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In Every County, Across All Budget Lines: White Overrepresentation in New York City’s Nonprofit Leadership

April 26, 2023

Nonprofit New York, Candid, SeaChange Capital Partners, and Thomas Economic Policy and Data Consulting, with the support of Robin Hood, conducted a comprehensive assessment in 2022 of the current leadership demographics of the nonprofit sector in New York City using demographic data from nonprofit organizations' Candid nonprofit profiles. This report seeks to establish updated baseline data to inform our understanding of racial and other demographic representation within nonprofit leadership in the New York City area. Eight New York counties are included in the analysis, including Bronx, Kings, Nassau, New York, Queens, Richmond, Suffolk, and Westchester Counties.Our research questions include:What are ways for determining BIPOC-led, as defined by BIPOC communities?What are the current racial, gender, sexual orientation, and (dis)ability demographics of nonprofit sector leaders in New York City?How do the demographics of New York City's nonprofit sector compare to the total population? How do the demographics of New York City's nonprofit sector compare to low-income New Yorkers?How are leadership demographics reflected in various nonprofit subsectors, including poverty alleviating organizations, and organizational sizes?Is there a relationship between the demographic makeup of an organization's leadership and its financial position?This report used a participatory research design to inform our definitions and data analysis. The project sought the perspective, expertise, and thought partnership from Black, Indigenous, and other People of Color (BIPOC) nonprofit associations, BIPOC-led poverty-alleviating organizations, nonprofit racial justice researchers, and BIPOC-identified nonprofit capacity builders.

Revitalizing Civic Engagement through Collaborative Governance: Stories of Success From Around the United States

December 16, 2022

A growing level of political dysfunction and hyper-partisan polarization has led us to a critical point in the way we govern. With democracy under threat and deep distrust of democratic institutions, how can we instill innovative reforms centered around real influence and decision-making power? At a moment of extreme vulnerability, communities and civic organizations need to have genuine political agency by directly influencing policy decision-making. Collaborative governance—or "co-governance"—offers an opportunity to create new forms of civic power. This report offers lessons from across local, city, state, and federal policymaking and highlights effective models of co-governance from community leaders and those in government.

Strengthening Domestic Violence Services for Deaf Survivors: An Evaluation of Barrier Free Living’s Deaf Services Program

August 25, 2022

More than 11 million people in the United States are Deaf, deaf, hard of hearing, late-deafened, or Deaf-Blind. Research indicates deaf people report experiencing victimization at higher rates, but a lack of accessible resources and trauma-informed services for American Sign Language (ASL) speakers makes it difficult for deaf people to report crimes and access support. In response to these issues, the Manhattan District Attorney's Office in 2017 began funding Barrier Free Living (BFL), a provider of services for survivors of domestic violence and their families, to increase access to direct services for deaf survivors and increase local stakeholders' awareness of deaf survivors' needs through its Deaf Services (DS) program.In 2019, Urban, in collaboration with Gallaudet University and NORC at the University of Chicago, began a multimethod process evaluation of BFL's DS program to document its implementation and assess to what extent it achieved its intended goals. 

Banking for the Public Good: Public Bank NYC

May 26, 2022

This case study is part of Demos' new Economic Democracy project, which asks how poor and working-class people, especially in Black and brown communities, can exercise greater control over the economic institutions that shape their lives. This framework has 3 goals:Break up and regulate new corporate power, including Amazon, Google, and Facebook.Expand the meaning of public goods and ensure that services are equitably and publicly administered.Strengthen "co-governance" strategies so that people and public agencies can collectively make decisions about the economy.With the accelerating frequency of climate disasters, it is especially important to build the power of those most impacted by disasters— often Black, brown, and Indigenous communities—to ensure they have equitable access to the resources needed to recover and move forward.This case study spotlights how the New Economy Project (NEP) launched the Public Bank NYC (PBNYC) campaign to build a public bank in New York City that is specifically configured to serve Black and brown communities. By shifting the focus of finance from private profits to the public welfare, public banks can begin to repair harms caused by longstanding discriminatory practices that have extracted wealth from Black and brown people and neighborhoods, like predatory lending, overdraft fees, and redlining.

