At Policy Ground, we assemble teams of professionals from across disciplines—lawyers, researchers, practitioners and experts from the field, and specialists across subject matters--to tackle challenging projects and drive innovation.
Legal Services for CVI Organizations—Pilot Program
Secured funding from the Skadden Fellowship Foundation and the Community Violence Legal Network to pilot a partnership between the Community Violence Legal Network, Brooklyn Law School's Community Development Clinic, and a New York City community violence intervention (CVI) organization. The pilot focused on providing general legal counsel to CVI groups, with an emphasis on risk assessment and compliance. The project is developing templates and models that legal service providers can use to represent CVI organizations going forward.
Areas of Expertise
Community Violence Intervention
Policy Practice Areas
Accountability and Risk
Policy Toolkit
Strategic Policy
Blueprint for Scaling CVI in a Major U.S. City
Drafted a comprehensive blueprint for the NYC Crisis Management System (CMS) for scaling community violence intervention across the city, with funding and support from the Community Violence Legal Network. Engaged the leadership of the CMS network of CVI providers, gathered perspectives from dozens of practitioners and leaders, and organized their input into a framework, report, and set of actionable recommendations for the mayoral administration.
Areas of Expertise
Community Violence Intervention
Public Safety
Gun Violence
Policy Practice Areas
Policy Platform
Policy Framework
Strategic Policy
Responsible AI Implementation for National Non-Profit
Developed and implemented a responsible AI framework for a national education nonprofit, trained their team on it, and drafted the resulting policy. The organization had a basic usage policy but lacked an ethical framework or sophistication in its approach. This engagement blended organizational psychology with a practical ethical and responsible AI framework, producing policy and guidance the organization could apply with consistency as it grows.
Areas of Expertise
Responsible AI
Policy Practice Areas
Strategic Policy
Policy Framework
Policy Toolkit
Accountability and Risk
Training and Implementation
Open Minds, Open Doors
Designed and ran a campaign to expand housing access for people with criminal histories. In partnership with the NYC Mayor's Office of Criminal Justice, produced a series of network-and-learn events for landlords and brokers across New York City. The events drew on narrative storytelling, research on the justice-involved population, and behavioral science to shift attitudes and open doors to voucher holders with justice histories. The initiative brought together a team of over a dozen professionals spanning research, the sciences, lived experience, housing expertise, storytelling, and dramaturgy. It was funded by Enterprise Community Partners, the Robin Hood Foundation, and Trinity Church Wall Street Philanthropies.
Areas of Expertise
Housing
Reentry
Policy Practice Areas
Policy Platform
Strategic Policy
Implementation
Overhauled Admissions Policies for Justice-involved Persons for the New York City Housing Authority
Developed a framework for overhauling NYCHA's admissions criteria for applicants with criminal histories and drafted the revised policies, then shepherded leadership through implementation of the changes. The work drew on administrative data and current reentry research to assess criminal background in context and produce policy aligned with the authority's mission.
Areas of Expertise
Housing
Reentry
Policy Practice Areas
Strategic Policy
Policy Framework
Policy Toolkit
Research
Program Design
Implementation
New York City Gun Violence Hotspots Data Study
On behalf of the New York City Council, assembled and led a team of criminology researchers—ncluding researchers from John Jay College—to review publicly available gun violence data and map hotspots across the city. The team conducted fieldwork across nearly 900 city blocks, developed a typology of gun violence hotspots, audited existing public datasets, and made recommendations for improving data quality and structure so communities can better understand and respond to violence. Subsequent changes to NYPD public data reporting reflect several of the study's recommendations.
Areas of Expertise
Gun Violence
Public Safety
Policing
Policy Practice Areas
Research
Policy Framework
Policy Platforms for Mayoral Candidate
Led the policy team for Maya Wiley's mayoral campaign on housing and policing, writing the briefs for both platforms and providing senior strategy through the final months of the campaign.
Areas of Expertise
Policing
Housing
Policy Practice Areas
Policy Platform

