Mission Statement: who we are and what is our vision
The Community and Labor Project (CLP) is dedicated to ensure that the institution/university works for the greater San Diego community under the principles of research justice and equitable participation based on the needs of workers and marginalized community members. We recognize that research has historically enabled colonialism and systems
of oppression, and that the powerful tools of research have strategically been made inaccessible for community-based organizations. To counter this legacy of research injustice we will work together to develop projects by and for working-class people, migrants, and communities of color that can help lead a more just world. In doing so, CLP will create a positive and much needed relationship with distanced marginalized communities in San Diego-Tijuana and the La Jolla campus. The CLP will work to connect with real people and their local struggles to students, professors, and faculty at the university who are invested in working together to make social change. CLP supports non-oppressive broad efforts to create a just society and help achieve a sustainable quality of life for all. Principles: how do we get there
The principles of research justice require that research be directed by community members affected by the research in empowering and collaborative ways. This project seeks to establish a research justice protocol by inviting community members to articulate their needs, desires, and concerns and to have an active hand in shaping the complete research process from start to finish. Hence we conduct extensive outreach to locate interested participants and work to build equitable and empowering relationships with social justice organizations and impacted grassroots communities. The CLP will ensure that data collection and analysis are performed in a professional and timely manner by student researchers under the training of principle investigator committed to research justice principles and ethics. The CLP may choose not to collaborate with campus members who community members are reluctant to work with and will always prioritize community preferences in collaboration partners. The CLP will commit to presenting all research findings back to the community and influential policy holders in accessible ways to ensure that research has an impact on developing policy and community activism campaigns. Project Goals:
Justice-Centered Participatory Action Research:
Develop a participatory research process with migrant activists and community based organizations to define research objectives, processes, and products. Develop Research Interest Areas:
Identify key issue areas that are of strategic use to labor, social justice orientated community-based organizations, and marginalized grassroots communities in the San Diego-Tijuana Region. Develop robust programs in each area to provide community engagement, social justice organizing, and research collaborations for students, faculty, campus staff, and community members with interest and expertise in these same areas. Preliminary Program Areas:
Labor and Economic Justice: emphasizing partnerships to support and empower labor and economic rights activism
Immigrant Rights and Racial Justice, with special emphasis on the intersections of the prison and detention industrial complex
Environmental Justice: including the impacts of environmental racism on health, communities, and the environment
Corporate Research: critical investigation of corporations and their impacts on society, including the investigation of economic policy
Nurturing the Growth of Community-Based Knowledges: providing tools and support for communities to develop their own knowledge production activities
Policy Analysis:
Develop a space within the university to connect students and researchers interested in working on policy with impacted communities in order to ensure that policy recommendations are directed by those affected. In addition, the CLP will work to support communities interested in developing their own policy analysis capacities. Community Events:
Coordinate with community partners to develop a public events through the San Diego-Tijuana region to share research findings with the larger community and bring the university to the people in dynamic and creative ways. Popular Media Products:
Work with community partners to create artistic and easy to understand popular media and social media products to further locally based social justice campaigns. Provide connections for artists and media makers to communities with stories to share. Support the capacity-building of marginalized communities to utilize the arts and media in their campaigns.
