Action Lab

History

The Action Lab was founded in 1981 as Bailey Farms, a meeting space for left-of-center nonprofits located about 50 minutes north of New York City. ¹

In 2016, the Action Lab was taken over by the Center for Popular Democracy (CPD), a left-of-center group involved in voter mobilization and policy development, and converted into a
“Movement Center” for use by organizations supported by CPD. ¹

The lab was renovated by Hester Street, an urban planning nonprofit that renovates spaces based on left-wing communitarian principles, shortly after CPD’s acquisition. Renovations were completed in 2019 with support from state grants. ^{2 3}

In 2020, the Action Lab became an independent organization again with financial support from musical artists Harry Belafonte and Aloe Blacc, among others. ¹

Activity

Initiatives

As of August 2023, the Action Lab runs four initiatives. La Tejadora is a training program for left wing Puerto Rican activists based on an “anti-racist, gender based and decolonial framework.” ^{4 5}

The Gathering Strength Initiative invites select activists to the Action Labs farm for a health and wellness retreat. The 2022 cohort included employees of the Working Families Party, Make the Road New Jersey, and the Education for Liberation Network. ⁶ The initiative is partially funded by the Ford Foundation and the Andrus Family Fund. ⁷

The Belafonte Initiative supports artists to cultivate a culture conducive to left-wing activism. ⁸

The Justice Initiative is a training seminar for activists that has served hundreds of participants. ⁹

The Innovation Initiative is a training seminar for discussing trends and ideas within left-wing activism. ¹⁰

Events

In Summer 2023, Action Lab hosted Liberation Summer, a series of music concerts and workshops that included a celebration of 50 years of hip hop and “resistance to the neoliberal policies … in Chile.” ¹¹

In March 2023, the Action Lab hosted From Crisis to Horizon: Fighting for Social Housing, a discussion on left-wing housing policy. The event was sponsored by Community Power, the Urban Democracy Lab, the Housing Justice for All Coalition, and the New York University Latinx Law Students Association. ¹²

Funding

In 2023, the Action Lab received a $60,000 grant from the Ford Foundation. In 2022, the Action Lab received two grants totaling $75,000 from the Ford Foundation. ^{13 14}

Also in 2023, the Action Lab received a $6.2 million grant from New York State to acquire a building in Brooklyn to launch the Brooklyn Center for Social Justice, Entrepreneurship, and the Arts. ¹⁵

The Action Lab has received funding from Make the Road NY, the Amalgamated Charitable Foundation, and the Jessie Smith Noyes Foundation. ¹⁶

Leadership

Tina Habib is the managing director of Action Lab and co-founded its reorganization as the Movement Center under the Center for Popular Democracy. Habib is a co-founder of the CPD and served as its first director of operations, human resources, and finance. Prior, she spent more than nine years at the International Education Resource Network, ending as co-executive director. ^{4 17}

Karina Claudio Betancourt is the director of the Action Lab’s La Tejedora initiative. Prior to joining Action Lab in June 2023, Claudio Betancourt had worked as a director and program officer at the Open Society Foundations since 2015. From 2014 to 2015, Claudio Betancourt worked as senior director in the community engagement division of the New York City Council. From 2008 to 2014, she served in a variety of roles at Make the Road NY, an immigrant advocacy group. ¹⁸

Daniel Coates has been a senior organizer at Action Lab since April 2023. From 2020 to 2023, he worked at Community Change, a left-wing advocacy group for low-income Americans. Prior to that, he was deputy director at Riders Alliance, a public transit advocacy group; chief of staff for New York City Councilmember Julissa Ferreras-Copeland (D); and worked at both Make the Road and Make the Road New York. ¹⁹

The Action Group’s advisory board includes Black Men Build co-director Phillip Agnew, Working Families Party co-founder Dan Cantor, New York Working Families Party director Sochie Nnaemeka, the Trinity Social Justice Initiative co-director Chistina Heatherton, People’s Action executive director Sulma Arias, Make the Road New York co-executive directors Jose Lopez and Theo Oshiro, former Democracy Alliance president Gara LaMarche, Community Change co-president Dorian Warren, and four employees of CPD. ²⁰