Community-based policy ideas, research, and solutions.

The New Hood is a policy center dedicated to developing public policy that builds thriving Black and Brown urban neighborhoods. We believe that the people most affected by public policy should have a central role in shaping it. Too often, policies affecting Black and Brown communities are developed by outside institutions and experts who lack direct ties to the communities they seek to serve. The result can be policies that problematize communities rather than address the systemic challenges they face. The New Hood works to change that.

We incubate, develop, and amplify the policies and perspectives of people from the hood, using lived experience as a guide for developing solutions and strengthening community self-determination in the policy arena. We collaborate with community-based organizations, activists, advocates, scholars, and policy professionals to develop policy ideas, build analytical and advocacy skills, and create pathways for more Black and Brown people from the hood to enter and shape the policy field.

Our work includes community-based policy research and development, education and training, leadership development, and narrative change. Through workshops, policy labs, fellowships, research, publications, podcasts, and public events, we create space for communities to imagine a different future for their neighborhoods and develop the tools to help achieve it. We also connect policymakers and broader audiences with the perspectives, research, and solutions emerging from Black and Brown communities.

We envision a future where Black and Brown neighborhoods are thriving decades into the future—and where the people who call these communities home have the knowledge, resources, and power to help shape that future.

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