CUP: Recent pages: Projects/TechnicalAssistance

Parents Rights During Covid19

Clair Beltran — Fri, 04 Dec 2020 10:52:38 -0500

Projects/TechnicalAssistance/ParentsRightsDuringCOVID19

Parents and caregivers who interact with NYC’s Administration for Children’s Services (ACS), the agency responsible for investigating reports of child abuse and neglect, are often unfamliar with their rights, which can result in unnecessary harm to and separation from their families. The COVID-19 pandemic has only intensified the need for information that can help them protect their families during an investigation.

As a part of CUP’s rapid-response work to help meet the pressing needs of our partners during the pandemic, we developed a resource with Brooklyn Defender Services (BDS) to help parents understand their rights when dealing with ACS during the COVID-19 crisis.

The visuals were adapted from an earlier collaboration with BDS and designer Manuel Miranda called What You Need to Know About ACS about parents’ rights when dealing with ACS.

Education Rights For Families

Clair Beltran — Fri, 04 Dec 2020 10:52:09 -0500

Projects/TechnicalAssistance/EducationRightsForFamilies

The COVID-19 pandemic has changed public school education in NYC. Schools have been working to make safe environments for their students but unexpected changes and delays have left parents and caregivers struggling to figure out what school looks like for their children this year.

As a part of CUP’s work to help meet the urgent needs of our partners during the pandemic, we developed a resource with Brooklyn Defender Services (BDS) to help parents understand their rights around their child’s education during the 2020-2021 school year. The guide includes rights that parents and children have around accessing special education services, opting into in-person or remote learning, accessing electronic devices, and getting free childcare support.

The visuals for this project were adapted from a collaboration with BDS and designer Manuel Miranda called What You Need to Know About ACS.

Is Your Landlord Using Construction To Harass You

Sucharitha Yelimeli — Tue, 29 Sep 2020 17:41:49 -0400

Projects/TechnicalAssistance/IsYourLandlordUsingConstructionToHarassYou

Construction harassment is a serious problem. It makes life harder and more dangerous for tenants and landlords use it to push tenants out so they can raise the rent, sometimes so much that the unit is no longer rent-stabilized.

In 2017, the New York City Council passed several bills to reform the Department of Buildings (DOB) and hold landlords and contractors accountable for construction harassment. These new laws provide tenants with some powerful tools to advocate for themselves, but only if tenants are aware that they exist!

CUP teamed up with Stand for Tenant Safety (STS) and design studio L+L to create Is Your Landlord Using Construction to Harass You? in both Spanish and English. The guide helps rent-stabilized tenants who are targets of construction harassment understand what construction harassment is, what their rights are, and how to assert them. Part of understanding their rights includes things like looking out for the proper documentation of construction happening in their apartments, as well as holding landlords and contractors accountable for illegal practices like dangerous construction, construction during off-hours, and offering buy-outs. The guide also includes detailed information on how to take action if tenants experience construction harassment.

Thousands of copies of the guide in English and Spanish are being distributed by STS to tenants and housing advocates throughout the city.

Ready Set Apply

Clair Beltran — Tue, 21 Jan 2020 11:31:41 -0500

Projects/TechnicalAssistance/ReadySetApply

Getting ready to apply for affordable housing takes time, and it involves more than just filling out paperwork. Each building has different income qualifications and required materials, which can make putting together a strong application confusing. What exactly is affordable housing, and what does it take to qualify to live in it? How much money should you save and what kind of credit do you need to have?

The New York City Department of Housing Preservation & Development (HPD) and the New York City Department of Consumer Affairs, Office of Financial Empowerment (OFE) approached CUP to help create Ready, Set, Apply!, a guide to applying for affordable housing subsidized by HPD and the New York City Housing Development Corporation (HDC). This guide lays out each step of the application process, how to organize a strong application for an affordable housing unit, and provides referrals to other resources that can support your application.

Financial empowerment and preparedness is a key part of preparing an affordable housing application. In addition to explaining how to apply for affordable housing, Ready, Set, Apply! provides concrete steps that low- to moderate-income people can take to strengthen their financial profile before even starting their applications.

Download your copy of the booklet here.

Spanish translation of this project is available here.

CUP has since partnered with HPD to translate the guide into sixteen additional languages, Albanian, Arabic, Bengali, Chinese (Traditional), Chinese (Simplified), French, Haitian Creole, Hindi, Italian, Korean, Polish, Punjabi, Russian, Urdu, Yiddish, and Yoruba. You can download all the translations here.

