. A Force for Positive Change contains connotations to the importance of keeping those under supervision accountable as well as many of the skills used by today’s probation and parole officer such as motivational interviewing and cognitive behavioral change. The tagline typography shows forward motion, but also some of the stops and starts experienced by many individuals under supervision.
Today’s probation, parole and community corrections system has an exciting story to tell and one that we hope you will consider now as this campaign is launched. As officers, supervisors, administrators and staff working to supervise and intervene with offenders in our communities, you are indeed, A Force for Positive Change.
For more information about this campaign, please contact Diane Kincaid,
Information Specialist for APPA at (859) 244-8196 or
dkincaid@csg.org.