Credible messengers (CMs) are people with lived experience, typically in the criminal legal system, who have transformed their lives to become agents of change in their communities. With funding and support from the New York City Mayor’s Office for Economic Opportunity, the Urban Institute used participatory action research methods to document the evidence base on the use of CMs in human services, the historical and systemic contexts surrounding their work, and the current landscape of CMs in New York City. 

This fact sheet outlines one component of the Urban Institute’s work: the cross-program qualitative landscape scan, which summarizes the perceived successes, impacts, challenges, and needs of credible messengers and the organizations and agencies that employ them. It concludes with eight recommendations for improvement and capacity building in CM work.