By Nadine Padilla, Coordinator, the MASE (Multicultural Alliance for a Safe Environment) Coalition, Albuquerque, NM.

VID00001DataCenter and Multicultural Alliance for a Safe Environment (MASE) partnered in late 2009 to bring 12 young people together for an Indigenous Knowledge and Research Justice Camp.  The 2-day camp was the first step in building a network of young people that can participate in and eventually lead the current uranium battles, offering their skills and talents as politically-oriented organizers, artists, and performers.
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Max is a toxics officer with the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency.  He founded the Environmental Justice and Health Union and is an instructor for the environmental justice course at UC Berkeley. Max received his M.S. in environmental advocacy from the University of Michigan and is a senior fellow of the Environmental Leadership Program.

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The National Domestic Workers Alliance (NDWA) is an alliance of domestic and household workers in the United States and is a vehicle to build power nationally as a workforce. Many of its member organizations, such as Mujeres Unidas y Activas and Domestic Workers United, have been long time partners of the DataCenter and have led cutting edge research projects that have supported campaigns and organizing efforts to improve the living and working conditions of domestic workers. The Alliance is now launching a national participatory research project on the domestic work industry and the weekend of November 13-15 it is holding its first West Coast Domestic Workers Congress in Oakland, CA. DataCenter will lead a workshop with its members on creating, designing and implementing a national survey.

Shared Leadership Series

leadership learning

The motto “be the change you want to see in the world” has manifested in DataCenter’s Shared Leadership Model since 2006.  With a Design Team comprised of representatives from Bay Area social justice organizations, we convened a monthly three part-series of dialog with more than thirty other organizations to document our diverse experiences – both successes and challenges – exploring alternatives to a top-down leadership structure as a social justice movement.  We listened to each other and exchanged tools and resources, as well as wisdom.  The knowledge capture using participatory methodologies imparted insights appreciated by grantmakers, capacity-builders, and organizers alike.  Check out the powerpoint summary of this experience, recently presented at the brownbag hosted by Learning Leadership Community – the funder of the series – available on our websites!

For more information and resources, visit the Leadership Learning Community Bay Area Learning Circle wiki at: http://leadershiplearning.pbworks.com/BayArea_10212009

Download powerpoint summary pdf format

KGA Coding

Khmer Girls for Action works primarily with young girls of Southeast Asian descent in the Long Beach area in Southern California. Most are from low income, immigrant and/or refugee families and face such issues such as poverty, racism, and violence. Though Long Beach is home to the largest Cambodian population in the United States, there is a dearth of data and information that reflect the experience of the community. For this reason, KGA decided to launch a research project that would assess the conditions and needs among Khmer youth in their community. KGA hopes that the findings will inform the myriad services serving youth in Long Beach so they can better meet the needs of this very vulnerable, often marginalized population.
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Sustaining Organizing Study

Sustaining Organizing

Sustaining Organizing Study (SOS): A Strategic Social Justice Movement Assessment

Building the Social Justice Movement: Our Knowledge Will Not Be Televised…

For the first twenty years of its existence since 1977, DataCenter did research for the movement, by studying the “enemy” and ensuring Right to Know. For the next ten years, we also researched with the movement, helping communities research themselves. Now, we are poised, with other allies coming together to say, “Our Knowledge Will Not Be Televised!” The social justice movement is on level playing field with other institutions in society when we see research by the movement, for the movement, of the movement!
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echoes

Congratulations to Mujeres Unidas y Activas (MUA) member leaders, who, as a result of undergoing the first DataCenter-MUA participatory research project in 2006, designed and implemented their own survey project. DataCenter provided data analysis and technical support towards the end of the project.  The newly released bilingual report, “Echoes from the Silence: Raising Our Voices” shares the results from a 2008 study conducted by MUA members. The objective was to understand the experiences of Latina immigrant survivors of domestic violence in the Bay Area, and offer recommendations how to improve services for Latina immigrant survivors of family violence.  MUA is a leader in strategically applying tools of social science to make their stories impact policy!

full report 13 pages, PDF, requires free Adobe Acrobat®Reader.

Download report

Reclaiming Koreatown

reclaiming koreatown

In August, KIWA in association with DataCenter released Reclaiming Koreatown, a report that presents current and future needs of neighborhood residents and analyzes the challenges facing the multi-ethnic, low-income Koreatown community in Los Angeles.  Rent increases, the reduction of affordable housing, displacement, unaffordable new businesses, an increase in traffic, and a decrease in parking are among top concerns, with up to 90% of surveyed residents expressing concern about these issues. The report calls for development that is accountable to the Koreatown resident community and puts forth a set of principles for improving housing affordability and economic well-being.

full report 28 pages, PDF, requires free Adobe Acrobat®Reader.

Download Report

rinigrandmotherA Three-Part Series of Facilitated Peer Learning Sessions that raise critical questions about, and (re)affirmations of, reflecting our social justice values internally in our organizations.

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Winnemem Wintu

Presented May 11, 2009 (Wed) nation-wide and internationally! Click here to listen on your local public radio station or to download a podcast.

With DataCenter support, our youth intern Michael Preston, a young emerging leader of the Winnemem Wintu Tribe of Northern California, along with our research intern Rachel Gelfand worked closely with one of National Radio Project’s own star producers Andrew Stelzer to produce a very powerful radio documentary: War Dance of the Winnemem Wintu. Preston presents the story of his tribe and their struggle to prevent the flooding of the sacred land and native ecology they have called home for centuries. The Winnemem evoked the ceremonial War Dance to protect their sacred sites, burial grounds, and historical village sites from further destruction in 1887, 2004 and again in 2009. (more…)

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