WHAT WE DO

At the core of our organization are principles rooted in cooperativism, solidarity, and mutual aid—values that center collective well-being over individual gain. We work to dismantle systems of oppression and violence by advancing practices that are actively anti-racist, pro-feminist, and committed to radical inclusion. We recognize the persistent indignities imposed on marginalized communities and uplift people’s knowledge as essential to transformative change. Through our work, we aim to build pathways toward shared prosperity, where justice, care, and equity shape the foundations of urban life.

Cities are complex ecologies where all social, economic, cultural, environmental, spatial, and political issues are interconnected. We approach every urban issue with this holistic vision and help progressive governments reveal the many hidden interconnections that can make all the difference when making important decisions. Urban Front redefines planning, policy, and strategy through a justice-driven lens—combining local visions with global solidarity for systemic change.

Environmental concious strategies and practices that ensure livable, self-sustaining communities over the long term are essential to all cities. Urban Front advocates for implementing local and global policies to lower consumption of natural resources and reduce overall impact on the environment. We understand the impacts of climate change and incorporate sustainable plans for clean air and water, renewable energy, and land use.

Fair and sustainable mobility involves freeing cities from cars as they are responsible for such harmful effects as spatial injustice, urban sprawl, noise and air pollution, and global warming. For this, it is necessary to implement policies that can cultivate compact cities which favor an active (walking or pedaling) and collective (public transport) mobility.

Cooperative housing, mutual housing associations, community land trust and other non-speculative forms of development have proven to reduce gentrification, keep housing and commercial spaces affordable, and prevent speculative emptying. Urban Front members have extensive expertise in public policy, programs, and instruments incentivizing the production and management of cooperative forms of living and inhabiting cities. From policy making and piloting programs to cooperative formation, administration, and management.

Citizens hold valuable local knowledge about their community and territory but often have little access to the external forces that shape their living environments and need support leveraging their expertise to lead local development. Urban Front is committed to work with communities to design and implement participatory and pedagogical tools that allow communities to self-diagnose and plan according to their own needs, priorities, and visions.

Cities must ensure the well-being of their social fabric by addressing the physiological and emotional needs of vulnerable groups—such as children, the elderly, the sick, and people with disabilities. This requires new approaches that reduce both social and physical vulnerability, while also minimizing the negative impact of human activity on the environment. In Urban Front we combine scientific, technical and social capabilities to give effective answers with high replicability potential. Recognizing that care work and maintenance tends to be gendered labor, we advocate for the creation of networks of public or socially co-produced services that democratize both access to care and its execution.

The ways of enacting politics are undergoing radical changes. It is necessary to prioritize affection and empathy when engaging in politics, as well as having the ability to clearly transmit the horizon towards which policies are aimed. Urban Front offers support in the construction of inclusive urban models, application of bottom-up methodologies, listening methods, construction of discourse, and the generation of consensus.

In light of increasing uneven development, new policy frameworks and implementation instruments able to lead and regulate the ongoing restructuring and growth of cities are needed. Equitable development requires a fair distribution of care, attention, and investment for the development of both social and urban infrastructures for the benefit of all people, paying special attention to those in greater need. Urban Front members are globally recognized pioneers in addressing crisis through policy connected to public tools and civic platforms to implement and enforce legislation.

The production, management and access to adequate and affordable housing has become one of the greatest challenges across cities. Our team is skilled in designing public policy and implementation programs to expand affordable housing opportunities, preserve existing low-income housing, increase tenant rights, and regulate market-driven development to mitigate the impact of gentrification and housing financialization. Our approach involves active participation of communities, social-oriented developers, and governments, sharing a common goal —guaranteeing housing security and access for all.

Local economies are vital to cities. They create jobs, retain wealth within communities, and build economic resilience for times of crisis. local economies contribute to greater equity and community well-being by preserving cultural diversity, promoting environmental sustainability through reduced transportation needs, and offering opportunities for minority and women-led businesses. We work closely with local governments, social sectors, and communities creating strategies for capacity building and leadership formation for the development of alternative economic models rooted in solidarity, cooperation, inclusion, and the common good.

We strongly believe in the power of collective imagination to bring about systemic change. At the center of our work is making space for deep listening, storytelling, and the creation of thought provoking, yet actionable, imaginaries to shape the future of cities. We strategize embracing assemblies, committees, task forces, and community-led initiatives bringing together a diversity of people from across public and social sectors. We use dialogue, debate and disagreement as potential tools for concrete action fulfilling political and economic needs and desires. At Urban Front, we facilitate transformative process to co-imagine, co-design, co-produce, and co-author the spaces, economies, and political relations needed for shaping just cities.

Artists have always been at the forefront of movements for change. They are among our most flexible and innovative thinkers, often suggesting entirely new ways to encounter the world through their work. Some artists have focused their entire working practice on addressing social, economic, environmental, and artistic issues and the power of their work can be leveraged to confront stubborn, systemic challenges towards a more just society. Urban Front is committed to engaging artists, their projects, and ideas to radically shift the ways in which we approach all variety of contemporary ills, particularly within the context of reimagining the ways in which we live, work, and govern outside of the limits of neo-liberal, capitalist models.

Women-identifying, gender-non conforming and minority groups, such as immigrants and people of color, have demonstrated being active leaders in the transformation of their communities. Acknowledging the power of local organizing, Urban Front is dedicated to working with women and minority groups to build capacity, eliminate barriers to urban and community development, and increase access to information and opportunities to build leadership.