Nick Anthis: Okay, well, thanks everybody for joining us today. This is the third in our series of workshops on community engagement and climate action research, we have an exciting topic for you today. Nick Anthis: On the history of communities doing their own research, and how? Nick Anthis: How? Our efforts can plug into that Nick Anthis: So Nick Anthis: let me move on to the next slide here. Nick Anthis: So today we have a great program for you today, we're going to kick things off Nick Anthi
s: with a some brief presentations by our panel. Nick Anthis: and then we'll go into breakout rooms. We have a few questions for discussion there based on today's topic, and then we'll come back to the main room here and have a little bit more, a brief readout, and then Nick Anthis: panel discussion based on some of the topics discussed in the breakout rooms. Nick Anthis: A couple of the things I wanna say, before I turn it over to our moderator today is that this series of workshops is funded b
y a grant from the Nick Anthis: Strategic Growth Council of California. Nick Anthis: So we're very excited to be able to do this work and bring folks together to really talk about the best practices and community engagement around Nick Anthis: climate action, climate, resilience, research. Nick Anthis: and I will. The only other thing I'll say before I turn things over, is that we will have a survey at the end. I think Zoom will ask you to complete a survey. Once we, we end the meeting and so as
k you to please do that because we really are interested in Nick Anthis: getting your input. Nick Anthis: So now it's my pleasure to turn things over to our moderator today, Greg Macy, from the UC. Irving. Nick Anthis: You see, Irvine, sorry. Taco. School of law, Greg. Gregg Macey: Thank you, Nick. It's great to be with everyone today. And got a lot to cover a lot of Gregg Macey: conversation that, I think, is gonna be very important. Gregg Macey: is the subtitle of today's conversation is cente
ring decades of community research in climate action grants and so the immediate audience for this, but by no means the only audience is those of us who receive these grants under the California Climate Action Initiative, and we receive them because we are subject to and pledge to follow Gregg Macey: various requirements. Right? That we would engage with community partners. That they would serve as co principal investigators. That, we would carry out our research according to cutting edge approa
ches to community based participatory action research Gregg Macey: that are meant to replace the extractive practices of old right with communities as fellow researchers who take part in the design of studies and the collecting and analyzing of data and the Co learning process that follows thereafter. Gregg Macey: But I would like to begin today's conversation with, maybe a provocative proposition. Gregg Macey: And that would be that all of this may be true. Gregg Macey: and we're gonna have to
work very hard to make all of what I just said. True. Gregg Macey: we could achieve all of this, and still we might Gregg Macey: not do right by overburdened communities. I say this in part because of the opportunity costs of these grants tens of millions of dollars, right? We could all imagine how these grants could be spent on Gregg Macey: direct assistance or public services. Gregg Macey: But I don't think that's the entire story here. And Gregg Macey: to understand why I'd like to begin with
a quote. Gregg Macey: we've all heard about the concept of greenwashing, right? We all know examples where corporations try to co-opt elements of the environmental movements for their own benefit, or to make misleading claims about the benefits of their products or the lack of harms and how they were produced. Gregg Macey: So here's one quote by way of example, I'd like you to close your eyes and think about the the Board Room in in which the lawyers and others created this quote right quote. G
regg Macey: we've made significant progress Gregg Macey: to reduce exposure to harmful pollution. Gregg Macey: The result of programs based on sound science. Gregg Macey: These achievements reflect a collective and bipartisan effort over the past half century Gregg Macey: that involves the legislature, industries, and the public. Gregg Macey: We have come a long way. Gregg Macey: but some still breathe unhealthful air. Gregg Macey: There is far more work to be done. Okay, you can open your eyes
and thank you for those of you who actually did that. I'm very surprised and pleased. Gregg Macey: and we could spend just the next hour talking about the hundreds of examples of this, and it probably wouldn't surprise you too much to learn that that was a quote from the California Air Resources Board, not from Exxon, Mobil or Valero and you know, similar statements can be found on the websites of many government agencies in California. I'd like for us to think about what's communicated by such
statements and what is left out. Gregg Macey: And and also to think about how these statements would be interpreted by a new group of scholars. Right? We, I'm thinking about people like Lauren Berlin, who would interpret that statement through the lens of slow death or the gradual wearing out of populations over time Gregg Macey: or sociologist, Nadia Kim, who would consider this statement in light of what she calls bioneglect, which is, as she defines it, a top down material as well as discursi