What Do Incarcerated People Need To Know About Acs

Jade Levine — Thu, 11 Jul 2019 12:44:38 -0400

Projects/TechnicalAssistance/WhatDoIncarceratedPeopleNeedToKnowAboutACS

The Administration for Children’s Services (ACS) is the New York City agency responsible for protecting children. For a parent who has to deal with ACS, the process can be intimidating because ACS has the power to remove children in cases of abuse or neglect. Parents who are incarcerated are much more likely to face an ACS investigation than other parents, but there are resources available to help — as long as they know how to access them.

CUP teamed up with public defenders from The Bronx Defenders and Brooklyn Defender Services who are experts in advocating for parental rights in the ACS process, and designer Manuel Miranda to create What Do Incarcerated Parents Need to Know About ACS? This pamphlet shows how ACS’s complicated investigation process works, and helps incarcerated parents understand what they can do to make sure they get the best results for their family.

For an incarcerated mother or father, staying engaged in their children’s lives while they are incarcerated, and showing up in court for hearings about their family are critical steps to maintaining their parental rights. This pamphlet helps parents understand when those hearings happen, and how to get help staying connected to their children.

Freedom Together

siyona ravi — Thu, 25 Apr 2019 13:48:39 -0400

Projects/TechnicalAssistance/FreedomTogether

Going to court can be scary and confusing for anyone and attending a bond hearing in Immigration Court is no different. Reassuring and supporting your friend, family member, or loved one in the process leading up to the hearing can help lessen the stress and provide crucial help for their case. What is a bond? What is a bond hearing, and how does paying bond affect the outcome of the hearing?

The Bronx Defenders and The Immigrant Defense Project joined with CUP in order to create Freedom Together, an informational guide that helps family members, and friends support their loved ones during a bond hearing.This guide lays out steps that help support, encourage, and ease the stress of an immigration case. Readers learn how impactful their words, their presence, and their experiences are not only of the case but on the individual they are supporting.

Download your copy of the booklet here.

Spanish translation of this project is available here.

Laws that determine who qualifies for bonds are changing across the county, so consult a legal representative near you to find out if you or your loved one qualify for a bond hearing. Click here for a national immigration legal services directory.

Planning For Your Childrens Future

James Boyd — Fri, 22 Mar 2019 14:10:33 -0400

Projects/TechnicalAssistance/PlanningForYourChildrensFuture

As immigrant families are facing increasing challenges and harsh restrictions on their liberty, many parents are forced to confront the reality of being separated from their children because of detainment or deportation. Along with having to navigate complex legal battles that often put them at risk, parents also have to plan ahead for their children.

The Center for Family Life first approached CUP in 2017 to create a set of tools to help parents facing deportation find a caregiver for their children and plan for the next steps. After using these tools in workshops across New York City, CFL found that parents were looking for support in the difficult and emotional process of talking to children about their situation.

CUP collaborated with the Center for Family Life and designer Lizania Cruz to create a workbook and conversation guide for parents. The guide includes age-appropriate tips on how to talk to children and involve them in the process, and how to plan for such an event with your family and a potential caregiver. The guide is available in both Spanish and English.

Planning for your children’s future launched at a symposium for immigrant rights advocates at Recess art in March 2019. The guide will be used in workshops conducted by the Center for Family Life and distributed with the first set of tools that were created.

What Up With Dat

siyona ravi — Mon, 28 Jan 2019 11:25:23 -0500

Projects/TechnicalAssistance/WhatUpWithDAT

A Desk Appearance Ticket (DAT) is a criminal court summons and approximately 50,000 are handed out each year. Though it’s commonly called a ticket, the consequences of missing a DAT are far greater than missing a parking or traffic ticket. For many people who receive DATs, it’s their first time interacting with the criminal justice system and the process can be scary and confusing. This booklet was designed to help citizens understand what to do after receiving a DAT.

CUP collaborated with The Bronx Defenders and Youth Represent, two organizations with expertise in the criminal justice field, and designers WeShouldDoItAll to create an easy to read booklet that advises individuals who receive a DAT on the proper steps they need to take before going to Criminal Court.

Understanding the difference between a DAT and other tickets can save you from civil consequences like issues with your employment or immigration status. In addition to defining what a DAT is, this booklet also offers advice on how to prepare for your appearance and the potential outcomes of your case.

A Spanish translation of this project is available here.

Breathe Easier At Home

Mark Torrey — Wed, 16 Jan 2019 13:58:37 -0500

Projects/TechnicalAssistance/BreatheEasierAtHome

Everyone has the right to a safe and healthy home, including public housing residents. But mold and moisture in an apartment can make it dangerous, especially for those with asthma. The law says that people living in public housing with asthma have special rights that require the management of their housing to take steps to fix problems with mold and moisture, but not many people know about this law.

