Academy Innovation Residency (AIR):
Changing Discourse and Practice
Reducing the distance between promising behavioral health approaches and their implementation in NYC community settings.
Residents strengthen the Academy’s work to build more equitable and effective care systems by partnering with social service providers and other trusted helpers. This residency offers an opportunity to share power with, bring added resources to, uplift, learn from, and support community helpers who can play an important role in realizing better care pathways in NYC.
What Residents Do
The Academy’s residency program has three components designed to shift dialogues and improve community behavioral health practice. Residents will curate a series of public conversations, support innovation in Academy programs, and pilot a new or improved community care model that transforms access to compassionate, culturally responsive care.
Curate a series of public conversations. Residents organize events that expand perspectives on an important behavioral health topic connected to their work and expertise. These conversations uplift insights from people who contribute to innovation through a range of roles and experiences, such as scholar, practitioner, service recipient, activist, neighbor, and more.
Support innovation in Academy programs. Residents serve as senior advisors on one or more key Academy projects related to their field of work, advising on program design, implementation, and/or evaluation. As part of this work, residents develop public-facing products that share relevant methods, tools, lessons, or findings with the Academy’s audience.
Advance a new or improved community care model with the Academy. The Academy offers support to residents as they design, pilot, and assess a behavioral health approach that advances the Academy’s goal of transforming access to compassionate, culturally responsive care. This is an opportunity for residents to build on their prior work and test or strengthen a particular care model, including projects that receive other funding but would benefit from the Academy’s unique positioning, resources, and expertise.
The Academy prioritizes approaches that are co-developed with impacted community members and practitioners, and where residents immerse themselves in community settings and practices. The Academy will collaborate with residents as they develop and implement the pilot; help disseminate key findings; and, move helpful approaches directly into practice through the Academy’s free learning programs or other partnerships.
Eligibility
The Academy seeks to recognize and partner with established or emerging NYC leaders who expand our sense of what is possible in community behavioral health.
Residents:
- Demonstrate skillfulness and expertise in one or more behavioral health focus areas related to the Academy’s work
- Exemplify a commitment to the Academy’s mission and values
- Have a track record of innovating and building care models that advance agency and equity in communities impacted by racism, discrimination, and structural violence
- Make significant contributions to the dialogue in their field, such as through peer-reviewed articles, other written publications, and public presentations or talks
- Commit to widely disseminate helpful approaches and support their application in practice
- Center participatory methods
- Draw on their personal involvement in and commitment to the communities they serve
Each residency has a period of 1-2 years, based on project goals, and may be extended.
The Academy is not soliciting nominations for new residents at this time.
Academy Support for Residents
Residents will collaborate with and receive support from the Academy team.
Academy support for residents includes:
- Compensation for work as a senior advisor to the Academy
- Project funding of $10,000* to test or strengthen a community care model
- Collaboration with Academy staff and consultants to inform their work, including program design, implementation, evaluation, or spread of a community care model
- Access to the Academy’s audience of NYC nonprofit community-based organizations, city agencies, and others
- Partnership or support in applying for external funds, as needed
* Additional funds may be allocated, when available, based on project need and impact.