Each Fellow—and the CBOs in which they are embedded—works on meaningful initiatives designed to foster voter education and engagement. But each Fellow’s work looks different day-to-day or overall. The South Bronx is a diverse, multifaceted collection of communities, and the CBOs that serve it have a wide range of services, programming, and target populations.

A snapshot of the work we’ve done this past month.

“It's not a glamorous job, and it's not one where you're going to get rich. What we do behind the scenes in legislative offices most days is helping and working and interacting with the community.”

The timely resolution of court cases is a responsibility of the court system. But many criminal courts struggle to resolve cases in reasonable timeframes, with case processing times increasing even when court filings decrease.

Amid mixed results to date, policymakers can insist on better implementation of New York’s discovery reform, provide prosecutors with whatever tools they need, and steadfastly avoid sacrificing the due process rights of people facing charges. This joint piece is a collaboration between two of CUNY’s preeminent research organizations to get us there.

“Following a decade of economic growth in New York City and the enactment of high-earner income tax increases in 2021, this report provides an updated and comprehensive picture of the fiscal flow between New York City and New York State.”

Affordable housing is a priority issue for state and local governments across the country. One unique method these policymakers have to incentivize the creation of more housing is strategic property tax policies that target vacant or underutilized properties.

Across New York City, Community-Based Restorative Justice Initiative organizations are using RJ as a framework for youth services, from elementary to high school and afterschool programming. “Instead of it being something that we use for conflict and peer-to-peer mediation, it's more an overall form of communication, a way to bring the community together.”

Raising wages for human services workers not only is beneficial to those individuals; it is also a strategic policy intervention with far-reaching benefits for communities and the broader economy.

When work is grounded in data, community context, and collaboration, projects can pivot and address solutions to all the problems that arise along the way. This is what happened when CUNY ISLG researchers worked with Fulton County partners to launch a Center for Diversion and Services.

A critical component of TI-APIP is how it “centers a unique trauma-informed approach that helps boil down the complexities inherent in relationships with violence.”