To help get the word out, the National Resources Defense Council (NRDC) asked CUP to help create a guide that lets tenants know how to use their rights and how to hold public housing management accountable. CUP collaborated with NRDC and designer Njoki Gitahi to create Breathe Easier at Home, a bilingual guide in English and Spanish to help New Yorkers with asthma living in public housing navigate the process of getting mold and moisture problems fixed.

Download your own copy of the guide here!

Is Your Neighborhood Getting Too Expensive

aska mukuti — Tue, 06 Nov 2018 13:53:52 -0500

Projects/TechnicalAssistance/IsYourNeighborhoodGettingTooExpensive

Rent stabilization is a law that makes housing more affordable to thousands of New Yorkers by limiting how often and how much rent can go up. But tenants don’t always know their rights, and are sometimes afraid to demand them. Landlords eager to cash in on increasing property values often pressure tenants to move out, and harass them to make it difficult for them to stay.

In 2013, CUP collaborated with the Chinatown-based organization CAAAV and designers IntraCollaborative to create a Chinese and English fold-out poster that helps all tenants, including rent stabilized tenants, know and claim their rights. CAAAV recognized that, despite important laws on the books, many people couldn’t access their rights because they didn’t know about them, and as a result were being illegally evicted. The project has been developed into a Spanish-language edition and a subway poster campaign. It has been so successful and influential that the New York City Department of Housing Preservation & Development (HPD) approached CUP about updating and adapting it to reach a larger audience in 2017.

The poster provides information on how to challenge harassment and other illegal practices, and how to find tenant resources. The HPD version also includes content explaining new and updated policies to combat harassment and discrimination in housing.

You can get copies of the poster here, or read more about the original project here.

Dick Rick

aska mukuti — Wed, 24 Oct 2018 11:13:19 -0400

Projects/TechnicalAssistance/DickRick

More and more people are practicing some form of community-engaged design, or social impact design, or human-centered design. Whatever you call it, are there right and wrong ways to do it?

The Equity Collective, a group of practitioners in the field, worked with CUP and illustrator Ping Zhu to create a tongue-in-cheek storybook that shines a light on how good community-engaged design practices can not only create good projects, but also advance social justice, and how poor practices are hurting not only the field, but the communities it claims to serve.

Download your own copy of the guide here!

The Newtown Creek Boa

aska mukuti — Wed, 24 Oct 2018 11:08:55 -0400

Projects/TechnicalAssistance/TheNewtownCreekBOA

What is a brownfield?

You see them every day. Brownfields are those vacant or underused sites that aren’t being redeveloped because people are afraid they might be contaminated from previous industrial or commercial uses. Some are contaminated, some aren’t. But if banks, developers, or the public are afraid of these sites, or if property owners can’t get loans to reclaim or use them, then they end up neglected.

To help overcome these problems, the New York State Department of State created the Brownfield Opportunity Areas Program, which provides financial support for communities that have many brownfields to create local plans for redevelopment.

In 2010, the Greenpoint Manufacturing & Design Center worked with CUP and design studio DoubleTriple to produce a brochure that would explain the state’s program and the local planning process to residents and industry in the neighborhoods around the Newtown Creek. The goal of the planning process was to engage a broad range of stakeholders to participate in shaping a vision for future development that would allow the area’s industries to grow while improving access to the waterfront.

We produced a short, mailable pamphlet that broke down brownfields and the BOA process, and even recounted the area’s industrial history.

Ready Set Apply Admin

Mark Torrey — Fri, 07 Sep 2018 17:06:17 -0400

Projects/TechnicalAssistance/ReadySetApplyAdmin

Plan For Your Childs Future

Nick Johnson — Thu, 24 May 2018 10:24:30 -0400

Projects/TechnicalAssistance/PlanForYourChildsFuture

Under the current administration, immigrant parents are increasingly worried about who will care for their children if they are detained and deported. Deciding who will care for a child is a difficult and emotional process that can involve legal proceedings–putting an already fearful parent at even greater risk. But there are multiple steps a parent can take on their own to prepare for such an event.

To help parents facing deportation, CUP worked with the Center for Family Life and designer Lizania Cruz to create Plan for Your Child’s Future!, an illustrated workshop tool. This two-part tool, consisting of a poster and handout, explains the steps a parent can take to make a plan for their children in case they’re detained and deported. The tools are available in both Spanish and English.

Plan For Your Child’s Future! launched at a symposium for immigrant rights advocates in February 2018. Center For Family Life is currently doing dozens of workshops per month in immigrant communities across NYC.