ve Gregg Macey: process of letting people die. Gregg Macey: Now these concepts go beyond the standard critiques of environmentalism and environmental research, as well as critiques of the first 30 years of environmental justice policy. Right? We're all familiar with many of these, and we're we're all very proud to know that Gregg Macey: you can look up Garrett harden on the Southern Poverty Law Center website and learn what the tragedy of the Commons was really about. You know, we all know that
when you focus on the greatest good for the greatest number. You're gonna ignore hotspots and body burden. We all know that the system prefaced on the notion of a permission to pollute is going to sit uneasily side by side with ongoing civil rights violations. Gregg Macey: But what these concepts, such as bioneglect suggest for us as researchers is a heightened level of responsibility, a heightened level of responsibility for researchers who engage in in community partnerships on issues such as
environmental quality, environmental health and environmental protection. Gregg Macey: Bio neglect, wherein the State contributes at times to population wide health crises as much as it responds to them, whereby it withholds protections from certain populations while declaring that it cares for marginalized groups through statements that leave out talk of race and class while appropriating a discourse of care. Gregg Macey: And all of this leads many in the environmental movement, including criti
cal environmental justice scholars to question reliance upon the State at all and to focus increasingly on self-determination networks of care and direct service provision. It's in this context that we carry out these climate action research grants Gregg Macey: funded by the California State Legislature at times to achieve outcomes that may have been promised by the State long ago or that communities spent decades gathering their own data to identify in the first place, or to encourage or demand
. Gregg Macey: In this context we have a heightened responsibility. Given the vast archives of data that communities have already gathered and used in various ways. Given the 1 billion dollar programs that communities have participated in. And at the end of them, such as Ab, 6, 1, 7, they come away, saying that they're newly traumatized or studied to death. Gregg Macey: And they see few discernible improvements in community scale environmental Gregg Macey: quality. Gregg Macey: It's in this cont
ext in which communities which, for various reasons, are already exhausted, are asked to participate in climate action, research. Gregg Macey: And they tell us for myself, as recently as Friday, they tell us things like quote, I just want to see an improvement in environmental quality or quote. I just want to see a change in the distribution of harms. Gregg Macey: So in many ways we have an imperative to go beyond what we consider as researchers as cutting edge approaches to community based rese
arch. Gregg Macey: And what might this look like, what should this look like? Right? This is the topic of conversation for today. And there's plenty of ideas out there, and we'll get into some of them in small group, and when we come back together to wrap up. But we've got a great panel to talk about these issues today. We have Maria Cadenas, who is executive director of ventures. Gregg Macey: We have Sochil Cortez, who is co-founder and executive director of Frontline Catalyst and we have Catal
ina Garzon Galvest. Gregg Macey: who is principal practitioner of create praxis, which stands for community research and education in action, for true empowerment. And so, as we listen to the presentations. And as we break up for small groups, I want us to think about the responsibility that we have and how we can go beyond what we currently consider the cutting edge of community partnership and community based research. And with that I turn it over to the presenters. Catalina Garzon-Galvis (she
/her/ella): So I I wasn't sure if Sochi and I should Catalina Garzon-Galvis (she/her/ella): are going first or. Nick Anthis: Yeah, that's that's right, and I'll I'll bring up your slides here. Nick Anthis: Okay, take it away. Catalina Garzon-Galvis (she/her/ella): Thank you, Nick. It's so cheap. Did you want to start start us off? Xochitl Cortez: Absolutely so before we move on to the slide. You know, in this particular Xochitl Cortez: presentation we called it community initiated Research Partn
ership in action. Oakland youth, advancing climate action. But before we dive in further, I just wanted to first to say thank you to everyone here. I know that this is very exciting project, at least for us, for frontline catalyst it's one of our largest funding opportunity for our Ypire project. So that's a big blessing for us, but I wanted to take you into a story of how it all came about. Xochitl Cortez: And I know it was competitive, and I know that there were a lot of people who applied who
didn't get it. Xochitl Cortez: and we went in saying, Well, let's try. Xochitl Cortez: Our chances are small, but let's try anyways. Xochitl Cortez: So I got this email. It came through my through my desk, and we just didn't have the capacity to apply as an organization. Xochitl Cortez: We were thinking, you know how much time you need? This is probably better suited for larger nonprofits who have departments and dedicated sources, and so forth. Xochitl Cortez: But then, as many nonprofits and