Exploring a Dance/Movement Program on Mental Health and Well-Being in Survivors of Intimate Partner Violence During a Pandemic

May 26, 2022

Aims: The aim of this study was to explore the feasibility and benefits of a 12-session dance/movement program for intimate partner violence survivors' mental health and PTSD symptoms during the COVID-19 Pandemic. The specific purposes were fourfold: (1) To determine the feasibility of delivering a virtual dance/movement workshop program; (2) to examine the effects of the program on symptoms of PTSD and psychological distress; (3) to determine whether heart rate variability improves; and (4) to describe the individual and shared experiences of a subgroup of participants of the program.Methods: Forty-five women ages 23-48 years were randomized to a 12-session virtual creative dance/movement program or a usual care control group, and completed questionnaires about PTSD and mental health symptoms, general health, physical activity, and underwent a brief measurement of heart rate variability. A subset of the intervention group participated in a semi-structured focus group.Results: The results of the study showed that the female survivors of intimate partner violence who participated in the virtual workshops felt better, and they experienced improved affect and reduced tension. They found new ways to express themselves, attune to their bodies, learn new self-care habits, and build community as they engaged in the workshops. Over the course of the study, the participants' symptoms of PTSD and psychological distress lessened. There were no changes in heart rate variability.Conclusions: This complex study was successfully completed during a global pandemic and resulted in improvements in some mental health symptoms and overall well-being. Given the importance of this work with intimate partner violence survivors, further work exploring dance/movement workshops for participants virtually and in-person is needed.

Climbing the Ladder: Roadblocks Faced by Immigrants in the New York City Construction Industry

May 23, 2022

As of 2021, immigrants comprised a larger share of the construction workforce than of any other sector in New York City (Office of the New York State Comptroller 2021). Between 2015 and 2019, immigrants comprised just 37 percent of the total New York City population, but 44 percent of the city's labor force and 63 percent of all its construction workers (Ruggles et al. 2021). The Center for Migration Studies of New York (CMS) estimates that in this time period, 41 percent of the immigrant construction workforce was undocumented.Economic exploitation and safety hazards are prevalent across the entire construction industry. However, despite the essential role immigrants play in the construction industry in New York City and the United States, immigrant construction workers are especially vulnerable to exploitation and dangerous conditions. Lack of employment authorization, social safety nets, English proficiency, credentials recognition, and training opportunities, as well as discrimination place immigrants at a stark disadvantage as they try to enter, negotiate, and advance in this industry. For this report, the CMS research team interviewed 16 immigrant construction workers from 10 countries and 10 other experts in this industry, including business representatives, union organizers, and representatives of community-based organizations (CBOs). Five of these representatives were immigrants and former construction workers. With research assistance from the New York-based consulting firm Locker Associates, Inc., CMS used these interviews, together with several other data sources, to examine how construction workers in New York City find employment, their work arrangements, and barriers and conditions that endanger their health, safety, and economic well-being.

NYC Hispanic/Latinx Health Action Agenda 2021-2025, Our Health-Our Future

March 9, 2022

The New York City Hispanic/Latinx Health Action Agenda is a result of a community driven health policy process that brought together over 60 Community-Based Organizations/Agencies and 72 community leaders, faith-based leaders, experienced clinical and non-clinical service providers. Facilitated by the Hispanic Health Network, Hispanic Federation, and the Latino Commission on AIDS, the process started in October 2020 with a series of consultations with key public health leaders, community providers, and members of health networks with expertise in the health field and Hispanic/Latinx communities. Soon after, steering and planning committees were developed to ensure a broader reach of Hispanic/Latinx community leaders and Hispanic/Latinx serving organizations throughout all NYC boroughs.In the Spring of 2021, the steering and planning groups engaged in facilitated conversations aimed to reach consensus on key subpopulations and health issues to focus on for this health policy agenda. Additionally, this newly formed network of organizations and leaders sought to fortify Hispanic/Latinx health leadership with a health policy-focused perspective to guide decision-makers and impact legislation, particularly at a moment in which NYC is preparing for a critical municipal election scheduled for November.The overarching goal of this NYC Hispanic/Latinx Health Action Agenda is to improve health outcomes among Hispanic/ Latinx New Yorkers living throughout all the boroughs while ensuring Hispanic/Latinx participation and inclusion and impacting health policy decision making in order to address health disparities and inequities in New York City. To do so, participants in this process established a conceptual framework to guide the assessment of the health needs of Hispanic/Latinx New Yorkers and develop a set of health policy recommendations.

HueArts NYC Map & Directory

February 16, 2022

This project was initiated by Museum Hue, The Laundromat Project, and Hester Street. They collectively conceptualized and designed it in response to the needs they experienced and observed in the arts sector; and then sought joint funding. The partners recognize the vast diversity of arts entities that focus on vast artistic mediums (visual arts, theater, literary arts, dance, art, music, film, and more). The result of this project is this digital map that begins to capture the arts entities and provides resources to support further conversation with philanthropy and other funders. We will continue to gather resources to include additional POC arts entities in the future.

