CUP’s core staff supports the organization from day to day, but CUP projects are designed and implemented by teams of artists, designers, educators, activists, and researchers.
Know Your Lines
Making Policy Public
Participatory Budgeting
Technical Assistance
Store Stories
City Studies
Power Trip
Urban Investigations
Grand Army Plaza
Urban Investigations
Fast Trash
City Studies
Advocacy Partners
Sean Basinski
Sean works for the Street Vendor Project, a membership-based organization of more than 700 vendors who work together to ... moreSean Basinski
Sean works for the Street Vendor Project, a membership-based organization of more than 700 vendors who work together to protect the rights of vendors and promote vendor-friendly reform. Sean worked with CUP to help produce the MPP Vendor Power!
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The Urban Homesteading Assistance Board
The Urban Homesteading Assistance Board is a nonprofit organization that helps low-income tenants control their housing ... moreThe Urban Homesteading Assistance Board
The Urban Homesteading Assistance Board is a nonprofit organization that helps low-income tenants control their housing through the creation of limited-equity cooperatives. UHAB also helps tenants preserve existing and affordable housing by empowering them to make proactive decisions about the future of their homes. UHAB collaborated with CUP on the MPP Predatory Equity.
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Youth Justice Board
The Youth Justice Board is a leadership program that gives young people a voice in policies that affect their lives, and ... moreYouth Justice Board
The Youth Justice Board is a leadership program that gives young people a voice in policies that affect their lives, and provides policymakers access to the insights of informed young people. Each year, a team of high-school-age youth from across New York City investigates a juvenile justice or public safety issue, formulates policy recommendations and works to implement its recommendations. The current Youth Justice Board seeks to expand and improve the City’s Alternatives to Detention (ATD) programs for young people charged with delinquencies. The Youth Justice Board is a project of the Center for Court Innovation and the Center for Courts and the Community. The Youth Justice Board was the advocate for the MPP I Got Arrested! Now What?
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Lisa Burris
Lisa Burris began with GOLES as the PHROLES organizer in June 2005. She has been a life-long resident of Public Housing ... moreLisa Burris
Lisa Burris began with GOLES as the PHROLES organizer in June 2005. She has been a life-long resident of Public Housing and began working with PHROLES as a steering committee member, eventually becoming the co-chair of the committee. Lisa graduated with a bachelor’s degree in Sociology from New Paltz College in 2003 and since has dedicated herself to creating social change. After college, Lisa worked teaching independent living skills to aging out foster children. She is a member of the United Nations Youth Council and co-founded Cultural Unity an organization in New Paltz dedicated to increasing cultural awareness and creating unity through education. Her organizing experience, incredible passion to create change, and first hand knowledge of public housing issues have prepared her for the challenges of organizing around public housing issues. She is bilingual in English and Spanish. Lisa Burris has worked on PHTV: What’s up with Public Housing?
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The Longshore Worker’s Coalition
The Longshore Worker’s Coalition (LWC) is a movement of ILA members and retirees organizing to build a stronger and ... moreThe Longshore Worker’s Coalition
The Longshore Worker’s Coalition (LWC) is a movement of ILA members and retirees organizing to build a stronger and more democratic longshore union. They have ports up and down the East and Gulf Coasts. They were partners with CUP on The Cargo Chain MPP.
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Families For Freedom
Families For Freedom is a New York-based multi-ethnic defense network by and for immigrants facing deportation. It is a ... moreFamilies For Freedom
Families For Freedom is a New York-based multi-ethnic defense network by and for immigrants facing deportation. It is a source of education and action for directly affected families, and an organizing support center for directly affected communities. FFF works for change through community mobilization, legal advocacy, media work, and congressional outreach. FFF collaborated with CUP on the MPP Immigrants Beware!
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Community Voices Heard
Community Voices Heard (CVH) is a membership-based community group that works to engage low-income families in organizing ... moreCommunity Voices Heard
Community Voices Heard (CVH) is a membership-based community group that works to engage low-income families in organizing campaigns to influence policy that affects their families and their communities. CVH was started in 1994 by women on public assistance who wanted to fight to have their voices included in the national debate on welfare reform. CVH places priority on leadership development, policy education, direct action, participatory research and community outreach to build the tools necessary to engage community members and win on policy issues. CVH is currently working with CUP on the Public Housing Participation MPP.
