Presentation Topics

• Leading with Co-Elevation: Upping Our Game, Elevating Culture

  If a leader neglects their organizational culture, that leader and their ambitions will become its victim. In the post-COVID era, real-world leadership and culture change equates to the sum of 50% science plus 100% art. While this equation might not make sense at first glance, this profound truth prevails in applied leadership settings where team and organizational performance is high. We can, indeed, stretch ‘beyond the good’ of traditional collaborative leadership. We can achieve great leadership where there is collective synergy among individual members. That is the notion of co-elevation – where the collective totality of the group is far greater than the simple sum of its individual parts. Co-elevation is a phenomenon where individuals are interdependent and simultaneously support and challenge each other to become stronger, smarter, more agile, and more effective human and public servants. Participants will be challenged to advance their leadership practice with art, with science, and with new tools and mindset strategies to strengthen their teams and organizational performance. This session will introduce the Six Principles of CoElevation Leadership – emphasizing the base for each principle and the best practices of Leading with Co-Elevation within each of the principles as well as teach the importance of applying both the sciences and arts to leadership practices.

• Through the Looking Glass: Diversity, Equity and Inclusion

  This session will focus on diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) by examining the need to address these three key concepts within organization development – looking specifically at what leaders can do to ensure their agencies are diverse, inclusive, and equitable for all.

  You will be challenged by critically analyzing key questions such as: Are community corrections agencies adequately addressing any racial inequities? How is racial equity being measured within agencies; and, if measured, how does and/or should it impact the delivery of services? How is the data being used to inform decision-making processes?

  You will be engaged and participate in this lively session as we move DEI from an informative mindset to a strategy and implementation framework.

• Staff and Organizational Wellness

  As leaders, taking care of our wellness should be a critical part of our professional and personal journeys. Historically, community corrections leaders have been conditioned to put their teams, the community, and the organization first. Many question whether this approach is the best for the team, the community, the organization, and the leader. Recently, some attention has been given to addressing stress, trauma, and health within the organization, which may impact the various generations differently. This responsibility, however, has yet again been bestowed on leaders to execute – often without proper training, with limited resources, and with unaddressed/unresolved personal trauma.

  This presentation discusses the intersection between leadership and wellness and offers strategies to deal with the day-to-day struggles of the job more effectively. Wellness should be a part of a leader’s practices and processes, not an afterthought or the response to a crisis. Some of the topics to be discussed include work and family dynamics; moral injury; internal conflict; boundaries and respect; the significant and insignificant approach, and hope.

• Combating Staff Shortages While Retaining Staff

  Our field has changed, and agencies used to be staffed with officers who had 15+ years of experience. Now, in some agencies, many staff have less than five years of experience. Nationwide, agencies are experiencing high turnover and working with a shortage of staff. This equates to being staffed with individuals who have less practical, relevant work experience but who are tasked with doing it all from the very beginning of their employment. This session focuses on: (1) combating staff shortages through innovative hiring practices, and (2) identifying strategies to retain staff during this post-COVID era.

• Promising (Emerging) Practices in Community Corrections

  This session will provide an overview of emerging practices in community corrections. Emphasis will be placed on how states are implementing promising practices designed to enhance offender supervision and, therefore, yield better outcomes. Participants will hear about trends pertaining to creating positions related to fidelity and coaching; the importance of being familiar with organizational change and implementation science when rolling out new programs or changing culture; and the importance of departmental reviews and grant funding available to support reviews. Some attention will also focus on cognitive interventions (CCP, EPICS, etc.), utilization of assessments, and fidelity of programming.

• APPA's National Standards for Community Supervision

  APPA is engaged in a major project to develop national standards for adult community supervision. Funded by the National Institute of Corrections and coordinated by the Crime and Justice Institute, the project will produce standards which will provide definitive guidance for policy and practice in probation and parole agencies across the country.

  This session will explore the concept of professional standards and their importance to probation and parole in the US, describe the development process, and review the content of the standards model. There will be an opportunity for audience participation and discussion of the standards – a crucial element of probation and parole’s future.

• Artificial Intelligence: Through the Lens of Community Corrections and Ethics

  Artificial intelligence (AI) is rapidly disrupting all aspects of society, in both good and bad ways; and community corrections is not immune from this disruptive wave. This presentation will discuss what AI is and how it can improve parole, probation, and pre-trial decisions. The presentation will also identify some risks of reliance on AI, particularly the risk of biases in historical data being silently propagated and even exacerbated by AI machine learning systems. While the impacts of AI on community corrections are already being felt, the future impacts are likely to be far more significant given the rapid acceleration of the technology. As a result of attending this session, leaders will begin to examine the ethical implications of AI, have an opportunity to learn about safeguards, formulate key questions as well as brainstorm considerations if they want to implement aspects of AI within their agency’s case management process.

• Research and its Applicability to Community Corrections

  This working lunch session will focus on the necessary collaboration between researchers and community corrections practitioners. Two key questions will be addressed: What research collaborations can offer parole and probation agencies? How to make collaborations mutually productive and engage with researchers? The presenter will provide an overview of a successful collaboration (How reforms in North Carolina Reduced Racial Disparities in Probation Revocations) from his own professional work experience. In addition, opportunities for future research collaborations will be discussed. Attendees will be able to pose questions to the presenter.

• Reentry 2030: The Future of Community Corrections

  This session will provide an overview of The Council of State Governments Justice Center’s work around reentry (Reentry 2030) and efforts probation and parole agencies can take to foster reentry success. Discussion will focus on specific factors that impede a justice-involved individual’s ability to successfully reintegrate within the community.