grassroots organizations like ourselves, who are working on the front lines, who are working with youth, who are working with communities that take time, vested time to build the trust even when you're with and with the community. Xochitl Cortez: So you get creative like any other things, resourceful. And and you stretch every bound you can. Xochitl Cortez: and in this case we were very fortunate to have various Xochitl Cortez: board academics in our organization. Xochitl Cortez: and so we had a
board meeting, and it was a matter of conversation like a little too ambitious. Maybe we shouldn't apply. There's no time. There's no bandwidth. Then. Normal conversations that happen in a lot of nonprofits, small nonprofits. Xochitl Cortez: So those researchers who work for nonprofits this is a pitch to you, continue doing it. We need the help. Xochitl Cortez: So we volunteered one of our Xochitl Cortez: board members who was the most closest to the environmental sciences to see if he would be
the lead principal investigator. Xochitl Cortez: And you know, he Xochitl Cortez: stated he didn't have time and all the good stuff, and it was another pleat of We need this, you know this or this. The youth need this. And with that we took forward. So Tony Marks became our investigator. Principal investigator, and we're very thankful he's now off the board to to be unbiased, and so forth. But it was in that kind of story we were had other community partners that were already doing research wit
h frontline catalyst around air and lead testing and all this other environmental work. Xochitl Cortez: And so in that nature, it was about pulling the communities together that we were already working with. We're already doing grassroot work in our backyards, so called over the East Bay academic young scientists. And then we called Courage, the communities united for restorative Youth justice, who was doing a lot of engagement in the community, and parks and and family engagement, and also serv
ing impacted youth. Xochitl Cortez: And then we called into our partners from the University, San Francisco State. We're here at Uc. Berkeley. We're at here at a Cal State East Bay. So together and collectively, we were able to put in this project. And if it wouldn't have been with assistance of Carolina Capsone, who we've had multiple conversations around the plan for the environmental Action Plan for Oak City of Oakland, and she was part of the pioneering force behind that. Xochitl Cortez: So
it's always as nonprofits. It's people that you feel you're not able to touch. You're not able to collect fast enough that you don't have always the relationship as researchers, because we're not necessarily doing the work when we're actually working in the trenches, of how do we get from? Where we're getting you? That to where we want them to be? So in that process, frontline catalyst, even though we were doing a lot of programmatic work, didn't have that capacity for research. Xochitl Cortez:
Yet our youth are doing research. Our youth were testing the lead. Our youth was testing the air, but we didn't have the resource or the skill sets to be able to quantify it in such a way, put the percentages continue doing research from outside, and then put it in parallel with the youth. Xochitl Cortez: And so in this, in this beautiful merging of partnerships and skill sets, and so forth, we were able to put a grant that was able to then put us all together to be able to do something even muc
h more powerful than what we can do alone. Xochitl Cortez: So I wanna say that that in that community partnership the beautiful birth of it is what we can do together with the communities that we're already working with. And that was the most important thing of all Xochitl Cortez: the next slide, please. Xochitl Cortez: So how we came to this work in itself. I grew up here in Oakland, California. I Xochitl Cortez: I'm servicing the when I say services, you frontline catalyst. We work in various
schools through Oakland Unified school district. But when we started our own project as to who we're gonna focus on, we were very intentional. We were intentional about the Cal EPA screens, the environmental screens. We were intentional about overlaying redlining to see, you know, where is the redlining and environmental screens. There's still Xochitl Cortez: they correlate very well, one over the other. And then we also later another one Covid Covid response and impact. So in thinking that heal
th disparities as continue issues are happening in the same communities Xochitl Cortez: where were the most impacted even in desperate times, thinking around the climate crisis. And as things get worse, who are the communities that are going to be impacted with the health and less able to be mobilized or slower mobilized. And that happened to be the community along the 8 80 corridor Xochitl Cortez: all the way to West Oakland. That's probably my, you know, trying to get answers from my own commu
nity going to Uc. Berkeley and getting a degree in emphasis in public health, trying to enter the question of why? Why are things the way they are. What's the individual to the community, level, to the political spectrum and back? Xochitl Cortez: And so in that in that pursuit it's what got me into this work. I got a degree from Mills College, in social entrepreneurship and trying to find solutions, as we're also trying to heal. There's a lot of resilience in Oakland. There's a lot of powerful X