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Josh Lerner
Josh Lerner is Director of The Participatory Budgeting Project, an organization that works with elected officials, public ... moreJosh Lerner
Josh Lerner is Director of The Participatory Budgeting Project, an organization that works with elected officials, public agencies, and community groups to open up public budgets to public participation. He completed his PhD in Politics at The New School for Social Research and a Masters in Planning at the University of Toronto, and he has taught at Fordham University and The New School. He has published in venues such as “The Christian Science Monitor”, “The National Civic Review”, “YES!” Magazine, “The Good Society”, “Shelterforce”, and the “Journal of Public Budgeting, Accounting and Financial Management”.
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Justin Levitt
Justin Levitt is counsel at the Brennan Center for Justice at NYU School of Law, focusing on redistricting, election ... moreJustin Levitt
Justin Levitt is counsel at the Brennan Center for Justice at NYU School of Law, focusing on redistricting, election administration, and other voting rights concerns. Mr. Levitt is the author or co-author of articles in both law reviews and peer-reviewed publications, and has also written many shorter commentaries for a more public audience. His Brennan Center monographs, including A Citizen’s Guide to Redistricting (2008), The Truth About Voter Fraud (2007), and Making the List (2006), have been cited extensively in the courts and in the media. He worked with CUP to produce the MPP Know Your Lines.
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Desiree Marshall
Desireé Marshall is the Lead Organizer at FIERCE, a community organization for Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender, ... moreDesiree Marshall
Desireé Marshall is the Lead Organizer at FIERCE, a community organization for Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender, Queer and Questioning (LGBTQ) youth of color ages 13-24 in New York City. FIERCE is dedicated to building the leadership and power of LGBTQ youth of color, through direct-action campaigns, youth and leadership development, as well as various events that connect to the culture of our community. Desireé coordinates the development of FIERCE’s campaign work along with member-leaders of the Campaign Steering Committee. She earned her Bachelor’s Degree at Hofstra University in Anthropology and Philosophy. She is also a Spoken Word poet and makes a fierce batch of stuffed pasta shells. Desireé is currently working with CUP on the Keeping Parks Public MPP.
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Brendan McBride
As a researcher in Brazil, El Salvador, and Mexico, Brendan began to understand the powerful role immigrant remittances ... moreBrendan McBride
As a researcher in Brazil, El Salvador, and Mexico, Brendan began to understand the powerful role immigrant remittances play in improving economic opportunities and standards of living in immigrants’ hometowns. Back in his native New Jersey, Brendan coordinated an outreach team that connected migrant farmworkers to medical services, an experience that that got him thinking about the transformational power of well-targeted information. Brendan has also worked in affordable housing development for over ten years, mostly in cities in the US. In 2010, he founded Remás, a nonprofit organization motivated by the belief that people everywhere, no matter who they are or where they come from, should have access to information that improves their financial options in life. He has written about microfinance, housing, and immigration issues for United Nations Habitat, Habitat for Humanity and as a Fellow at Kiva. Brendan earned a B.A. in Anthropology from Amherst College and a M.Sc. in Urban Development and Management from Erasmus University in the Netherlands. He enjoys cooking, biking, and embarrassing himself in foreign languages.
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NEDAP
Neighborhood Economic Development Advocacy Project (NEDAP) is a resource and advocacy center for community groups in New ... moreNEDAP
Neighborhood Economic Development Advocacy Project (NEDAP) is a resource and advocacy center for community groups in New York City. Its mission is to promote community economic justice and to eliminate discriminatory economic practices that harm communities and perpetuate inequality and poverty. NEDAP employs multiple strategies – including community outreach and education, advocacy, coalition organizing, policy research and analysis, media outreach, technical support for community groups, and direct legal services – to expand access to fair and affordable credit and financial services needed to develop and sustain healthy and safe communities. NEDAP will be working with CUP on the upcoming Banks on the Fringe MPP.
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Tenants and Neighbors
Tenants and Neighbors is the largest tenant’s rights organization in the New York State, with 15,000 members. For ... moreTenants and Neighbors
Tenants and Neighbors is the largest tenant’s rights organization in the New York State, with 15,000 members. For more than 30 years, through grassroots organizing, T&N has forged a powerful movement in the fight to preserve affordable housing, strengthen tenant protections, and sustain diverse and livable communities. They collaborated with CUP on the MPP Predatory Equity.
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Dave Powell
Dave Powell has worked as a tenant organizer and tenant advocate for the Metropolitan Council on Housing, The Fifth Avenue ... moreDave Powell
Dave Powell has worked as a tenant organizer and tenant advocate for the Metropolitan Council on Housing, The Fifth Avenue Committee, and Tenants & Neighbors. He is currently working on a documentary film, “It Took 50 Years: Frances Goldin and the Struggle for Cooper Square”. In 2001, CUP interviewed Dave for the “Building Codes” exhibit at the Storefront for Art in Architecture. While at the Fifth Avenue Committee, Dave collaborated with CUP on workshops about housing and land use. These workshops utilized the first proto-type of CUP’s Affordable Housing Toolkit.
