We are a team of policy researchers and practitioners who partner with government and community to design pilot scale data-driven innovations for the public good.
Through ongoing collaborations, the Lab is pioneering innovative ways to center community perspectives and expertise in public policy: by working directly with diverse stakeholders to foster engagement, empowerment, and equity.
Engagement
Communities most directly harmed by broken systems are often left out of conversations about how to make change. Developing new ways to ensure
communities have a meaningful voice in the policies that affect them can move us
towards a more holistic, stakeholder-engaged reimagining of our public systems.
Empowerment
When government changemakers and community members are equipped with skills,
networks, and data, they are in a unique position to problem-solve together:
identifying pain points, sourcing potential solutions, testing promising interventions,
and inviting continuous innovation and recalibration.
Equity
Equity
Data-driven policy making can ensure that all communities are well-served by their
government, by rising above ideological arguments of the political moment, shining a
light on disparities and systemic inequalities, and helping policymakers avoid
unintended consequences that disproportionately affect marginalized communities.
Our Approach to Policy Innovation Brings Together:
Community
Government
Researchers
Our Partners Include:
2023 BY THE NUMBERS
1000000
people across California and the nation
we reached with our work
we reached with our work
59
community and government collaborations
9000
hours of training and capacity building
we provided alongside our partners
we provided alongside our partners
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Too often we think about public policy as a thing government does. But in a democracy, it’s really a thing we as a society do, together.
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It's not about who gets a seat. Let's make a bigger table.
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When it comes to civic engagement, don't just check the box. Think outside it.
Possibility Lab’s Amy E. Lerman Named 2025 Carnegie Fellow to Advance Research on Deliberative Democracy and Polarization
The Possibility Lab at the UC Berkeley Goldman School of Public Policy is thrilled to announce that executive director Amy E. Lerman has been awarded the prestigious 2025 Andrew Carnegie Fellowship. The fellowship
