Institute Intelligence, April 2025: Analyzing New York’s Human Services Sector, Launching the Civic Engagement Fellowship
By Carla Sinclair, Senior Communications Associate
Hello from New York, where spring is in full swing. Both here and across the country, state and local governments—along with their critical research and community-based partners—are continuing to navigate a changing landscape.
Our work this (and every) month aims to support these public sector institutions in their work, whether through quantifying the need for investment in the human services sector, building the next generation of civic engagement leaders, or building an evidence base on the impact of criminal legal reforms.
Through it all, we’re looking forward to the road ahead.
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Optimizing Governments & Institutions
Using Data to Better Understand New York State’s Human Services Landscape, Its Workers, What They’re Paid, And How We Can Invest in a More Sustainable Public Sector.
New York’s human services sector is crucial to the State’s social fabric, with hundreds of thousands of people relying on public services from substance abuse services to food assistance to childcare to services for the elderly. But despite the importance of these services, wages in the human services sector lag behind the cost of living, straining the pipeline of people entering and staying in these careers, and causing financial and wellbeing strains on workers providing critical services.
We’ve conducted an in-depth analysis to better understand the breadth of the state’s human services landscape and their wages, as well as quantify the need for investment in it, to lay out a roadmap to a more robust, sustainable, and effective public sector. In our new interactive, digital report format, dive into the findings, which include:
1 in 9 New York employees work in a human services-related industry.
Human services-related employment has nearly doubled to almost a million since 2000.
Human services workers are underpaid by at least $20,000 per worker each year.
The cost of living for a single adult New Yorker is about $60,000 per worker per year—or about $27-$29/hour on a full-time basis. This is much higher than typical wages of about $40,000 per year for workers in a human services-related industry
Seeking M/WBE-certified business owners for focus groups on their experiences doing business with the City
We’ve partnered with the NYC Department of Small Business Services (SBS) to better understand how businesses do work with the City, what barriers exist, and how they might be overcome.
As part of the study, we’re hosting focus groups to learn about the experiences and insights Minority and Women-owned Business Enterprises (M/WBE) NYC business owners have on working or attempting to work with the City of New York, its prime contractors/vendors, and private sector entities.
Insights will help inform improvements to the City’s contracting process and business resources, and as a thank-you for your time, you’ll be entered into a raffle to win one of 20 $100 gift cards. Are you or is someone you know a business owner? Share and sign up here
Promoting Opportunity
Seeking Tomorrow’s Leaders for our Inaugural Civic Engagement Fellows—CUNY Students, Apply Today!
Elected officials and the policies they enact should always reflect the diversity of NYC. Our newly released Civic Engagement Fellowship, an initiative between CUNY ISLG and the New York City Campaign Finance Board, aims to empower the next generation of leaders leading the charge. In this two-year Fellowship for CUNY students, Fellows will have the opportunity to be embedded within community-based organizations (CBOs) to inform, educate, and empower voters in their respective communities. Beginning as a paid, full-time program in summer 2025, the Fellows will shift to part-time at their CBOs for the Fall and Spring semesters before returning to the CBO full-time after graduation in May 2026.
Applications are open now and are being reviewed on a rolling basis until June 2025. Get more information here.
On our Blog: Program Director Patrick Hart breaks down what Fellows can expect to learn, do, and earn over the course of the two-year fellowship.
Evaluating What Works in Using Community Health Workers to Connect with People Leaving Incarceration
People who have been incarcerated often lack a primary care physician upon release, rely on emergency departments for healthcare, lack essential medications, and disproportionately experience mental health issues that interfere with the ability to manage serious medical conditions. The NYC Health Justice Network (HJN) embeds community health workers in primary care and community-based organization sites to connect these folks to primary care and other wraparound services (e.g., employment and housing services).
On our blog, Research Associate Aimee McPhail highlights the findings and key takeaways from HJN’s recent evaluation, funded by the Criminal Justice Investment Initiative, a partnership between ISLG and the Manhattan District Attorney’s Office.
Advancing Justice
Tracking data annually to analyze if pretrial reforms lead to crime
Every year for the past four years, CUNY ISLG has analyzed the link between crime and pretrial release reforms in Safety + Justice Challenge cities and counties across the country. Using a mix of individual-level jail data and county-level crime trends, this year’s analysis affirms past findings: violent crime and the rate that people returned to jail after release have remained the same before and after reforms were implemented.
Researchers Erin Sheena and Sana Khan dig into the numbers on our blog.
Hosting a Free Webinar Series on Capacity-Building and Restorative Justice for Community Organizations—Sign Up!
Calling all community-based organizations interested in restorative justice: our free webinar series will provide expert perspectives on building general organizational capacity and infrastructure through a restorative justice lens. This series is offered through the Community-Based Restorative Justice Initiative. See the info below for upcoming sessions and sign-up links; all sessions will take place on Zoom in the Eastern Time Zone.
Building Trauma-Responsive Teams
Tuesday, May 20th at 10-11:30am: https://bit.ly/4j421re
This webinar will explore trauma-responsive approaches to supporting staff and implementing community-based programs. Facilitated by Kenton Kirby.
AI for Community-Based Organizations
Thursday, May 22nd at 12:00pm - 1:30pm: https://bit.ly/3Rhb6ko
This webinar will explore how to use AI to strengthen and streamline your programs and responsibilities. Facilitated by Michael Clarke.
Managing Risk as Community-Based Organizations
Thursday, May 29th at 10-11:30am: https://bit.ly/4iddDHe
This webinar will explore common challenges to managing and mitigating risk as CBOs, and strategies for overcoming them. Facilitated by Nathanial Tolbert.
Making Data Work for Us!
Thursday, June 5th at 12:00pm - 1:30pm: bit.ly/3EiJDvO
This webinar will explore best practices for using data and technology to support your team and achieve organizational goals. Facilitated by Larry Arps.
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