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Remás
Brendan McBride has worked in affordable housing development for over ten years. In 2010, he founded Remás, a ... moreRemás
Brendan McBride has worked in affordable housing development for over ten years. In 2010, he founded Remás, a nonprofit organization motivated by the belief that people everywhere, no matter who they are or where they come from, should have access to information that improves their financial options in life. He has written about microfinance, housing, and immigration issues for United Nations Habitat, Habitat for Humanity and as a Kiva Fellow. He enjoys cooking, biking, and embarrassing himself in foreign languages. Brendan will be working with CUP on the upcoming MPP Increasing Immigrants’ Access to Banks.
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The Fortune Society
The Fortune Society, founded in 1967, supports a broad array of alternative-to-incarceration and reentry initiatives for ... moreThe Fortune Society
The Fortune Society, founded in 1967, supports a broad array of alternative-to-incarceration and reentry initiatives for people with criminal records. Fortune founded the David Rothenberg Center for Public Policy (DRCPP) to coordinate Fortune’s policy development, advocacy, technical assistance, training, and community education efforts. DRCPP promotes programs that support people with criminal records, and works to change the laws and policies that create counterproductive barriers to the successful reentry of people with criminal records into our communities. The Fortune Society Collaborated with CUP on the MPP Barriers to Reentry.
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Damascus Citizens for Sustainability
In February 2008, concerned residents formed Damascus Citizens for Sustainability (DCS) to protect this invaluable water ... moreDamascus Citizens for Sustainability
In February 2008, concerned residents formed Damascus Citizens for Sustainability (DCS) to protect this invaluable water resource which has been targeted by the gas extraction industry. The Delaware River Watershed provides drinking water for some 20 million people from four states: New York, Pennsylvania, New Jersey and Delaware. Drilling into the shale rock that lies below this watershed to extract the natural gas would introduce a long list of toxic chemicals into the environment, thus putting drinking water at risk. DCS has helped to lead the charge to stop the drilling through public education, legal action and grass-roots organizing. DCS is currently working with CUP to produce the Fracking in the Delaware River Watershed MPP.
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Domestic Workers United
Founded in 2000, Domestic Workers United (DWU) is a membership-based organization of nannies, housekeepers, and elder ... moreDomestic Workers United
Founded in 2000, Domestic Workers United (DWU) is a membership-based organization of nannies, housekeepers, and elder caregivers organizing for power, respect, fair labor standards, and to help build a movement for social change. In 2010, DWU and its allies brought their power to bear when the nation’s first Domestic Workers Bill of Rights was signed into law in New York. New York domestic workers are now guaranteed basic rights and protections, including paid days off, overtime, and protection from discrimination. DWU is currently working with CUP on an MPP about the Domestic Workers Bill of Rights.
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Anusha Venkataraman
Anusha Venkataraman is an urban planner, writer, artist, and activist. She is presently the Assistant Director of the Green ... moreAnusha Venkataraman
Anusha Venkataraman is an urban planner, writer, artist, and activist. She is presently the Assistant Director of the Green Light District initiative at El Puente, a community human rights institution in Brooklyn, NY. She has worked with numerous community groups in local organizing efforts, and as a visual artist both individually and with collectives. In 2010, she edited Intractable Democracy: Fifty Years of Community-Based Planning, a book celebrating New York City’s legacy of grassroots neighborhood-based activism. Anusha was the Youth and Outreach Director at the Steel Yard in Providence, Rhode Island. She holds a master’s degree in City and Regional Planning from Pratt Institute, and a bachelor’s degree in International Relations from Brown University. She served on a 2013 Public Access Design jury.
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Erika Wood
Erika L. Wood is an Associate Professor of Law at New York Law School. Previously, she was the Deputy Director of the ... moreErika Wood
Erika L. Wood is an Associate Professor of Law at New York Law School. Previously, she was the Deputy Director of the Democracy Program at the Brennan Center for Justice where she designed and launched major reform campaigns around the country and provided legal counsel and strategic guidance to advocates, legislators, and policymakers nationwide. Erika has litigated complex civil rights cases and is a frequent speaker and commentator on voting rights, criminal justice reform and racial justice issues. In 2010, she worked with CUP to produce the MPP Know Your Lines.
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