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.
