NICJR has developed an innovative approach to eventually transform the youth justice system, initially established as a juvenile diversion program. NICJR has been working with several jurisdictions to design the program and began implementation in Oakland in 2020. The Oakland NOAB is a youth diversion program that seeks to provide an alternative to the formal juvenile justice system by utilizing a community-led process that prioritizes restorative justice, healing, and making strategic connections between youth and support systems within the community.

In 2017, the J.M. Kaplan Fund awarded NICJR its Innovation Prize to develop the NOAB Initiative. Under NOAB, youth accused of nonviolent felonies are diverted from the court system and, instead, appear before neighborhood-led councils made up of community members, including business owners, clergy, local leaders, crime survivors, family members of incarcerated young people, and other youth. The ultimate goal of NOAB is to develop a successful pilot that can be replicated nationally to transform the juvenile justice system. NOAB seeks to reinvest the significant resources saved from reducing youth incarceration into communities, families, and young people.

Following two years of program development, NICJR is now piloting NOAB in Oakland, CA. On April 22, 2020, the Oakland City Council unanimously approved a two-year MOU between NICJR and the Oakland Police Department to operate this innovative initiative, which launched May 1.