Who We Are
The Community Policy Institute works to connect community-driven efforts to in-depth and rigorous policy research and development. We aim to serve as a research and legislation resource for policymakers, community members, elected officials, and advocacy organizations. We focus on analyzing issues through the lens of economic and racial justice. We believe when we uplift key ideas and opportunities, we can continue to improve our state.
We want to create a coalition of committed volunteers to research social issues and write policy fact sheets which can then be used by Issue Campaigns and individuals when advocating for different policies in the community/government. We also want to share skills often reserved for academia, because in our current system not everyone has access to higher education but everyone should have access to research and writing skills and that’s something that can be achieved through community education.
How We Connect with Network Delaware
Network Delaware’s Purpose
Network Delaware focuses on “activating change agents” by giving regular people the support and tools to get involved and enact change in their communities. We believe in the power of regular people getting involved in the civic change process. We believe people are not just essential to implementing real changes in our communities, but that developing people themselves is the essential cause.
The Network’s 3 Core Areas: Leadership Development, Policy Change, & Civic Engagement
- Leadership Development: Trainings/Workshops/Coaching on organizing, Black-led liberation efforts, issue campaigns, and running for office
- Policy Change: Supporting constituent-led issue campaigns to push policy in the areas of: housing rights, Black maternal health, immigrant rights, criminal justice reform, etc.
- Civic Engagement: Activating volunteers to get involved civically through research and policy analysis, media and investigative research, and responding to action alerts
Connections to the Community Policy Initiative
The Community Policy Initiative fits at the intersection of all three of Network Delaware’s three core areas. CPI provides training and feedback for individuals to develop their research/policy skills, supports issues campaigns by providing fact sheets and research/policy materials, and also activates a diverse array of people to get involved in the policy arena (many for the first time).
For Network Delaware, CPI provides a critical role in our state for increasing constituent-led research and policy efforts.