The TakeRoot Justice Research and Policy Initiative partners with and provides strategic support to grassroots community organizations to build the power of their organizing and advocacy work. We utilize a Participatory Action Research model in which organizers and community members are central communities are central to the design and development of research and policy.
Our work takes a variety of forms in New York City’s communities. The following are a few examples to show how we use research to inform policy initiatives.
Participatory Action Research Reports: We work with our community partners to design, administer, analyze and write participatory action research reports used by to educate community members, engage elected officials and advocate for socially just policies. You can see examples here.
Grassroots Policymaking: With our partners, we research and develop ground-up policy solutions to problems they identify and document.
Strategic Campaign Research: We conduct background research and develop fact sheets to provide strategic data in support of organizing campaigns. Our partners use these materials in leadership development and base-building and to educate elected and government officials about specific issues and campaigns.
Popular-Education Curriculum Design and Research Training: Our trainings and tools assist communities in designing and conducting their own research. We also conduct trainings on a variety of research topics to build the capacity of our partner organizations.