photo by: Dylan Lysen/Journal-World

Guests at Justice Matters' 2021 action assembly celebrate after hearing local officials pledge to support some of the group's requested actions to fight injustice and chronic homelessness in Douglas County.

The faith-based advocacy group Justice Matters will soon hold its annual assembly where the group calls for local leaders to take specific action on community issues, such as homelessness and criminal justice reform.

The Justice Matters Action Assembly will take place on Thursday evening. As part of the event, members of the community directly affected by the identified issues will share testimonies, according to a Justice Matters news release. Some local leaders, including city commissioners, county commissioners and school board members, typically attend the event and respond to issues highlighted by the group.

“The Action Assembly brings our collective voices together to promote specific solutions to address urgent problems in our community,” Justice Matters co-president Ann Spangler said in a statement to the Journal-World. “We do this by asking for commitments from public officials who have the power to impact change in the following areas: restorative practices in our schools, ending homelessness, alternatives to incarceration, and quality of care for the elderly population.”

Spangler said that Justice Matters anticipates that approximately 1,000 “people of faith” will attend the event, which she said increases accountability and demonstrates the level of support public officials have to “implement systemic solutions to community problems.”

Justice Matters will discuss four issues as part of the Action Assembly, and the group’s position and requests regarding the issues are as follows, according to the news release.

• Full implementation of restorative practices in the Lawrence school district: Justice Matters will ask school board members to advocate for the next steps on shifting away from punitive disciplinary practices and toward a restorative justice framework.

• Improving quality of life for our elders: Justice Matters will call for a commitment from county leaders to convene a meeting in collaboration with health care service providers to discuss how to address the shortage of qualified staff in senior care jobs.

• Ending our crisis of chronic homelessness: Justice Matters will invite a representative of the Kansas Department of Aging & Disabilities to explain the need for a comprehensive plan that braids together funding sources and unites local stakeholders around a vision of functional zero homelessness, and will ask city and county leaders to ensure the KU-CPPR Douglas County Homelessness Needs Assessment will be used to inform the development of a comprehensive plan.

• Eliminating unnecessary jail bookings: Justice Matters will ask the police chief and sheriff to establish policies that will reduce arrests and bookings on failure to appear charge.

The Justice Matters Action Assembly will take place on Thursday from 6:30 to 8 p.m. in the Open Pavilion at the Douglas County Fairgrounds, 2120 Harper St.

The release states that participants will be seated inside the semi-outdoor Open Pavilion with ample space for social distancing. Masks will be required based on the latest COVID-19 guidelines from Lawrence-Douglas County Public Health.