Partners in California Communities

Going door-to-door in rural reaches

Residents and community leaders can be research colleagues rather than just subjects. And community engagement stimulates novel studies and real world solutions. The systemwide-supported Center for Collaborative Research for an Equitable California (CREC) teams scholars from six UC campuses with activists and innovators throughout the state. The UC Santa Cruz-based program tackles the state’s interconnected crises in education, employment, health, nutrition, housing and the environment.

In towns like South Dos Palos and Fairmead in the San Joaquin Valley—where populations include post-Dust Bowl African American farmers and today’s Latino migrant workers—UC Merced researchers and students meet face-to-face with every resident to document the stories of empty storefronts, lost jobs, bad water and lack of basic services in these areas. To bolster community engagement, colleagues at UC Davis and Berkeley opened a “participatory action research resource center” for workshops, training and data analysis. In urban areas too, systemwide research programs build models of cross-campus research and community- engaged scholarship. The outcome isn’t just better research; it’s a better California.

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