ochitl Cortez: organic work that happens within communities where we're there. But it's also communities that we heard from the lack of financial resources that are that most of families, low income families, immigrant families, legacy families, Xochitl Cortez: have difficulties with. And so that is the part that really invited frontline youth Xochitl Cortez: for us to service frontline youth is to build that leadership in climate justice through the movement building. We use a lot of ethnic stu
dies around social movements. And this is now a new social movement that the youth are all getting a being a part of. We use community science, but not on our, not by ourselves, but in collaboration with other community partners like I mentioned with ebay, and then we do direct advocacy. This is where the youth do their own advocacy and Xochitl Cortez: and meeting with city council, or where they're doing presentations. This, you know, having a youth doing this presentation would have been even
more powerful. But this is how they begin to start doing systems change, because we're building that leadership, to have that stance, to say that we nothing with us, or excuse me, nothing Xochitl Cortez: for us without us? Right? And so, making sure that they're in the forefront of these conversations. Xochitl Cortez: Catalina, would you like to introduce yourself a little Xochitl Cortez: before we move on to the next slide? Catalina Garzon-Galvis (she/her/ella): Yeah, maybe we can move to the n
ext slide. Xochitl Cortez: So before we play this video, I just wanted it to highlight that this video was made by middle schoolers. And these are some of the frontline catalyst youth that are doing some of the reach research in their community. I want you to play close attention to the words that are being set. So this is there. It's a poem that they're reading out loud from the experiences of the program that they had over a year course of what over a year Xochitl Cortez: you can press, push,
play, please. Thank you. Xochitl Cortez: Environmental racism canaries in the coal mine, blogging brown youth living on the frontlines. The Western values system builds on extraction and wealth. Indigenous people focus on Mother nature and environmental health, the philosophy of and Lakesh Sitago Danielati. If I do harm to you, Daniel and Mimismo, I do harm to myself. Xochitl Cortez: We are building a better tomorrow. Next generations can become the best generations, because our decisions affect
the next 7 generations Xochitl Cortez: love rebellion, hope forged by our hearts, minds, and hands, we will accept no less than clean water, clean air, and clean lands. We are catalyst for change. We are the frontline youth leading the movement for transformative climate justice. We ask you to join us for a success. Xochitl Cortez: Tamir, the frontline panelist. Xochitl Cortez: See, Sir Bulletin Xochitl Cortez: boiler. Xochitl Cortez: Hey? Xochitl Cortez: A. Xochitl Cortez: Thank you. Next slid
e, please. Xochitl Cortez: So here the students that you see on that video are still now part of their year 3 with our frontline catalyst, and they are the reason, the motivation, the inspiration to have applied to this college, to this, to this grant and advance, opening youth, advancing climate action. So I'm very proud to say that, and I'll kick it over to Kathalina. Catalina Garzon-Galvis (she/her/ella): That's yes. So, Chi. I'm wondering how much time do we have left like. Nick Anthis: Yeah
, probably. Just Nick Anthis: a couple more minutes for this. This segment. Catalina Garzon-Galvis (she/her/ella): Thank you. We could go to the next slide, please. Catalina Garzon-Galvis (she/her/ella): So the the this is an example of some of the frontline catalyst youth carrying out some of the community assessment activities to gather data on environmental conditions in their communities. And this is essentially what we'll be doing as part of this Oyaka project is through piloting Catalina G
arzon-Galvis (she/her/ella): climate, science and leadership development curriculum engaging youth ages 10 to 24, so very broad age span middle school age to young adults in conducting these kinds of assessments in their home schools, recreation centers, and local parks next slide. Catalina Garzon-Galvis (she/her/ella): And so in addition to the curriculum we're piloting with the youth participatory action activities I just mentioned, we're also evaluating whether engaging youth in these activit
ies, increases their awareness, confidence, and ability to advance personal act and and community action to improve climate resilience. Catalina Garzon-Galvis (she/her/ella): And we're doing that by also engaging them in policy, action, advocacy and organizing campaigns, in their communities and at the state level. Catalina Garzon-Galvis (she/her/ella): Next slide. Catalina Garzon-Galvis (she/her/ella): This is just how we're organizing ourselves to as partners in this collaboration to carry out
the project activities. So we have a number of work groups to carry out different components of the project. And then we're also being advised by a 6 member technical advisory committee. With folks ranging from Catalina Garzon-Galvis (she/her/ella): you know, policy experts to youth organizers to Si assigns, educators, and academics on the committee next slide. Catalina Garzon-Galvis (she/her/ella): And I just wanted to share 2 projects that precursors to our work. That, I think, are are exampl
es of research to action projects in Oakland on climate, resilience, and adaptation that have really laid the groundwork for O Yaka. work. One is a community based adaptation, planning study. That. Catalina Garzon-Galvis (she/her/ella): I was involved in with the Oakland climate Action coalition. In 2010 and 2011. That was funded by a public interest energy research grant from the California Energy Commission, and at the time Cec. Didn't allow us to include a coalition, or can we partner in the
