The Evidence Generation initiative at John Jay College of Criminal Justice trains graduate and advanced undergraduate students to help communities identify, confront, and resolve the challenges involved in building compelling evidence for the effectiveness of public safety programs and policies. Part-time students hired by the Research and Evaluation Center at John Jay College are trained to design and deploy credible evaluation methods and to disseminate research findings in publicly accessible ways that allow non-researchers to understand evaluation knowledge and apply that knowledge in building public safety and community well-being.
The Evidence Generation initiative was launched with grants from foundations and philanthropies. Start-up funding was provided by Mr. Jack Rudin and the Rudin family foundations of New York City. From 2012 to 2014, the initiative was supported by the Pinkerton Foundation of New York. Additional funding was provided in 2015 and 2016 by the Annie E. Casey Foundation and the New York City Administration for Children’s Services. More recently, the Rudin family foundations provided a modest amount of continuation funding.
The research team at JohnJayREC seeks additional funding that will allow Evidence Generation to train new cohorts of evaluation experts prepared to devote their careers to strengthening public safety in the New York City area and beyond.