HueArts NYC: Brown Paper

February 16, 2022

The HueArts NYC project was initiated by Museum Hue, The Laundromat Project, and Hester Street. They collectively conceptualized and designed it in response to the needs they experienced and observed in the arts sector; and then sought joint funding. The partners recognize the vast diversity of arts entities that focus on vast artistic mediums (visual arts, theater, literary arts, dance, art, music, film, and more). The result of this project is a digital map that begins to capture the arts entities and provides resources to support further conversation with philanthropy and other funders. We will continue to gather resources to include additional POC arts entities in the future.HueArts NYC is also a call to action. This community-informed brown paper offers findings from our research and clear recommendations for more indepth studies and funding to ensure the long-term stability and sustainability of arts entities founded and led by Black, Latinx, Indigenous, Asian, Pacific Islander, Middle Eastern, and all People of Color.

La Gran Manzana: The Road Ahead For New York City’s Latino Community

October 26, 2021

This report from Hispanic Federation is a policy blueprint with recommendations on how the next Mayor and City Council can improve the lives of nearly 2.5 million Latinos who call New York City home. Recommendations include, increasing New York City's Nonprofit Stabilization Fund to $50 million over a five-year period to support people of color-led nonprofit organizations and ensure that nonprofits can engage in long-term planning to meet operational infrastructure needs and technical assistance, establishing free full-day pre-kindergarten for all three- and four year olds, electing a Latino/a as the next Speaker of the City Council, and more.

The Changing Face of Creativity in New York: Sustaining NYC's Immigrant Arts Ecosystem Through Crisis and Beyond

December 18, 2020

Each new decade brings a fresh wave of concern that New York City risks losing some of its cultural spark. Even before the coronavirus pandemic hit, New York's soaring cost of living and the lure of cities from Baltimore to Berlin had threatened the city's position at the apex of global culture. At the same time, a powerful, growing force of cultural vibrancy has reenergized the city in recent years and sharpened New York's creative edge: immigrant artists.Foreign-born artists have long been here, birthing world-altering movements from abstract expressionism to hip-hop. More than any previous era, however, immigrants have become pivotal to the success of the arts in New York.But now the livelihoods of countless immigrant artists—and the survival of the cultural organizations that champion their work—are facing major threats. Without the benefit of endowments or large donor bases to help cushion the blow, many immigrant-led and immigrant-serving arts organizations are facing fiscal catastrophe, reporting revenue losses amounting to 50 percent or more of their annual budgets. Meanwhile, many immigrant artists have struggled to access government relief, even as income from exhibitions, performances, and side jobs has all dried up.While city support for immigrant arts had increased in recent years, that funding is now in jeopardy: the city's 2021 budget cuts more than $23 million from the Department of Cultural Affairs and slashes funding for Council discretionary initiatives by $79 million—funding that many immigrant-serving arts organizations rely on.This report provides a new level of detail on the landscape of immigrant arts in New York City— and what's needed to sustain immigrant arts communities across the five boroughs.

Failing to Protect and Serve: Police Department Policies Towards Transgender People

May 7, 2019

American policing is in grave need of reform. Reports of racial and religious profiling, killings of unarmed civilians, and sexual abuse and other forms of misconduct by police across the nation are all too common. Over half (58%) of transgender people who interacted with law enforcement that knew they were transgender in the last year reported experiences of harassment, abuse or other mistreatment by the police according to the US Transgender Survey (USTS). Transgender people often feel, accurately, that they can do nothing about this mistreatment, knowing that they risk falling victim to additional mistreatment by those tasked with conducting and overseeing the complaint process.As we make groundbreaking advancements towards transgender equality, many members of our communities continue to be affected by disproportionate contact with, and often by bias and abuse within, policing and the criminal justice system. Transgender people face staggering levels of violence, homelessness, and poverty in the United States, with transgender people of color experiencing the greatest disparities. Thus, it is not surprising that, even though transgender people are more likely to be victims of violent crime than non-transgender people, over half (57%) of all USTS respondents feel uncomfortable calling the police for help when they need it.The purpose of this report is to promote stronger and more fair policies when it comes to police interactions with transgender people. This report focuses primarily on policies specifically governing police interactions with transgender people, including non-discrimination statements, recognition of non-binary identities in applicable policies, use of respectful communication, recording information in department forms, search procedures, transportation, placement in temporary lock-up facilities, access to medication, removal of appearance related items, training, and bathroom access. For each topic, model policies are provided that can and should be adopted by police departments in collaboration with transgender leaders in their communities.