At NYU Steinhardt, research is meant to make an impact on the world. Through the Partnership Development Seed Awards from Steinhardt’s Institute of Human Development and Social Change (IHDSC), faculty are building relationships with community organizations that address pressing social challenges around the world.
The 2025–2026 Partnership Development Seed Award cohort reflects Steinhardt's commitment to research that is collaborative, community-centered, and designed to create change. Just as importantly, NYU Steinhardt students will play an active role in each initiative, gaining firsthand experience with community-engaged research while contributing to projects that make a difference both locally and globally.
SOUL Project: Building Community with Local Black LGBTQ+ Organizations
Gabriel Lockett, assistant professor of Applied Psychology, has established the SOUL (Service, Outreach, Unity, and Liberation) Project to foster long-term partnerships between NYU and Black LGBTQ+ organizations throughout New York City. SOUL centers relationship-building, trust, and shared leadership with organizations that already serve these communities in aims to enhance resources, understand community needs, and build pathways to wellness and support.
By working alongside local community organizations, the SOUL Project aims to strengthen connections to affirming resources while exploring future collaborations grounded in community priorities.
“On the ground, I envision the SOUL Project creating more opportunities for Black LGBTQ+ community members to connect with affirming organizations, culturally responsive resources, and one another,” says Lockett. “Through community events, outreach, and sustained partnerships with local organizations, I hope the project will help reduce barriers to accessing support while strengthening existing networks of care.”
Steinhardt students will be a big part of that relationship-centered philosophy. Members of Lockett's Belonging, Advocacy, Liberation, and Love (BALL) Research Collective are already helping build connections with community organizations through events like Harlem Pride, where they distributed resource guides and connected with residents and local partners.
“A key goal of the SOUL Project is to mentor students in community-engaged scholarship and the process of building meaningful, reciprocal partnerships,” says Lockett. “Experiences like Harlem Pride allow students to engage directly with the community while learning about partnership building, outreach, and culturally responsive community engagement.”
Supporting Immigrant Students Through Research and Partnership
Sophia Rodriguez, associate professor of Educational Policy Studies and Sociology, is building on years of high-impact scholarship examining educational equity for immigrant students by working alongside ImmSchools, a nonprofit founded by immigrant women, to demonstrate the impact of its work supporting K–12 schools nationwide.
Rodriguez’s project focuses on helping the organization scale an existing model that promotes belonging and well-being for immigrant students while developing the research infrastructure needed to evaluate its effectiveness. Steinhardt students in Rodriguez's ImmigrantEdNext Lab will help make that possible by participating in meetings with educators, supporting relationship-building with new school districts, and contributing to research that documents how schools can better support immigrant students and families.
“Students won't just be analyzing data,” says Rodriguez. “They'll be helping us build relationships with educators and school leaders while developing the evidence base that can help this work expand to more communities.”
That experience gives students a firsthand look at how research can influence educational practice, policy, and advocacy, all while responding to the needs identified by community partners.
Preserving Language and Culture Through Storytelling
Lara Saguisag, associate professor and Georgiou Chair in Children’s Literature and Literacy in Teaching and Learning, is supporting a project to build cultural and environmental literacy and empower children from an island community in the Philippines to become storytellers in their own community.
Saguisag’s work connects NYU Steinhardt’s Constantine Georgiou Library and Resource Center for Children and Literature with Mayâ Learning Space (MLS), a community library and learning center founded by Raissa Avery Marfa on Bantayan Island in the Philippines. This collaboration will engage children in the creation of a coloring book and flashcards in the local language of Bantayanon, while also inviting community elders to share local traditions and knowledge with younger generations. Saguisag and Marfa also intend to develop an outdoor play space at MLS using local materials.
“What's exciting to me is how this partnership expands our understanding of diversity in children's literature,” says Saguisag. “We're thinking beyond ‘diverse’ books published in the US or the UK to include local languages, Indigenous practices in the Philippines, and stories created within communities themselves.”
For Steinhardt students, the partnership will offer a new lens on literacy education.
“I hope our students begin thinking about how community storytelling projects like this might be replicated in the places they’re currently interested in and where they may someday work, whether that's another island community like Haiti or a neighborhood here in New York,” says Saguisag. “I want them to widen their understanding of what global representation is and see how literacy can be used to help sustain language, identity, and culture.”
Learn more about IHDSC and their Partnership Development Seed Award Program.
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