CSI is a “policy intermediary”: we bridge the worlds of public policy and grassroots organizing, to ensure that local activism is strengthened by research and ambitious policy ideas, and that policy development is informed by community perspectives.  This way, policy reflects the needs and lived experience of real people, and activists can make policy demands with real impact on the lives of their communities.

All of our projects work to develop potentially transformative ideas, nurture leaders who can advocate for them, and provide communications strategies to increase support for efforts to address structural racism. 

Here are the major projects that we are currently engaged in:

Race and Opportunity in New York City: Using “opportunity mapping” to understand how resources are distributed across different communities, CSI has detailed stark racial disparities in New York City and the surrounding region.  We will use this information to foster public discussion of how we can create a thriving region for all of us. 

Diversity Advancement Project: for too long, race has played a corrosive role in American political discourse, manipulated by the right to erode support for humane and progressive policies that benefit us all.  CSI uses empirical tests to develop and refine strategies for fostering productive conversation.  

Alston Bannerman Leadership Initiative: For 20 years, the Alston Bannerman program has offered much-needed sabbaticals to organizers of color, who work tirelessly on the front lines of social justice.  At CSI, the program is being expanded, to include an option for intensive research projects, and to create a national activist network, with the Bannerman alumni as its core.

Gulf Coast Leaders Network: Even today, the work of rebuilding in the wake of Hurricane Katrina remains cruelly unfinished.  In this perpetual crisis, activists and community organizations remain overstretched and overwhelmed.  CSI’s Gulf Coast Leaders Network creates space for local leaders from the Gulf States to come together to forge a truly regional effort to demand equitable rebuilding.

Building Resiliency in Communities (BRIC): The federal government allocates billions of dollars to local law-enforcement for disaster preparedness.  What if some of these funds instead went to support community infrastructure building, and a public health approach?  BRIC is an effort to design such a program, and to build a movement to push for federal action to support it.

Mississippi Leaders Education Advocacy Development (MS-LEAD): Mississippi is a state where public schools fail dramatically to meet the needs of Black and rural families.  But there is room for change: local education and racial justice advocates have had increasing success in demanding that the state address persistent racial inequities in public education funding.  CSI is working on a capacity scan to assess the needs of education advocates and the strategic opportunities for reform.

Land Loss Prevention Initiative: Across the south, economic pressures are forcing African-Americans and others to sell or abandon land that has, often, been in their families for generations.  CSI is working with the Ford Foundation to coordinate and assess efforts to keep these families on their land.  This work builds on our efforts to develop sustainable rural development strategies in Columbia, SC.