ABOUT THE NEW HOOD

Black and Brown urban neighborhoods disproportionately face systemic social inequalities, anchored in public policy ideas developed by academics and institutions outside the community. Across the United States, hundreds of think tanks influence policy, with many shaping decisions affecting working-class Black and Brown urban neighborhoods – commonly known as “the ghetto” or “the hood.” However, policymakers regularly rely on these external think tanks and academics, who lack direct ties to the the hood, to craft policies for the hood. This approach often results in problematizing the community, rather than addressing systemic challenges effectively. Policies purported to “help” the hood can instead cause harm. 

This disconnect between policy design and lived experience underscores the broader issue: there are few think tanks that center scholars from the hood or incorporate their lived experience in research and policy development. At the same time, many community organizations within the hood lack access to analytical research tools and resources for self-determination in the policy arena. 

The New Hood (TNH) bridges this gap as a community-based policy center dedicated to incubating, developing, and amplifying the policies and perspectives of people from the hood. The name reflects an aspirational vision: imagining what the hood could be for current and future generations, and envisioning policies that build the hood for the benefit of the people from the hood.

Based at The New School, TNH aligns with the university’s legacy of heterodox intellectual thought and defiance of tradition. As a community-based policy center rooted in Black and Brown communities, The New Hood disrupts the think tank space.

MISSION

Develop community-based public policy to build thriving urban Black and Brown neighborhoods.

VISION

The New Hood envisions a world where Black and Brown neighborhoods are thriving decades into the future.

OBJECTIVES

STRATEGIES

Collaborate with Black and Brown communities on developing policy ideas 

  • Community-based organizations, activist groups, and advocacy organizations are often run by dedicated community members who do not have formal training in public policy; they may know what their desired outcomes are but not have the technical policy tools to advance most efficiently in that direction. The New Hood works with community groups on policy issues, supporting them in their own self-determination.

  • The New Hood engages with community members to imagine a different future for their neighborhoods and looks to the lived experience of community members for guidance on designing policy proposals for community improvement.

Develop Black and Brown policy professionals from the hood

  • To shape future public policy to benefit people from the hood, there needs to be more policy professionals with direct connections and a sense of accountability to the hood. The New Hood seeks to cultivate the next generation of public policy professionals and make the policy sphere more accessible to them.

Amplify Black and Brown community perspectives on policy issues that impact their hoods

  • Policy is usually developed in the halls of academia and government, in conversations between “experts” and professionals, often excluding the people most impacted by those policies. The New Hood seeks to leverage the credibility that academia provides to amplify perspectives of people who may not have access to privileged policy discussions.

  • Even within the privileged academic conversations that shape policy, some voices are more privileged than others. The New Hood connects with and amplifies the work of various Black and Brown scholars and policy professionals working on issues that directly impact people in the hood.

ACTIVITIES

Incubation and community engagement

  • Partner with community members to develop policy ideas and research through collaborative projects

  • Provide spaces for community members to imagine the future of their hood through workshops, forums, and discussions

Education and training

  • Educate and train community members on public policy and government through limited and ongoing workshops, presentations, media, and events

  • Recruit community members to pursue careers and education in policy and urban studies at The New School

Elevation and narrative shift

  • Shift narratives on policy and urban Black and Brown neighborhoods via multimedia products such as papers, podcasts, and social media posts

  • Provide a platform for Black and Brown scholars and policy professionals from the hood through research support, publications, and networking

  • Engage policymakers with community-based policy research, ideas, and solutions