The Center for NuLeadership on Urban Solutions

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The Center for NuLeadership on Urban Solutions Center for NuLeadership on Human Justice & Healing (CNHJH) is an independent research, training and

The first of its kind in the country, the Center for Nuleadership on Urban Solutions (CNUS) is an independent research, training and Human Justice policy advocacy think tank, founded and developed by academic professionals with prior experience inside the criminal justice system. Formerly at Medgar Evers College in the City University of New York, CNUS is now an autonomous 501(c)(3) nonprofit institution located in Bedford-Stuyvesant, Brooklyn, New York. CNUS is staffed by leaders and experts directly impacted by the criminal justice system. CNUS was founded by the late luminary, Eddie Ellis, who was a consultant with Open Society Institute and successfully secured seed funding from Open Society Institute (now Open Society Foundation) for the development and launch of the NuLeadership Policy Group, later renamed the Center for NuLeadership on Urban Solutions. Our theory of change rests upon philosophical and methodological approaches that attest to the practice of Human Justice as the most effective framework for achieving justice, safety and the wellbeing of communities as it advances Community Empowerment, System Realignment and Individual Transformation. OUR THEORY OF CHANGE consists of two frameworks, philosophical and methodological.

[1] Philosophical Framework for Human Justice
HUMAN RIGHTS + HUMAN DEVELOPMENT = HUMAN JUSTICE

* Human Rights - Inherent Rights & Dignity; Legal, Civil & Human Rights Protection
* Human Development - Capability, Capacity & Opportunities for achieving fullest human potential
* Human Justice - Community Investment & Well-Being; Healing & Accountability for the Individual, Community & System

[2] CSI Methodological Framework for Human Justice

COMMUNITY EMPOWERMENT involves directing resources to targeted neighborhoods to achieve sustainable community development, reinvestment and self-determination in the areas of education, economic development, civic engagement and social services. It involves creating a pool of community stakeholders equipped, trained and adequately resourced to interface with system stakeholders and participate meaningfully and equitably in the decision making process. SYSTEM ACCOUNTABILITY/CHANGE is having a principled mechanism of oversight for quality control, data collection, performance evaluation and community partnership. It is holding the system accountable, analyzing system behavior and forging system-community partnerships for arriving at solutions and outcomes that expand and enable Community Development and Empowerment, and Individual Transformation. INDIVIDUAL TRANSFORMATION places the person, the human being, at the center of any policy, advocacy, practice or program that results in expanded and sustainable life improving opportunities and affirmative support networks. The Center is dedicated to creating new paradigms of justice directed towards reducing mass incarceration, mass unemployment and mass disenfranchisement in communities of color. It produces research, advocacy and activism that challenges and changes the contradictions existing within and among the various disciplines comprising the study of urban affairs, community economic development and criminal punishment. It promotes the development and use of “community specific” and culturally competent models for research inquiry and public policy formulation from the view point of urban communities most affected. The Center works to create new paradigms for achieving Human Justice, a concept developed by CNUS in 2012 to transcend the existing, traditional, criminal and social justice paradigms. We define Human Justice as the merger between Human Rights and Human Development. Our methodology for achieving Human Justice is through community empowerment, system change and individual transformation.

09/06/2026

Building community starts with relationship.

The NuLegacy team recently joined the Anti-Racists of Enfield (ARE) for their monthly meeting—an opportunity to share more about the work and vision of NuLegacy, learn about ARE’s work, and begin building connections across our local Enfield community.

At NuLegacy, we believe creating spaces of belonging means more than inviting people in. It means sharing land, food, knowledge, stories, and experiences in ways that allow people to feel connected—to each other and to the place they’re in.

As we continue growing our Village, we’re excited to deepen relationships with our neighbors and create more opportunities for our young people, families, and community members to gather, learn, and grow together.

09/04/2026

From moving into Lafayette College to returning home as a NuLeadership intern—Bismark Ghanney’s journey shows what becomes possible when a Village invests in a young person and stays alongside him.

Beginning in high school, our Human Justice Village, in partnership with Elevia and Future Allies, connected Bismark with sustained educational support, including one-on-one tutoring through Huntington Learning Center.

As graduation approached, that support expanded into intensive college preparation—from identifying schools and navigating applications to developing essays and creating a strategy for financing his education.

Our education partner Elevia helped secure Bismark $900,000 in scholarship offers! He ultimately chose Lafayette College, where he received a full financial aid package.

In August 2025, the Human Justice Village, Elevia, and Future Allies helped Bismark move into Lafayette to begin his freshman year.

But college acceptance was never the finish line.

Our Human Justice approach is rooted in 360° care, connection, and community—staying alongside young people before college, throughout college, and as they discover what they can contribute to their communities.

After completing his first year, Bismark returned home and spent the summer interning with the Center for NuLeadership on Human Justice & Healing—the same Village that supported his journey to college.

At a recent gathering organized with the Coalition for a Democratic and Just New York City, Bismark stood before the community and shared his journey, what he has learned, and where he is going next.