budget? So we had to come up with a reciprocity arrangement with the Coalition Catalina Garzon-Galvis (she/her/ella): to essentially E engage coalition members, which was that we would Co. Chair their resilience and adaptation subcommittee in order to engage coalition members in the study and contribute in that way to the coalition infrastructure and work. To advance committee priorities around resilience and Oakland's energy and climate Action plan. Catalina Garzon-Galvis (she/her/ella): And th
en after the publication of the study which looked at local climate change impacts and identified potential adaptation strategies to address those impacts, especially in vulnerable communities in Oakland. Catalina Garzon-Galvis (she/her/ella): occ, developed a people's resilience plan. That complemented the Energy and climate Action plan content on adaptation. Catalina Garzon-Galvis (she/her/ella): building on the study. And then ultimately, went on to lead the community engagement component for
the Energy and Climate Action Plan update in 2020 Catalina Garzon-Galvis (she/her/ella): next slide. Catalina Garzon-Galvis (she/her/ella): Another example of a a community participatory action research project that we worked on that Catalina Garzon-Galvis (she/her/ella): set some foundation for this work as a photo novel project. We did with communities united for restorative youth justice from 2012 to 2014 Catalina Garzon-Galvis (she/her/ella): to support their successful organizing campaign
against proposed gang junctions in Oakland. Catalina Garzon-Galvis (she/her/ella): So with this project we drawn art based research methods like photo voice and theater of the oppress to engage a group of youth at Dewey Academy, a Continuation high School in Oakland Unified school district in developing a storyboard characters and dialogue for a photo novella that really centered their ideas for community driven alternatives to the school, to prison, pipeline and crimination of youth, of color i
n Oakland Catalina Garzon-Galvis (she/her/ella): and this vision, you know, fast forward 10 years later, is now being realized this summer. In the opening of an Oscar Grant youth power zone of the Freeville Transit Village. That will be effectively owned and operated by courage. Catalina Garzon-Galvis (she/her/ella): And their vision is to create a community climate, resilience hub at the space that really centers youth, in mutual aid and other community driven emergency preparedness and safety
activities in the community. Catalina Garzon-Galvis (she/her/ella): So with that, I think. We can segue to Catalina Garzon-Galvis (she/her/ella): the next piece. Sorry for going a bit over and welcome any questions you might have Catalina Garzon-Galvis (she/her/ella): either in the breakout rooms or other portions of the webinar. Thank you. Maria Cadenas: Greg, I believe that I am. Maria Cadenas: Is is this my section. Gregg Macey: Yes, and now we're gonna hear from Maria Kadenas from ventures.
She's the executive director, Maria. Take it away. Maria Cadenas: Good afternoon, everybody. First of all, forgive the image. Maria Cadenas: technology is not my friend today, but I'm I'm very happy to be here. Maria Cadenas: as mentioned, I'm the director of ventures, and we are an economic justice organization. We focus mainly in trying to address income and wealth and equality. And you may be thinking, what does that have to do with the climate? And how did we end up being a partner with Uc.
Santa Cruz? We've been working with investigators and researchers and academics for a very long time Maria Cadenas: and looking at all the connections that impact the wellbeing of people. And that that really comes down to climate, to economic stability and just being able to thrive overall. Maria Cadenas: So what I'm gonna share is a little different than why we heard from Catalina. And so she's which I'm very grateful for their leadership and guidance. I'm gonna share the point of view from ou
r standpoint as a cbo working predominantly in rural latina immigrant communities. Maria Cadenas: And what research looks like from that perspective? Maria Cadenas: And what to keep in mind. Maria Cadenas: So one of the things that we like to remind researchers is that we're working with people Maria Cadenas: that underserved. Maria Cadenas: not overseen. Maria Cadenas: not less than people Maria Cadenas: people with dignity and with jobs and with self-determination Maria Cadenas: that need to b
e treated as equals and colleagues in the research itself. Maria Cadenas: And I think that times very difficult from an academic perspective when you're trying to couch it for funding, or you're trying to couch it for Irv approval. Maria Cadenas: But that's something really, really critical. Maria Cadenas: And I like to say that the time that the community gives to researchers is expertise Maria Cadenas: as well. Maria Cadenas: Just like your Phds or your masters or Utas have expertise and acade
mic Maria Cadenas: at forefronts and attorneys have expertise in legal matters. Community members have expertise on what life is like on the ground. Maria Cadenas: and it's absolutely critical that that expertise be paid and respected throughout the process. Maria Cadenas: It is not a stipend, it is pay Maria Cadenas: pay for talent and knowledge that otherwise wouldn't be available to you. Maria Cadenas: And if that research is collected, and their time is given that loop backs to come back, no
