When: Wednesday, February 1st, and Thursday, February 2nd, 2012, 9 AM to 4 PM (both days)

Where: Central Building, 436 14th St, 2nd Floor, Downtown Oakland

(Location made possible through a generous in-kind donation by the Akonadi Foundation)

Guest presenters will include Michael James, Greenaction for Health and Environmental Justice, Youth United for Community Action (YUCA) and the Pacific Institute.

About the Training Academy

The DataCenter believes research is a key element in the struggle for environmental justice. Research helps ensure communities can effectively access knowledge, leverage that knowledge to make their voices heard, and turn research into informed, calculated and strategic action, building their own political power grounded in the strength of their own culture and community — to create positive social change. This Academy is a unique and intensive capacity-building program that combines various forms of learning in a safe, supportive, and stimulating setting for organizers at the forefront of the environmental justice movement.

The annual Environmental Justice Training Academy began in 2007 and is designed to:

• Increase the effectiveness of community based organizations working to improve the environmental health in low income communities in the Bay Area
• Build research capacity and support critical data-collection skills.
• Facilitate equitable research collaborations between low-income communities and research institutions.
• Train organizers and community members to conduct their own research.

Generously funded by the Environment Program of the San Francisco Foundation, this training is provided at no cost to the participating organization. Each organization is encouraged to send a minimum of two participants to better ensure that knowledge and skills are transferred back to the organization. Breakfast and lunch will be included.

All Academy participants will receive:

• A resource binder and accompanying tools to replicate trainings with their staff and community.
• A 1 hour, pro-bono consultation with an experienced DataCenter staff member following the Academy to help facilitate the implementation of all the tools and skills that will be acquired during the Academy.

Past Participants Talk About the Academy

Past participants in the Academy include the Asian Pacific Islander Environmental Network, representatives of the Winnemem Wintu tribe, Youth United for Community Action, Greenaction, and the Pacific Institute.

What they are saying:

“Research seems less painful and there are numerous sources to use to find the information you need.  I will use this in helping my staff do research for their campaigns.”

“It will definitely improve the way I approach policy makers.  I will be better prepared.”

“There were a lot of resources provided…and how those resources can be used for our community and specific EJ Issues of our community.  I can use the info in future campaigns and recruitment efforts.”

How to Apply

If your organization is community-based with a history of grassroots capactiy-building and leadership development, we hope you will take advantage of this valuable opportunity to expand your strategic research capacity and, thus, strengthen your Environmental Justice campaigns and community.

Please complete the online Environmental Justice Training Academy Application form.

https://www.surveymonkey.com/s/3YDG8HS

Please submit one form per organization by January 15th, 2012. Space is limited, so please fill out your application ASAP! The Academy is open to community-based organizations working on environmental justice issues within the Bay Area and greater California.

For questions or concerns, please do not hesitate to contact Jinee Kim Rebouh, Lead Consultant (jineerebouh@gmail.com; 415.987.1016).

Hold on to your hats–we’re on our way to getting basic dignity and protection for domestic workers written into California law!

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: June 2, 2011

Assembly approves sensible clear guidelines benefiting domestic workers and employers

SACRAMENTO – The California Assembly approved AB 889 today, the Domestic Workers Bill of Rights, sponsored by Assemblymember Tom Ammiano (D-San Francisco) passed.  The bill now heads to the Senate for approval.  Co-sponsored by Assemblymembers Allen (D- Sonoma),  Cedillo (D- LA), Ma (D- San Francisco), Monning (D- Santa Cruz) and Senator De Léon , the bill seeks to remove the exclusion of domestic workers from all rights provided to all California workers under Wage Order 15. AB 889 sets industry-wide standards. The current exemptions for domestic workers are confusing and leave well-meaning employers vulnerable to liability. The standards will help keep the industry above-ground.

“Today’s vote was a historic step forward for the rights of domestic workers in California. For decades domestic work has been excluded from both state and federal labor laws and worker exploitation in this industry has remained invisible and unmonitored. AB 889 will end that by establishing the same basic protections under the law that many of us take for granted,” said Ammiano.