From tutoring → college preparation → $900,000 in scholarship offers → Lafayette → and now back home, contributing to the Village.

This is Human Justice: not a program that ends when a young person reaches a milestone, but an ecosystem of care, people, resources, relationships, and opportunities that grows alongside them.

Care. Connection. Community. Opportunity. Coming full circle.

Thank you to Elevia, Future Allies, Huntington Learning Center, and our entire Human Justice Village network for making this sustained investment possible.

08/30/2026

The work starts long before the harvest. 🌱

At NuLegacy Farms, every new growing season begins by tending to what’s beneath the surface—turning the soil, restoring nutrients, adding compost, and creating the conditions for new life to take root.

It’s a reminder that growth doesn’t happen by accident. We prepare the ground, nourish what’s been planted, and give it the best possible chance to thrive.

08/27/2026

From Brooklyn to Ithaca, Nu Legacy Farms gives our people a chance to step outside the city and into something different—land, work, community, and connection.

For Rocky, returning to the farm for two weeks brought all of that back. He missed the feeling and smell of the farm, the work, the dogs—but most of all, he missed the people.

“The team, the atmosphere, the energy, the vibe—it just feels like home.”

Rocky’s story is a reminder that Nu Legacy is about more than working the land. It’s about creating a place where people from our Brooklyn community can reconnect, build together, and feel a sense of belonging.

Decarceration isn’t a criminal justice issue. It’s an infrastructure issue.Infrastructure isn’t just roads and buildings...
08/22/2026

Decarceration isn’t a criminal justice issue. It’s an infrastructure issue.

Infrastructure isn’t just roads and buildings. It’s what we need to live well, feel safe and joyful, learn, heal, grow, care for the Earth, and create a future where everyone can thrive and belong — to each other, to humanity, and to the Earth.

Prisons and jails are the result of infrastructure disinvestment. The communities with the highest incarceration rates are the communities bearing the greatest infrastructure deficits from generations of systemic neglect.

Police don’t produce public safety. Communities do — when the physical, human, and community infrastructure around them is actually funded. So closing Rikers was never the real goal. Closing the pipeline to Rikers is.

That means investing in neighborhoods, not just jail capacity. One shrinks incarceration for a moment. The other shrinks it for good.

Swipe through for the full framework →

08/20/2026

What does NuLegacy inspire us to do?

To learn from our history. To reconnect with ourselves and each other. To rethink the terms of how we care for one another. And to create something meaningful for those who come next.

A new legacy doesn’t mean forgetting where we came from — it means carrying it forward, together.

08/16/2026

The land demands a different kind of knowledge.

At NuLegacy, self-sustainability isn’t an idea. It’s a practice. Reading maps. Starting fires. Building shelter. Running equipment. Working the land. Learning to adapt when the rain, snow, wind, or terrain has other plans.

The skills add up. But so does something deeper: an understanding that we aren’t separate from nature, and we aren’t always in control of it.

That’s part of the education too.

NuLegacy is building people who know how to build, grow, adapt, and sustain. 🌱

08/14/2026

Self-sustenance is the road to sovereignty.

NuLegacy isn’t just talking about Black liberation—we’re practicing it. Growing our own food. Building our own systems. Reclaiming the knowledge and resources that allow our communities to sustain themselves.

Politics can talk liberation all day. But liberation without the ability to feed, provide for, and sustain ourselves remains a promise dependent on somebody else.

This is NuLegacy.
This is self-determination in practice.
This is Black liberation.

There are no prison problems. Only community problems.In 1979, a group of incarcerated men at Green Haven Prison — calli...
08/08/2026

There are no prison problems. Only community problems.

In 1979, a group of incarcerated men at Green Haven Prison — calling themselves The Think Tank — set out to answer a question we’re still asking today: why are Black and Latino New Yorkers so disproportionately represented in the state’s prison system?

Their research found that 85% of New York State’s prison population was Black or Latino, and 75% of them came from just seven NYC neighborhoods. Decades later, the same zip codes — Bedford-Stuyvesant, Brownsville, East New York — are still carrying that weight.

This isn’t a coincidence. It’s a direct relationship between disinvestment and incarceration, documented by the very people the system was built to contain.

Swipe through for the data, the history, and the case for a different approach — one where the answer to community harm is community investment, not incarceration.

📍 Bed-Stuy · Brownsville · East New York
🔗 Link in bio to learn more about our work

EndMassIncarceration CriminalJusticeReform InvestInCommunities NYC

08/03/2026

“To grow up costs the earth.” — Maya Angelou
(From her 1990 conversation with George Plimpton, where she reflected that most people grow older—but don’t truly grow up.)

When we put our hands in the soil, we aren’t just growing food—we’re growing ourselves. The earth teaches patience, accountability, reciprocity, and care. It reminds us that every action leaves an imprint, and every generation inherits what the last one cultivated.

This is NuLegacy.

🎙️ Audio: Maya Angelou

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510 Gates Avenue
New York, NY
11216

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+1 347-295-0748

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