H2 Oh No

Jazlyn Patricio-Archer — Wed, 26 Jul 2017 12:19:34 -0400

Projects/TechnicalAssistance/H2OhNo

Have you ever been told not to go swimming at the beach after a heavy rainfall? Did you ever wonder why? Like many older cities, New York City has a combined sewer system. That just means that dirty water from buildings is collected in the same network of pipes as stormwater from the street and rooftops. Jump in to find out about what’s gross about NYC’s current system, and what you can do about it.

This educational video was produced by CUP with animation by Justin Cassano, and music by Andy Kennedy. After the success of the Sewer in a Suitcase, CUP’s working model of New York City’s sewer system, we produced this animation to get information on combined sewers to even more classrooms and environmental organizations.

Over 200 copies of the animation have already been distributed. It had its debut at the 2012 CUP Benefit, and has since been screened at the Greenpoint Film Festival. In 2013, H2 Oh No! will be installed in the visitor’s center of the Newtown Creek Wastewater Treatment Facility.

Engage To Change

Jazlyn Patricio-Archer — Tue, 13 Dec 2016 13:58:53 -0500

Projects/TechnicalAssistance/EngageToChange

Organizations that provide direct services – such as housing, food, and counseling – fill critical needs in communities. But these needs are also symptoms of systemic problems. How do organizations address both the symptoms and the systemic inequities that cause them? How does addressing systemic issues inform, strengthen, and sustain direct service work? For many organizations, meaningful constituent participation is at the center of addressing the symptoms and fixing the systems that cause them.

CUP teamed up with New York Foundation, Building Movement Project, and designers WeShouldDoItAll to create Engage to Change. This slide deck breaks down the connection between direct service work and supporting higher level social and policy change. Drawing from the work and leadership of service organizations in the New York Foundation’s Learning Lab, this tool uses case studies to illustrate specific actions organizations can take to integrate meaningful constituent participation into their work, and how their work stands to benefit by doing so.

Download your copy of the slide deck here!

Weatheringthe Storm

Mark Torrey — Tue, 11 Oct 2016 16:58:12 -0400

Projects/TechnicalAssistance/WeatheringtheStorm

After major storms like Katrina and Sandy, federal policies around flood insurance have changed dramatically. In New York City, this could mean not only a much larger flood zone, but much higher flood insurance costs for many homeowners. How does flood insurance work? Who needs to get it? How much will it cost? And how do you figure out which flood zone you’re in?

CUP collaborated with the Center for NYC Neighborhoods and designers Manuel Miranda Practice and Schema to create Weathering the Storm. This interactive digital tool breaks down flood insurance, how it’s changing, and what that means for NYC’s homeowners.

The Center for NYC Neighborhoods is using Weathering the Storm as part of their FloodHelpNY outreach initiative throughout New York State.

Visit Weathering the Storm here.

Draw The Line

Christine Gaspar — Thu, 12 Nov 2015 17:58:08 -0500

Projects/TechnicalAssistance/DrawTheLine

After seeing CUP’s work with the Brennan Center for Justice and We Have Photoshop on the issue of redistricting, the MinKwon Center for Community Action approached CUP about creating an outreach tool that would help break the issue down for New York’s fast growing and historically underrepresented Asian-American communities.

Working with designer Nikki Chung, the team created a simple fold-out pamphlet that shows why this is a critical time for the Asian-American community to make their voice heard, and provides the information they need to do so.

The tool is being used by the MinKwon Center and other members of Asian American Community Coalition on Redistricting and Democracy (ACCORD), a group of over twelve organizations working to increase meaningful community representation.

Technical Assistance

Mark Torrey — Wed, 12 Mar 2014 19:13:48 -0400

Projects/TechnicalAssistance

Participatory Budgeting

Sam Holleran — Mon, 21 May 2012 17:30:54 -0400

Projects/TechnicalAssistance/ParticipatoryBudgeting

Participatory Budgeting (or PB) is a new and different way to make decisions about publicly funded projects in New York City neighborhoods. It gives community members real decision-making power over parts of public budgets.

In 2011, four City Council Members agreed to use a participatory budgeting process to let their constituents decide how to spend parts of each district’s public budget, totalling almost $6 million. Over forty community organizations and advocacy groups, led by Community Voices Heard and the Participatory Budgeting Project, have come together to make sure the process is a truly democratic one.

CUP was asked to create accessible outreach and educational materials which would help guarantee that a broad cross-section of people would take part in this process. Working with Glen Cummings of MTWTF, we produced a brochure and flyers in English, Spanish, Polish, Russian, and Bangla. With Lacey Tauber of the Pratt Institute, we produced neighborhood maps to be used during community meetings. Next up, ballots for Spring 2012 voting.

This Is A Test Title

Admin User — Wed, 05 Oct 2011 01:04:41 -0400

Projects/TechnicalAssistance/ThisIsATestTitle

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