Public policy and planning systems are often confusing by design and can feel intentionally exclusionary to the people they affect most. CUP changes that by making these systems transparent, understandable, and actionable. Their work allows individuals and communities to advocate for themselves with clarity and confidence, breaking down power structures and reimagining civic participation as something accessible to all. Whether it’s zoning laws, tenants’ rights, or immigration proceedings, CUP’s creative tools demystify systems and help communities fight for justice and equity.

Ghana ThinkTank addresses the imbalance of who defines expertise and innovation. By inverting the typical flow of international aid and development, it highlights the value of local knowledge in non-Western contexts. Its process encourages cross-cultural empathy, reframes power structures, and challenges assumptions rooted in colonial and technocratic mindsets.

Perfect City repositions young people—especially from marginalized communities—as architects of the future. It shifts the narrative of who holds expertise in city planning, and opens civic design to those most affected by inequitable systems. The project also models what sustained, creative, power-sharing engagement can look like in practice.

This book reframes city-making as a collaborative cultural process—shaped by stories, rituals, and relationships, not just bricks and regulations. It offers a vocabulary and set of practices for embedding empathy, pluralism, and public imagination into civic infrastructure, directly aligning with The Change Lab’s mission of building social cohesion and systemic change from the ground up.

Red Sand Project transforms everyday urban infrastructure into a site of empathy and justice. Its participatory model offers a low-barrier entry point for civic awareness and community-led dialogue, turning symbolic action into a deeper commitment to systemic change.

UpSkill Houston addresses systemic workforce challenges by focusing on equity, access, and alignment. Their cross-sector approach makes them a vital regional convener and innovator in economic mobility, especially for historically underserved populations.

Texans just scored three major victories for housing, property rights, and local democracy!

Thanks to leadership from the Texas Legislature and Governor Greg Abbott, three transformative housing bills are now law.

Narrative Initiative strengthens the connective tissue between story, power, and systemic change. Their work supports movements in building shared narratives that counter disinformation, deepen civic belonging, and make progress toward equity and justice possible.

In an era of political polarization and economic precarity, Changing Work offers a hopeful and inclusive vision of what work could be. By listening deeply and amplifying voices often left out of policy debates, they help shape a future of work that centers dignity, equity, and democracy.

In an era of disconnection and division, Narrative 4 provides a relational practice that builds empathy at scale. Their work helps shift culture by making it easier—and safer—for people to understand one another across race, class, ideology, and geography. It's more than storytelling. It's structural empathy.

In a fragmented civic landscape, BDI provides the infrastructure, intelligence, and insight that community leaders and bridge-builders need to act strategically and collaboratively. By surfacing real-time risks and spotlighting grassroots solutions, they empower organizations like The Change Lab to respond to division with clarity, care, and coordination.

This brief explores the growing field of “bridging”—bringing people together across lines of difference to foster curiosity, trust, and social cohesion—and presents compelling evidence that bridging efforts measurably improve attitudes, empathy, and readiness to collaborate across divisions.