Statements

Mission

Every day, lives are traumatically impacted by harm in communities. Structural and systemic defects often leave people with very few healthy options that, when coupled with minimal opportunity for healing or transformation, result in generational cycles of harm. But what if, as a community, we decided to interrupt these complicated, layered challenges?

What if we could develop scalable and adaptive strategies that replaced the cradle-to-prison pipeline with a cradle-to-homeownership pipeline?

Raphah Institute is doing just that - building a cradle-to-homeownership pipeline to replace the cradle-to-prison pipeline.

Through a strategic series of programs, services, and partnerships, we are restoring access to social support, economic opportunities, education, housing, and healthcare for marginalized people and communities that are most likely to end up in prison or dead. Instead, they will have opportunities and experiences more closely associated with owning a home.

Background

1998 - Claybrooks, working as a police officer, envisions citizens' access to resources as an alternative to arrest, prosecution, and incarceration.

4/17 - Claybrooks founded Raphah Institute (RI).

6/17 - Led by the vision of juvenile court judge Sheila Calloway Raphah Institute, the Restorative Justice Diversion (RJD) Program, now known as Accountability and Restoration Conferencing (ARC), was launched.

7/17 - Claybrooks trains in circle-keeping with Precious Blood Ministries in Chicago, Il. He also meets leaders of Cure Violence and learns of their work in Chicago.

11/17 - A small team of community members organized by Claybrooks travels to Oakland, CA, to begin training with Impact Justice in their Restorative Community Conference model.

12/17 - RI receives a $100,000 grant from Carol Yochem at the First Tennessee Foundation (now First Horizon Foundation) to launch operations

3/18 - Headquarters established in Center 615 at 615 Main Street in East Nashville.

7/18 - RI accepts its first case diverted from court to the RJD.

1/19 - Claybrooks hires the first program staff members, Ashlee Sellars and Thomas Lawrence, to join him in facilitating RJD cases.

2019-2020 - The RJD team observes a common theme among youth in RJD cases - they all had poor or no access to early education and mental health services.

7/20 - Ericka Ward joins the team and casts a vision for a new initiative, Early Embrace (EE), to increase children's access to high-quality early childhood education and support.

7/20 - Claybrooks envisions creating and conducting a cradle-to-homeownership pipeline to replace the cradle-to-prison pipeline. He sees restorative justice diversion and early education as initial programs designed to shuttle people from the cradle-to-prison pipeline to the cradle-to-homeownership pipeline.

11/20 - Launched Multi-systemic Therapy initiative designed to provide mental health support to the youth and families in the RJD initiative. This program was discontinued in July 2022.

4/22 - Nashville City Council votes to grant Raphah Institute $1.823M for its EE Initiative.

7/22 - EE launches its first training cohort of home-based early childhood educators.

3/22 - RI and Jada X begin working to launch RJD in Memphis, Shelby County, TN.

8/23 - RI signs MOU with Juvenile Court Judge Tarik Sugarman of Shelby County to divert cases to ARC.

12/23 - RI hires Shelby County restorative justice team.

Impact

Our goal is to replace the cradle-to-prison pipeline with a cradle-to-homeownership pipeline by increasing access to high-quality versions of the following resources among marginalized communities:

Healthcare
Education
Social support systems
Economic opportunity
Housing and neighborhoods
Accountability and Restoration Conferencing (ARC) (social support system)

Our RJD initiatives are designed to have several outcomes:

How much (Quantitative)?

24+ people harmed enrolled in ARC process
24+ responsible parties enrolled in ARC process
24+ people harmed progressively continuing or completing ARC process
24+ responsible parties progressively continuing or completing ARC process
How well (Qualitative)?

100% of people harmed are given ARC as an option
100% of responsible parties in cases where there is a person harmed are given ARC as an option
90% of cases referred to ARC are accepted
100% of MOU-eligible cases referred to ARC process
90%+ of people harmed enrolled are satisfied with ARC outcomes
90%+ persons' harmed needs met
90%+ of people harmed feel justice and healing following ARC participation
90%+ or responsible parties successfully complete the restoration plan
90%+ of responsible parties successfully complete their violence intervention fellowship
90%+ responsible parties satisfied with ARC process
90%+ of responsible parties' needs met
100% of cases accepted would have otherwise been prosecuted or potentially involved sentencing to juvenile detention (DCS facility), jail, or prison.
So what (Impact)

24+ people harmed expressed a sense of achieving healing and/or justice for themselves
24+ responsible parties expressed a sense of personal transformation
0 responsible parties are convicted of new charge within 3 years of ARC completion
90%+ of people harmed who complete the ARC process express a sense of achieving healing and/or justice for themselves
90%+ of responsible parties who complete the process express a sense of personal transformation.
100% of responsible parties who complete the ARC process are not convicted of a new charge within three years of completion.
100% of responsible parties can articulate their ability to account for the harm they caused.
Early Embrace (education, social support system, economic opportunity)

Early Embrace is designed to accomplish the following:

How much (Quantitative)?

25+ MDHA residents enrolled in network cohort Tier 1
5+ Latin residents enrolled in network cohort Tier 1
5+ Muslim residents enrolled in network cohort Tier 1
50+ Parent-families of children served by network providers enrolled in Early Bridge Builder (EBB)
How well (Qualitative)?

90%+ of network cohort participants graduate
90%+ of parent-families complete 12-month EBB curriculum
80%+ of parent-families served by a network provider are enrolled in Early Bridge Builder
90%+ of network cohort participants complete Tier 1
80%+ of network cohort participants complete Tier 2
70%+ of network cohort participants complete Tier 3
So what (Impact)

50+ network graduates operate home-based early education center
50+ parent-families report parental competency after 12 months
250+ children served by network graduates
50+ parent-families served by the network are searching for or maintaining employment for 9 months after their child(ren) is enrolled in the network
90%+ network graduates operate home-based early education center
90%+ parent-families report parental competency after 12 months
80%+ increase in early learning access among children served by network graduates
100% of parent-families cite having network childcare contributed to their ability to search for or maintain employment

Needs

Our most pressing needs are:

1. Marketing/Social Media expertise
2. Fund Development support

CEO Statement

We are excited to announce our expansion to Memphis, Shelby County, TN.

Board Chair Statement

We value compassionate healing.
We value positive transformation.
We value being called, empowered, and guided by Love.
We value being just.
We value being excellent.
We value shared power and shared freedom.
We value innovative collaboration.

Service Categories
Primary Category:	Human Services  - Human Services
Secondary Category:	Employment  - Job Training
Tertiary Category:	Education  - Preschools

Areas Served

Shelby County

TN - Davidson

TN - Tennessee (Entire State)