A community building event for those passionate about public policy, community development, and the future of urban neighborhoods was recently held by The New Hood think tank at The New School’s Eugene Lang College of Liberal Arts.
Attendees gathered in Wollman Hall to hear from The New Hood’s founder, Talib Hudson, Ph.D. The night focused on community-based public policy to support Black and Brown urban neighborhoods and ways individuals can get involved.
Founded in 2021, The New Hood is a think tank developing community-based public policy to help urban Black and Brown neighborhoods. The organization is a project of The New School’s Center for New York City Affairs, an applied policy research institute that drives innovation in social policy.
“Our goal is to use the resources and the platform and the skills and the networks that we have here at the university and to connect all those to community leadership and to do work in policy that drives meaningful change in people’s lives,” said Kristin Morse, executive director of Center for New York City Affairs.
“Talib has done that in so many ways with us over the last decade and in this next decade we’re really excited to see this vision come to fruition.” Hudson received a master’s in urban policy analysis and management and a master’s and doctorate in public and urban policy from The New School. Morse supported Hudson at the very beginnings of the think tank in 2016.
The New Hood’s Giving Day campaign, The New School’s first, currently accepts donations to support the continuation of their work. “You’re investing in the future of the hood,” said Hudson, reminding attendees that donating any amount will help the communities he serves.
Kanielle Hernandez works alongside Hudson to build this future as a 2024 Community Healing Policy Fellow with The New Hood. Fellows are supported in developing a policy paper and executing a distribution plan to present their ideas to policy makers. As the founder and president of her organization, the Loisaida Foundry, Hernandez dedicates herself to organizing community events that foster engagement, empowerment, and healing for the Lower East Side.
“I’m not an educator but I do want to inform people on ways that they can help themselves and not wait on a system which is botched. That is not really there for us like it needs to be. That’s part of the effort that we want to change,” said Hernandez. “That’s how me and Talib got together. My community healing initiative and his community healing policy where we create, as leaders, policies that are going to directly impact things that we have been dealing with generation after generation. Now’s the time.” Hudson’s policy work helped Keyonn Sheppard within his position as education coordinator at the Institute for Transformative Mentoring, a training program focusing on the development of formerly incarcerated people working in the social services fields throughout New York City. During Sheppard’s start as an instructor, he did not understand how the work the institute did related back to public policy. Hudson helped bridge that gap.
When Sheppard solves a problem for a group he works with, that does not mean the work is complete. “What about the group’s younger brothers and sisters that are still in the same community facing the same problems? What do we do in order to address the problems?” he asked. “That’s where Dr. Hudson comes in.”
Hudson helps Sheppard address the policy and figure out who’s the right politician to go to. “You don’t know whether to go to the city council person or the assembly person. I’m saying Dr. Hudson is making these things clear and going, ‘This is an issue that goes to this person whereas this is an issue that goes to that person,’” said Sheppard.
Closing the event, Hudson presented his mentors Mindy Thompson Fullilove, MD, and Iesha Sekou with Community Healing Legend awards. Fullilove, a writer and social psychiatrist, inspired Hudson with her book “Root Shock: How Tearing Up City Neighborhoods Hurts America, and What We Can Do About It,” which examines three U.S. cities to uncover results of disinvestment and urban renewal practices that affected communities of color. Hudson identifies it as an essential read.
Hudson’s work with Sekou encouraged his path to founding The New Hood. “Her work is so instrumental to The New Hood and us being here today,” he said. When accepting her award, Sekou recounted times she and Hudson did community outreach on the street with her organization, Street Corner Resources. “He himself is the evidence of the work,” Sekou said, expressing her appreciation for The New Hood.
“I’m so proud of [Talib]. We were really, for real, on the streets,” Sekou said. “Some people do this where they get on the telephone. We’re right outside.”
