Build a Village
Bottom-up community knowledge. Real voices. Collective power.
We are currently accepting expressions of interest from community groups to join our board.
Mission
Build a Village partners with New Yorkers and grassroots communities to document their lived realities, elevate their voices, and transform bottom-up knowledge into collective power. We create spaces where people can speak openly about safety, belonging, and daily life and we work alongside them to bring their insights into the rooms where decisions are made.
We believe:
The people closest to the problem are closest to the solution.
Vision
We envision a city where all people can live safely, openly, and with dignity, and where their knowledge shapes the policies, technologies, and institutions that impact their lives.
A city where community wisdom is valued as expertise, where solutions reflect lived experience, and where every neighborhood is strengthened by the voices of the people who call it home.
What we do
1. We bring people together.
Neighborhood dialogues, listening circles, policy discussions, and trainings/workshops led by community members.
2. We gather community knowledge from the bottom up.
Stories, struggles, ideas, local innovations.
Shared by neighbors, owned by neighbors.
3. We turn insights into impact.
Together, we transform lived experience into:
• community briefs
• neighborhood snapshots
• public dashboards
• policy recommendations
Always created with communities, not about them.
4. We train grassroots groups to lead their own research, run program evaluations, and gather actionable insights.
Simple tools, accessible templates, and full transparency.
Community-controlled, bottom-up data.
5. We strengthen digital and tech capabilities.
We offer community-friendly trainings on:
• using digital tools to support their work
• collecting and managing data safely
• advocating for tech policies that protect and empower them
Technology should work for communities, not threaten or displace them.
We help neighbors gain the skills — and the say — to shape how digital tools impact their futures.
Why it matters
Most decisions are made using top-down information that misses what really happens on the ground.
We build the missing half:
bottom-up civic intelligence straight from the people.
It reveals:
• hidden barriers
• local solutions
• everyday realities
• the true needs of neighborhoods
• what’s working and what isn’t