t only to say, this is what we found. Maria Cadenas: not only to corroborate the thesis or ideas that are being proposed. Maria Cadenas: But to continue to partner execution is absolutely critical. Maria Cadenas: Communities are capped all the time for their knowledge, all the time for their Maria Cadenas: insights and expertise, and and now and and just like their voices. Maria Cadenas: But at the end of the day they're not being put at the decision-making table. Maria Cadenas: They're being to
uted as promotoras. Maria Cadenas: community health workers. Maria Cadenas: but not the electeds to the positions of boarding commissions Maria Cadenas: not be elected into decision making body. So what research should be done or how it should be executed. Maria Cadenas: And this is really important. Maria Cadenas: And finally, when looking at working in community. Maria Cadenas: you know, we forget Maria Cadenas: that they are gaps Maria Cadenas: in engaging with people who are not at your acad
emic level. Maria Cadenas: You know I'm I have my my masters in business administration, and and I'm a first generation, a college graduate, and I'm an immigrant to United States. Maria Cadenas: And so I could rest in my lawyers and say, Look, I I know firsthand Maria Cadenas: what it is to be a undocumented immigrant, and I know firsthand what it is to be engaging in these conversations for the first time. Maria Cadenas: but I can tell you that adventures. One of the processes that we started t
o do automatically was a literacy review of all of our materials. Maria Cadenas: Why? Because Maria Cadenas: we forget. Maria Cadenas: You forget Maria Cadenas: because you're living it all the time. Maria Cadenas: You forget that your reading ability and your literacy ability Maria Cadenas: is that of a college seventeenth grade level professor. Maria Cadenas: Right? Maria Cadenas: You forget. Maria Cadenas: You forget that you can read 3 solo words easily. Maria Cadenas: that you can read comp
lex sentences and get understanding the comprehension of what that means. Maria Cadenas: So when you put out calls for solicitations and research, if you're not doing a literary review of those materials. Maria Cadenas: you're not doing justice for the community to understand what you're asking of them. Maria Cadenas: This doesn't take away their expertise, nor their smarts, nor the capacity to knowledgeably and respectfully and intelligently engage. Maria Cadenas: It does mean that your tools a
re designed to serve you. Maria Cadenas: the research Maria Cadenas: you and your Irv board permission Maria Cadenas: you and your papers and the journals are you gonna submit to. Maria Cadenas: not to the community express, are you trying to engage? Maria Cadenas: And so I wanted to be mindful that. And I use ventures as an example. Maria Cadenas: We've been working really hard to look at Maria Cadenas: as a wealth development through entrepreneurship, predominantly to working on cooperatives.
Maria Cadenas: including in building wealth through climate-related enterprises Maria Cadenas: because climate related enterprises. We're talking about labor intensive, you know, solar installation, landscaping, water management electrification. These are skills that labor force already has in agriculture and rural communities. forest management. So if we can translate that into their new jobs in which they're the owners, we think that'd be a great benefit both Maria Cadenas: to their response t
o climate, but also to the wealth building that provides stability and wellbeing overall for the communities long term. Maria Cadenas: In that proposal. We started to look at what it would look to create a worker cooperative Maria Cadenas: in a way that address all the barriers that the and this is specific to rural. Maria Cadenas: The rural Latina immigrant had in the central coast. Maria Cadenas: To give you an idea, the average reading level is third, right? Maria Cadenas: Right? Maria Cadena
s: That's a very low level. Maria Cadenas: They speak Spanish or indigenous languages which are not written languages. Maria Cadenas: So when you add just those 2 factors into business ownership. Maria Cadenas: it limits the contracts, it limits your marketing and limits. What test you can get for licensing. Maria Cadenas: So, looking into all of those questions, we started to create a model, we call it futuro and happy to talk in another time more in depth about that Maria Cadenas: but part of
what we wanted to figure out is, well, how do we create the tools that Maria Cadenas: go over those barriers right? Maria Cadenas: Lean on the knowledge that we have from our partners like. Maria Cadenas: you know, I work with Matt from Uc. Santa Cruz on. And and the global health fellows around there around the impact of Covid. So we we did undocument Maria Cadenas: relief efforts, wildfire. So we had all that knowledge of community and analysis of demograph and insight into building this wealt
h building mechanism, and we took all of that in conversations with community took us about 2 years Maria Cadenas: of planning and design Maria Cadenas: with farmworkers and micro entrepreneurs and Lady Sally Tamales, and say, Hey, what do you need? Maria Cadenas: And we would. Then we went to the to the legal team. So you know, to the experts, democracy at Work Institute the Federation of Worker owners Sustainable Economy Law Center and all of us were all of us were leaders of color majority im
