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Elizabeth Vartkessian, Executive Director In late 2018, many of us at ARC, Inc. started thinking about what our goals for the organization had been when it was first founded. From the beginning our vision for ARC, Inc. was a big one: we wanted to transform the way that people think about justice and about the human beings who stand accused of crimes. From our experiences of developing and presenting mitigation in capital cases, we believed that mitigation was the best tool to accomplish that task.
That big goal is what we wanted to get back to in our daily work. So we began an intensive strategic planning process with our Board, staff, and partners. We developed a new mission statement that we believe gets more at the heart of what our work is all about. We established goals for the next few years to significantly expand our efforts to provide training opportunities for defenders across the country, to engage in more one-on-one support and technical assistance with those who can benefit from learning the best practices of mitigation, to conduct and share research that can help move us all forward in our practices, and to make resources more easily available to defenders regardless of their geographic location. Today, we are taking our first major step in pursuing those goals by launching a new website, in which we hope to share more about our work than ever before. You'll see our new mission statement featured prominently when you visit the site; you'll also see much more information about why we believe so strongly in the work that we do and the ways in which it connects to movements for justice everywhere. But the shift is more than just a change in branding or messaging. With the new site launch, we are also making public an initial version of our Resource Clearinghouse. Currently, it contains some of the essential documents and tools we share with those who attend our trainings, additional materials on key issues, and information about upcoming training seminars (hosted by ARC, Inc. and by other organizations). As the site grows, we'll add to the current collection of resources and create new materials, such as our upcoming webinar series on file organization and document review. This section of the site will be kept password-protected so that we can share highly detailed information and techniques. If you are interested in gaining access to the site, please complete this form. Outside of the website itself, there are two other items I am excited to share:
Whether you've been with us from the beginning or are new to our community, I hope you'll explore the new site and get to know our work a little better. Please get in touch with us about what kinds of information you would find useful, ways you would like to get involved, or other topics. This is an exciting year for us at ARC, Inc. Thanks for being a part of it. Comments are closed.
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