Flanbwayan Haitian Literacy Project

Flanbwayan Haitian Literacy Project (FLANBWAYAN) founded in 2005 is a youth membership based organization serving newcomer and young adult Haitian immigrant students in New York City who are English Language Learners (ELLs) between the ages of 14 to 21. Flanbwayan provides a safety net for Haitian youth who may possibly fall through the cracks of an overwhelming high school placement process as they enter the New York area, providing much needed services, including individual education assessments and appropriate school placements. To help immigrant students and their families in NYC find the right school, CUP worked with Flanbwayan Haitian Literacy Project to create Your School, Your Choice!, a multilingual, step-by-by guide explaining the enrollment process. This guide helps students and their families understand their rights, their different school options, and how to enroll in the high school of their choice. http://flanbwayan.org/

Oscar Nuñez

Oscar was a Community Education Program Manager at CUP. He is a graduate of the City and Regional Planning Master’s Program at Pratt Institute with a concentration on Community Development. While completing his studies at Pratt, Oscar worked and interned in various local community organizations and groups, including CUP, on issues dealing with planning, design, and community education and engagement. Previously, he received a B.A. in Sociology and Latin American Studies from the University of British Columbia in Vancouver, Canada.  Originally from Tegucigalpa, Honduras, he moved to Washington, D.C. at a young age. He is fluent in English, Spanish, and French and can give pretty good directions in Portuguese.

Mark Torrey

Mark Torrey was a Community Education Program Manager for CUP, working on Making Policy Public and the Envisioning Development Toolkits. Previously he spent a good long while working as an Information Technology Specialist (computer guy) at the Harvard Graduate School of Design, but then decided to firm up his understanding of cities by getting a Masters in City and Regional Planning from Cornell University. He wears his pants in the Highwater fashion, which most of the CUP staff find to be ridiculous, but it keeps his pants from getting caught in the bike chain.

He was a CUP staff member 2011-2020.

Clair Beltran

Clair Beltran is CUP’s Program Coordinator and is also a former intern. She is a recent graduate of Middlebury College where she studied Architecture and Geography. She is interested in the intersections between sociology and design and how different people experience space. Having spent the past 5 years in Vermont, she is excited and overwhelmed at being back in her hometown of New York City and relearning what it has to offer. 

D Wang Zhao Chloe Chang

D Wang Zhao (赵梦仪) is a queer, gender non-binary, second generation Han Chinese immigrant from Anishinabek and Odawa and Peoria territories (known as Mid-Michigan). They use they/them/their pronouns. They are currently transitioning on testosterone with the understanding that their journey has no end goal. Based in Lenape territory (known as Brooklyn, NY), they are a multidisciplinary designer and illustrator who is passionate about understanding the intersections of fashion, media, design and business so they can hack the system in order to give space and opportunities to marginalized folks. On the side, they make comics, care for their house’s chickens, and dream about ways queer, trans, immigrant, disabled, creatives of color can help each other thrive. 

Website: www.dwangzhao.com

Chloe Chang (张洛书) is a designer, researcher and strategist with 6 years of experience working in advertising and human-centered design firms. She lived in Beijing for 12 years before moving to Brooklyn in 2009 to study Communication Design at Pratt Institute, and has made her home here since. She has experience in branding and marketing from her early advertising days, but is now focused on bringing design-led strategy and research methods to mission-driven spaces and initiatives. Most recently, she has been part of the team at design studio Openbox, designing greater low-income access to Neighborhood Trust’s financial services, creating opportunities for student-led education at the Williamsburg High School of Arts and Technology, and researching how community engagement in urban development projects in the Lower East Side can be more inclusive and beneficial to the communities who live there.

Website: www.chloechang.design

Sucharitha Yelimeli

Sucharitha Yelimeli is CUP’s Program Coordinator. She hails from Northern California, and has a background in architecture, art, and teaching. Before coming to CUP she designed single-family homes and before that, was an art teacher. She’s interested in how people respond to design, especially at the city scale, and likes taking seemingly unapproachable ideas and making them friendlier. Some things she enjoys doing on the side are getting lost in a good book, making very intricate coffee cup doodles, and trying to win the affection of street cats.

Oscar Nuñez

Oscar was a Community Education Program Manager at CUP. He is a graduate of the City and Regional Planning Master’s Program at Pratt Institute with a concentration on Community Development. While completing his studies at Pratt, Oscar worked and interned in various local community organizations and groups, including CUP, on issues dealing with planning, design, and community education and engagement. Previously, he received a B.A. in Sociology and Latin American Studies from the University of British Columbia in Vancouver, Canada.  Originally from Tegucigalpa, Honduras, he moved to Washington, D.C. at a young age. He is fluent in English, Spanish, and French and can give pretty good directions in Portuguese.

Yasmin Safdié

Yasmin Renée Safdié is the Director of Programs at CUP. She is a radical social worker, community organizer and educator. Her work is grounded in an anti-oppressive framework, which seeks to ensure that those most affected by social issues are centered in movements for justice. For over a decade, she has worked on a range of social justice issues including: ending mass incarceration, anti-racism, and gender justice. Yasmin has extensive experience designing and facilitating anti-oppressive trainings and leadership development programs. Prior to CUP, Yasmin was the Senior Manager of Organizing and Advocacy at the New York City Anti-Violence Project where she worked to end violence against the LGBTQ community. Yasmin is currently an Adjunct Lecturer at Columbia University School of Social Work and CUNY Hunter College. She is a member leader and Board Member at Jews for Racial and Economic Justice, where she co-founded the Mizrahi Caucus, which organizes Arab/Middle Eastern/North African/Central Asian Jews. She received her M.S. in Social Work from Columbia University and her B.A. in History and Anthropology from McGill University. In her free time Yasmin loves to do ceramics and dance. 

The Legal Aid Society

The Legal Aid Society is a 501© non-profit legal aid provider based in New York City. Founded in 1876, it is the oldest and largest provider of legal aid in the United States. Its attorneys provide representation on criminal and civil matters in both individual cases and class action lawsuits. The Legal Aid Society works throughout New York City to ensure everyone has access to justice. CUP teamed up with the Legal Aid Society to create Yours to Keep, a poster that breaks down the key steps in the foreclosure process and helps homeowners in NYC understand their legal rights and options to keep their homes. https://www.legalaidnyc.org/