Our Work
The Policy Innovation Lab was established with the vision of offering McCourt students with hands-on experiences to develop the skills needed to create policy that serves and responds to the needs of communities. Through PIL, Lab members develop relationships and strategic partnerships with local organizations and community members to understand and address the profound challenges faced by large segments of the city’s population, particularly people and families living in Wards 7 and 8.
The Policy Innovation Lab seek students motivated to develop connections between public policy and the people and groups it is aimed to serve. PIL students engage in biweekly lab sessions covering the Lab’s curriculum, instruction on research methods, guest speakers, peer feedback sessions and additional ongoing learning. In addition to a curriculum that covers DC History, Data Gathering and Research Methods, and Research Dissemination, Lab members work directly with local organizations and community members to co-design, develop and evaluate partner-sponsored policy projects that support the people and families living in Wards 7 and 8.
Frank McCourt recognizing the powerful work the Policy Innovation Lab does during ’23 Commencement Speech
Projects
A critical driver of the Lab’s work is making connections between public policy and the people and groups it is aimed to serve. As the Lab has matured, it has generated great interest, support, and involvement both inside and outside the university; particularly among McCourt students and an ever-growing group of community partners. PIL engages in partnerships that help us to pursue our mission and where there is alignment with our core values.
The Lab’s work is grounded in three domains:
- Racial equity and social justice through its commitment to work on projects and policies that promote racial equity and advance an agenda of inclusion, equitable opportunity, and justice;
- Deep listening and engagement with community leaders, residents, and other stakeholders, recognizing that policy must be designed in collaboration with the people who it is designed to serve; and
- Systems and human-centered design thinking in order to deeply engage the experiences and views of residents, to help advance policy innovation, and to assist in understanding the complex and interdependent issues affecting the lives of residents and their communities in Wards 7 and 8.
Our work has included, but is not limited to:
- Hosting community listening sessions
- Drafting policy briefs
- Testifying in government hearings
- Undertaking targeted research and analysis, e.g. equitable development, housing affordability, safe passages to schools, comprehensive community development planning
- Developing community-based policy and/or program tools, e.g. actor maps maps, logic models, human-centered design processes
Recent PIL Projects
Improving the Success of DC Public Housing Projects
This project aims to provide recommendations for best practices for the evaluation of future proposals, to identify criteria that contribute to success or failure of Housing Initiatives in DC.
Community-Based Grocery Options in D.C.
This project examines existing D.C. policies aimed at addressing food insecurity through supermarkets. The goal was to provide the D.C. government with information about how policies aimed at addressing food insecurity impact small grocers.
Partnerships
The Policy Innovation Lab has been fortunate to work with community partners to provide timely policy research to build the capacity for progress in Washington, DC. Since our founding, we have worked with the following partners:
- Bread for the City
- EmpowerEd
- DC Appleseed
- Robert White’s Office
- Consumer Health Foundation
- DC Council Committee on Housing and Neighborhood Revitalization
- DC Department of Small and Local Business, Innovation and Equitable Development Office
- Jubilee Housing
- Justice and Sustainability Associates
- National Housing Trust
- One DC
- Safe Places for the Advancement of Community Equity (SPACES)
- Urban Institute
- DC Office of Planning
- Empower DC
- Mayor’s Office of Racial Equity
- US Forest Service Northern Research Station
- Anacostia Park and Community Collaborative (APACC)
- 11th Street Bridge Park Project
- DC Housing Authority
- Office of the Deputy Mayor for Education
- LISC – DC
- MOMS Demand Action for Gun Sense in America
- Stoop Law
- Latisha Atkins, Manon Matchett, Brenda Richardson – Residents of Ward 7 and 8
If you’re interested in joining our network of partners and hosting a group of students for a project, please contact Dr. Amanda Lu (amanda.lu@georgetown.edu)