Center for Neighborhood Technology

Founded in 1978, the Center for Neighborhood Technology (CNT) is a nationally-recognized nonprofit organization based in Chicago. CNT's mission is to deliver innovative analysis and solutions that support community-based organizations and local governments to create neighborhoods that are equitable, sustainable, and resilient. CNT works where urban form - the natural environment, built environment and infrastructure of our cities - intersects with inequities by race and income. We work across sectors, on topics including climate resilience, environmental justice, transportation equity, healthy housing, and community development.

CNT envisions urban environments that are resilient, sustainable, and livable for people from all wa

Goal One: Support community-based organizations to achieve their goals by providing analytical assistance, leveraging CNT's skills in research, program design, urban planning and policy analysis.

Goal Two: Improve the ability of governments to work effectively with community-based organizations, leveraging public sector funding to achieve community priorities

Goal Three: Invest in CNT’s entrepreneurial capacity, building our ability to scale our analytical innovations

In February 2022, CNT staff participated as a team in a series of four Conscious Ambassador of Trauma Informed Care Training (CATIC), led by Hansra Consulting & Advisory Services. CATIC focuses on training organizations on how “to be an inclusive workplace where all employees feel seen, safe, and free from bias, ridicule and racism.” Every staff member at CNT is now a certified Conscious Ambassador. Completing CATIC teaches CNT staff how to practice an elevated consciousness driving the conditions for a positive workplace culture. It helps us with the alignment of our values and behaviors internally, ensuring that we use these same skills externally with the community-based organizations we partner with and advocate for. Seeing people in their full humanity, honoring one another’s ecologies, and acknowledging personal and community trauma is how we can maximize CNT’s impact and mission.

In 2020, the converging crises of COVID-19 and the murder of George Floyd forced an awakening and mobilization of both everyday people and policymakers to racial inequities across the country. CNT believes that this current moment has provided an important opening to elevate locally-driven solutions to problems arising from racial inequality and its intersection with climate resilience and public health. As such, CNT is focused on conducting equitable and cross-sector collaborations with frontline community groups, using a community-engaged research framework. CNT supports community groups in a way that shares power, knowledge, and resources. This work includes an explicit focus on racial equity, which CNT accomplishes by targeting its resources in communities of color and deliberately playing a support, rather than leadership role, allowing local representatives to set the agenda, define the question, and design the solutions. CNT’s work is also aligned with growing government investment in equity and sustainability, and we are leveraging this opportunity to advocate for policy changes. The Biden administration is highly aligned with CNT’s mission on climate, equity, and environmental justice, and has devoted unprecedented amounts of resources to infrastructure and COVID-19 relief. It is critical that these resources are allocated and spent thoughtfully, in a way that advances equity. As a relatively small organization, CNT’s ability to engage directly in federal priority-setting is limited, but we have identified a few areas to engage directly, such as shaping the Justice40 initiative and arguing for the active participation of community-based organizations in transportation decision-making.