Executive Summary

CUP’s mission is to use the power of art and design to increase meaningful civic engagement, in partnership with marginalized communities. Our primary audience is marginalized, vulnerable, and low-income communities throughout New York City. who are impacted by public policies. With their input, we design visual resources that support community-defined and -led movements to make policy more understandable, actionable, and equitable.

Our collaborative design process brings together: (1) CUP staff as facilitators and art directors, (2) graphic designers as visual translators of complex information, (3) organizers and advocates as policy and social service experts, and (4) community members as lived experience experts.

Together, we create accessible, visual materials that amplify community voices and support individuals to navigate public institutions and systems such as healthcare, housing, immigration, and incarceration. For example, *Healthcare is for You! *is a guide about applying for health insurance for individuals who may not know that they qualify and who face one or more intersecting barriers to accessing care, including: undocumented immigrants, people who don’t speak English, transgender, gender non-conforming, or non-binary people, and people living with HIV/AIDS.

CUP has an interdisciplinary and diverse team, and several staff members are directly impacted by the issues we work on. We choose projects through an open call, and partner with organizations who have strong relationships with the communities they serve. We pay directly impacted people to provide feedback throughout our design process, and give 1,000 copies of the final product to our organizing partners for free.

Organizations may provide budget and employee data based on this proposal or the organization as a whole. For more information on this proposal or organization, please email us.