The Governmental Research Association (GRA) has awarded its Outstanding Policy Achievement Award to the RESET Louisiana initiative, a collaboration of CABL, the Public Affairs Research Council, and the Committee of 100 for Economic Development. Established in 1914, GRA is a national organization for professionals engaged in governmental research. Its membership includes state-level and metro-area public policy research groups across the country.
RESET Louisiana is a targeted, nonpartisan effort focused on four essential issues: Education, State Finances, Criminal Justice/Public Safety, and Transportation/Infrastructure.
RESET launched in 2019 and met with more than 200 legislative candidates around the state, educating them on the initiative’s four major issues and the specifics behind them. Its work of advancing policy reforms continued through the 2021 legislative session and included publications, presentations, videos, and social media.
As GRA noted, RESET took a unique approach to begin at the source and assisted candidates in forming ideas that would truly help those they wished to serve. This project helped accomplish significant change in Louisiana this past year in each of the four key policy areas and has the potential to serve as a model to organizations in other states looking to make similar progress.
The RESET project was submitted to GRA by PAR, which also won the award for Most Outstanding Research for its Louisiana Constitutional Reform Project and recognition for its video short on the Louisiana Coastal Master Plan.