migrant. Maria Cadenas: really excited to contribute to this piece, we came back with the the legal structure. Maria Cadenas: and then, because ventures is ventures. We say, Okay, well, before it rolls out. Maria Cadenas: We're gonna pass it through literature with you. Maria Cadenas: It came back at the seventeenth grade level Maria Cadenas: again. I'm not Maria Cadenas: this missing Maria Cadenas: that sometimes, because of the system and structures. Maria Cadenas: you know, legal things are l
egal things. There's no way we can bring them down to the third grade level. Maria Cadenas: But we can do better than the seventeenth grade level, and this is with people already committed to working in community. Maria Cadenas: So the recognition of the gaps that we don't even see anymore is really critical. Maria Cadenas: and that that gap is not a reflection of the lack of capacity and intelligence of the community. Maria Cadenas: If anything is an indication of the ways that we have failed M
aria Cadenas: our communities. Maria Cadenas: And so I I I will leave it at that because I think I only have 5 min Maria Cadenas: but I'll be happy to answer any questions, and I'm very grateful for the opportunity to partner in this program with the team in Santa Cruz, and I look forward to the conversation. Gregg Macey: And thank you so much to the panelists. I mean, there's a lot there, and we're gonna break up into small groups now. You know we do, we? We have a lot to think about, you know,
as as we just heard. We're we're dealing with working with people Gregg Macey: who already carry out all kinds of work. Gregg Macey: They don't have certain kinds of capacity, but they're already doing tons of their own testing tons of their own research tons of their own organizing. They're tapped for various reasons. Gregg Macey: and yet they're not given a seat at the table for various decisions. Gregg Macey: And we heard about the you know, the importance of youth we heard about. How decisi
ons that are made in communities are going to affect the next 7 generations. And so with that Gregg Macey: I'm gonna put in the chat. 3 questions that you're gonna talk about in small groups for the rest of the hour. And again, these are all meant to get us beyond what we consider and pat ourselves on the back as having as cutting edge Gregg Macey: community partnership and community based research. And by a final motivation, I just wanted to remind you what Brian Butler of green Actions said wh
en Ab. 6, 1, 7 was rolled out a few years ago, he said, at the rollout for that amazing program on paper, but not in practice. Gregg Macey: He said. Quote, there's no need to identify or figure out everything Gregg Macey: we know, where the places are, where people are suffering from pollution. What we are calling upon the State to do is protect public health. And with that let's get into small groups and see you on the other side. Nick Anthis: We an hour's never, never enough time for these thi
ngs, it seems like, but but hopefully, we're able to at least begin a discussion around these topics. I think we just want to do a real quick. Read out Nick Anthis: from our groups. I say, maybe we call each room. Just give, you know, one kind of high level point that came out of your your discussion that you'd like to share Nick Anthis: with the rest of the group. If that sounds good, so why don't we? We'll start with room number one Nick Anthis: Tony Marks block. Nick Anthis: Would you like to
share Nick Anthis: with the group. Tony Marks-Block: Yes, thank you, Nick. Well. Tony Marks-Block: I haven't had time to look at our padlet too closely, but I think Tony Marks-Block: right, there's Tony Marks-Block: we're running up against longstanding traditions within academia, as has been mentioned. Tony Marks-Block: around what meaningful engagement means. And it's not just Tony Marks-Block: sharing information to communities, but actually having co-designing Tony Marks-Block: with the com
munity and learning directly from the community and letting the community take leadership and not just thinking about publications. So those are some of the key points from our room. Tony Marks-Block: Thank you. Nick Anthis: That Nick Anthis: room number 2 which I was in, but maybe I'll call on the e fung, su. Yifang Zhu: Yeah, Nick, feel free to to chime in here. In our group, we talked about how to come and say community members for their time and expertise, and then how to make a digital know
ledge of being equally valued in research exercises. And then we also talked about taking time to build relationships with communities. So I could link to what Tony shared about Co design research questions asking the right questions. Yifang Zhu: And and we also think it will be really helpful to have longer time during the research proposal development stage, so that the code design can really come through in the proposal stage. Nick Anthis: But so that Nick Anthis: room number 3, Steve Allison
. Steven Allison: Hi! We didn't really have too much time beyond the chance to do introductions to discuss the the questions. But we did talk a little bit Steven Allison: about the need to continue Steven Allison: centering communities in the response Steven Allison: to the Steven Allison: I guess needs of the Steven Allison: the state Steven Allison: or the the programs of the State, the efforts of the the State of California, and probably other States around the country to Steven Allison: actu
