Solution Smithing: How to Build New Ecosystems in NY Rooted in Community, Practitioners & Institutions, with LEAH
What would it look like if the people closest to our communities were also central to how we build healthier, more just systems?
For this edition of Solution Smithing, hosted by the Legal Empowerment & Advocacy Hub (LEAH), we'll bring together practitioners, nonprofit leaders, healthcare workers, institutions, and community-rooted organizers to explore how community paralegals can be engaged as more than legal guides, but also as collaborators, educators, and connectors across justice, public health, and community wellbeing spaces.
Together, we'll dig into the real gaps New Yorkers face when trying to access resources, the challenges providers encounter in serving their communities, and the innovative models already emerging across our city. Come ready to share, challenge assumptions, and help shape a new vision for cross-sector ecosystems where stronger communities and more accountable institutions grow together. We want to better understand how different sectors see themselves participating in and supporting these emerging justice ecosystems.
For this iteration of Solution Smithing, the Legal Empowerment and Advocacy Hub (LEAH) is advancing a challenge they’re working through, and we're bringing together an outstanding group of people (you!) for an action-oriented discussion and collective problem-solving. Not a panel, nor a pitch, but a 'doing' gathering.
Please RSVP.
What is Solution Smithing? For this gathering series, an organization or individual advances a solution they’re working through, and we bring together an outstanding group of people for an action-oriented discussion to engage in collective problem-solving.
The event will consist of a walkthrough of LEAH's exhibition at Anew Café & Goods, followed by an in-depth brainstorm on the topic. We'll start promptly at 5:20pm. wrap up by 6:30pm, followed by mingling until 7pm.
The Legal Empowerment & Advocacy Hub (LEAH) was founded in 2019 with the mission to ensure isolated communities have access to legal empowerment, education and peacebuilding.
Jhody Polk is the founder of the Legal Empowerment & Advocacy Hub (LEAH). LEAH was founded in 2019 with the mission to ensure isolated communities have access to legal empowerment, education and peacebuilding. LEAH’s first program was the Jailhouse Lawyers Initiative (JLI), housed at the Bernstein Institute for Human Rights at NYU School of Law. Jhody is a 2025 David Prize Winner and a 2024 Global Freedom Fellow. She is recognized as a formerly Incarcerated Jailhouse Lawyer, a Community Paralegal and Community Peacebuilder.
Anew is a gathering space and discovery center for the social impact community.
Anew’s Entrepreneur in Residence program hosts nonprofit entrepreneurs who are architecting creative social impact solutions to real world problems. Every six months, we support a new group of change makers with a customized curriculum to take their organizations to the next level.