Virginia Policy Lab is a student-led policy think tank that works with local partners to create and implement effective public policy solutions to tackle important issues in our communities.
Virginia Policy Lab is a student-led public policy think tank founded by students at the University of Virginia. Often, students are told to sit idly by and “wait for their turn” to make a difference. The Virginia Policy Lab firmly rejects this sentiment and aims to empower young people to make a difference in their community through public policy.
We value innovation, analysis, and community collaboration in our work to make meaningful progress toward a brighter tomorrow. We are hardworking, diverse, and thoughtful students with varying skills, majors, and governmental interests working together to craft policy.
A policy think tank is defined by flexibility. Budgets, legislation, and time often constrain governments and their ability to innovate approaches to problems. Legislators often lack the resources to research and craft policies on their own. Policy think tanks fill a critical role in bridging these gaps in governance.
Policy think tanks can step in to assist governments in achieving their goals, providing support and crucial capacity. They are well-positioned to research and disseminate information about up-and-coming innovations in public policy to legislatures, providing the foundation for advocacy work. Think tanks have historically played a role in pushing new ideas into government, promoting productive discourse about solutions to social issues, and informing decision-making in communities.
Virginia Policy Lab is entirely student-led. Every project we work on starts with an idea from a team member. We ask our team: What excites you? What ideas do you want to understand better? What do you wish more people knew about?
We strive to cultivate collective knowledge about a policy issue or topic. We will spend time understanding the current research, debates, and work in the area. This stage crafts the foundation for our future steps.
Virginia Policy Lab wants its work to have a meaningful impact. Moreover, we know that most issues already have strong community advocates and organizations trying to help. We identify these local organizations and seek to become partners, providing our policy toolkit to expand their capacity and uplift through a process of iterative feedback.
In collaboration with our community partners and team members, we craft an end product supporting policy development or implementation. This end-product can take multiple forms depending on the project’s needs: a white paper, a policy memo, data collection, a presentation, an action plan, a draft piece of legislation, surveys, regulatory comments, and more. The product is designed to have a long-term impact on the issue, and the product may support future work.
Virginia Policy Lab endeavors to craft public policy that uplifts communities through research, innovation, creativity, and collaboration. We envision a world where thoughtful and relevant public policies empower all individuals to pursue happy and healthy lives.
Our Mission Statement
We are excited to share that for the 2024-2025 academic year, the Virginia Policy Lab will partner with the City of Charlottesville. Our partnership with the City will focus on improving the City of Charlottesville’s work towards greater transparency in affordable housing as detailed in the City’s Affordable Housing Plan. We will work directly with…