Communities of practice connect their members to each other. In this way, they can more easily share knowledge and skills and reduce duplicated and wasted effort. That’s why we are asking you to work with us to build communities of practice for justice seekers. Because ‘justice’ can be a complicated subject, we have decided to concentrate, at least at the beginning, on four focus areas.
- knowledge
- skills
- innovation and
- management
Why Communities of Practice for Justice? Why Bother?
Justice seekers are at work all over the world. Some of us are lawyers who do regular jobs in a ministry, or court or law firm and are working to strengthen justice in our own country. Others are paralegals or community activists, working to help others use the law. Still others are international consultants who move from project to project. In any case, we are rarely well enough connected to help each other. At JTL, we think no justice problem should go unsolved just because you have not yet met the person who knows how to fix it.
Looking For More Impact From Your Justice Work?
We all want our work to benefit the people we work for. Sometimes the impacts are uncertain. Sometimes, for reasons beyond our control, we know our justice work is not producing as much justice as we would like. But, we should always look maximize the impact of our work with better knowledge, better skills, more innovation and stronger management.
Do We Already Have Justice Communities?
Some justice communities are emerging inside the major international organizations. Usually these groups are closed to outsiders. Some organizations are building communities, adding new members as they go. However, there are still not enough connections to make strong communities of justice seekers.
Work With Justice Through Law to Build New Communities of Practice
We want to see JTL at the centre of the most lively community of practice in justice sector reform. JTL will animate connections through our featured posts, your responses and the occasional summary to close things out. Some members will use comments and replies to agree or disagree with the points of view expressed in posts. Others will develop their own posts which we will publish. We will encourage our followers come together to work on more complex projects.
Here’s How to Keep In Touch With Your Justice Through Law Communities
JTL lets you quickly establish and maintain contact with those who share your interests. New posts will appear on the appropriate community of practice page. So that you don’t miss anything, new posts will also appear for a short time on the home page. You can find all current posts under the ‘All Posts’ tab with older posts in the ‘Archives’. You can also search for posts by their tags which are displayed in the sidebar menu.
What Are Featured Posts?
When you first land on the Home Page, you will see the most recent Featured Posts. They are intended to animate discussion and will usually be more substantial than a quick post, or reply or comment. Members can comment on featured posts, reply to them and propose new posts. There is also a tag for ‘Featured Posts’. We expect to keep each featured post thread open for 60 days or so, to give everyone time to join in. From time to time, we will publish new posts and close old ones.
How to Join a Community of Practice
Just contact us and tell us about your interests. We’ll link you up as the communities take shape.