ally be accountable to address the problems that Steven Allison: environmental climate, other problems that Steven Allison: the State is responsible for and making sure that communities are centered Steven Allison: in that in that process of accountability. Nick Anthis: Thank you. And room number 4. Matt, Spark. Matt Sparke: Hey? So likewise we didn't have a huge amount of time to get into the details, but jesse Marquez kindly shared some examples and put them in the padlet of areas where state
Matt Sparke: regulation was not really addressing the collection and and Matt Sparke: management of milestones data that it was supposed to be addressing and that their community, based organization by contrast, brought community based knowledge to to point out those gaps in in state milestone monitoring Matt Sparke: ag group also included Maria Cardenna. So in a sense, I don't need to say so much more about all the things Maria Matt Sparke: shared with you all just previously about what that co
mmunity based hub community based organizations, ventures has been doing to build trust and Matt Sparke: shared knowledge in the community. Around building resilience for farm worker communities in the Central coast area. And it's from that I mean, I I I speak as the the pi for the project that Maria is and her group of copies on and we we are basically beneficiaries of of a lot of the expertise that she's Matt Sparke: been building up over time, and I'm continuing to to learn from it as as we m
ove along in in including some of the the real challenges getting resources into the community, and how how? That, how we can use Matt Sparke: some of the strategies ventures has used in the past to get those resources out there. Nick Anthis: Thank you and thanks everybody for participating in those discussions. Sorry again that it's short. Hopefully, this will just be the start of the conversation, and now I'll turn it over to greg. We have a few more minutes to for panel discussion. Gregg Mace
y: And of course this is a metaphor for all the problems. Right? You know we we only had a couple of minutes to go over all of this. Gregg Macey: And you know, the strictures of Academia allowed us to come back, having only talked for a few minutes. But I just wanna say a few things in in summation? The 3 questions that you were asked to think about. Gregg Macey: I would treat those as as just a rubric to have front and center and to go back to time and time again. Right? Community based researc
h is a practice. We're never gonna be perfect at it. We always have to try to improve. Gregg Macey: And so that's what those questions meant to get us to think about. In in terms of other resources. There's plenty 2 that you might want to consider. One is Gwen Oddtinger, just published a paper that I think is really important, and we talk about all different forms of justice, participatory, distributive recognition. Right? Gregg Macey: Her work recently is really about epistemic justice, right?
How, even when you do everything that you can to have communities participate and even be recognized, you're still going to fall short. Gregg Macey: And so what epistemic justice is is making sure that the work that you do. And decisions that are made are based on needs for community health protection Gregg Macey: and that are, they are based on expanding the resources for the community to tell its own stories and to continue to carry out its own research in ways that are listened to and and tha
t place them in a position to make judgments and provide insights about their own communities. And so an ongoing effort to do that through all of our projects would be Gregg Macey: vastly important, as is the notion of data infrastructures, I really recommend to everybody the last 5 years of kind of the rise of the environmental data justice movement, you know. First, during the Trump Administration it started out as efforts to engage in data rescue, but it went far beyond that Gregg Macey: in t
erms of principles of data justice. And here's one definition that's provided by a consortium of of activists and engineers known as the environmental data and governance initiative. They define data justice in the environmental context as public accessibility and continuity of environmental data Gregg Macey: supported by networked open source data infrastructures. And here's the important part that can be modified, adapted, and supported by communities. And I think that while we're striving for
epistemic justice, if we also strive to make sure that all of the vast amounts of information that we're gathering and using in creative ways through our grants. Gregg Macey: If we can place them in the context of these data infrastructures that meet the principles of environmental data justice. That would be hugely important, right? Because we're not gonna get many of these generational opportunities to take these vast sums of money and provide these vast amounts of data to the public and invi
te the public to use them in creative ways. And so we really need to get this right the first time. Gregg Macey: And so with that. Unfortunately, the hour has closed. But please keep these questions front and center as you go about your work, and I'm very excited to learn about what everybody is doing and learning as we go. So thank you for taking this hour today. Nick Anthis: Yeah, thank thank you, Greg, thanks to our panel. Thanks everybody for participating the discussions. We'll have our nex
t one of these in April late April. Details
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