By Matt Bolt, Alliance AmeriCorps VISTA member serving at Carlton County Restorative Justice Program

As a VISTA at the Carlton County Restorative Justice Program, I have been working on improving the Program's tracking, evaluation, and reporting of data. I convened multiple meetings with the Program Coordinators to assess their current database and data collection practices, and determined that a new database would be the best way for the Program to improve its accuracy and efficiency, and thus its service to youth across the county.
Since then I have been working with the IT department to design a new, streamlined database, revamping the Program's data collection practices in the process. When my year of service is through, the Restorative Justice Program will have a database that produces quality information from meaningful data, which will help them with funding, support, and continued growth - all of which will help the program to better serve the county's youth who interact with the criminal justice system.
From Voices from the Field, Summer 2018