“This legislation helps us to bring a critical workforce out of the shadows and into the light of day.  Domestic workers must be assured the rights and protections that all California workers deserve,” said V. Manuel Pérez, chair of the Assembly Committee on Jobs, Economic Development, and the Economy.

The Assembly vote follows last year’s successful passage of a Domestic Workers Bill of Rights in New York. Domestic workers have historically been exempted from laws governing the rights afforded to other workers -decent wages, a safe and healthy workplace health, workers compensation and other labor protections. Domestic workers are among the most isolated and vulnerable workforce in the state. The unique nature of their work requires protections to prevent abuse and mistreatment from occurring behind closed doors, out of the public eye. This bill provides domestic workers with industry-specific protections to use kitchen facilities and cook their own food, and creates standards for sleep, sick days, living wage increases, and paid vacations.

“Pues esa victoria significa que se vamos poco poco en el camino de luchando para ganar estos derechos que no han sido reconocido en este trabajo digno,” said Maria Reyes of Mujeres Unidas y Activas.  “This victory signifies that we’re moving step by step on the path to victory to win rights that have never been recognized in this dignified work.”

“The Bill of Rights creates helpful guidelines for employers of domestic workers.  Employers have a vested self-interest in this campaign- by working to support the Domestic Worker Bill of Rights, we are investing in building communication and trust with workers who support some of the most intimate parts of our lives, providing home care to people with disabilities and elders, or caring for our children and our homes.” Jessica Lehman, employer of a personal attendant in her home and a member of Hand in Hand: Domestic Employer Association.

Quintin Mecke

Communications Director

Office of Assemblymember Tom Ammiano

455 Golden Gate Avenue, #14300

San Francisco, CA  94102

Email: quintin.mecke@asm.ca.gov

Phone: 415.557.3013

Fax: 415.557.3015

Website: http://democrats.assembly.ca.gov/members/a13/

Read about the highlights of 2010, including a Domestic Workers’ Victory, our most recent publications, stories from our Regeneration Gala, a new Teen Center in West Oakland, and much more!

Look for it in the coming weeks in your mailbox!

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or Download it Now (pdf)

DataCenter has partnered with the Washington, D.C.-based Neighborhood Funders Group (NFG), a national philanthropic affinity group of social justice grantmaking institutions, to design and conduct a membership-wide survey for longitudinal use and in preparation for a strategic planning process to commence in January 2011. The data generated from the survey is designed to provide NFG with an in-depth and up-to-date understanding of the member foundations and their current relationship to and involvement with NFG. This will inform NFG’s future strategic direction, programming and services.

Through the years, DataCenter has partnered with organizations to integrate research into their critical learning processes and to inform strategies. DataCenter’s unique model of participatory research and facilitation process yields not only the research findings, but also the following key objectives and collateral benefits:

1. An opportunity to: develop team/participant ownership, team rapport, and strategically approach organizational development;
2. Shared consciousness, analysis, solutions and strategies in the team;
3. A sense of expertise among participants as stakeholders in the research, enabling them to share desired data-backed messages authoritatively;
4. ‘New knowledge’ backed by hard-hitting data and stories; and
5. With the ‘new knowledge’ and the findings which indicate future possibilities,everyone is engaged and invested in using the findings to effectively and enthusiastically advocate for change.

As a result of undergoing this learning process, we hope the NFG team will reaffirm and leverage its unified sense of its current identity and strengths, and build up its solid platform for future planning and growth to support social justice philanthropy.

From October 12th to the 15th, the DataCenter, National Domestic Workers Alliance (NDWA), Center for Urban Economic Developement (CUED), and workers and staff from Adhikaar in New York, Institute of Popular Education of Southern California (IDEPSCA) in Los Angeles, and the Women’s Collective of La Raza Centro Legal in San Francisco gathered to create the survey questions for the national survey project on domestic workers.

DataCenter shared information on how to design a survey?from the types of questions to the structure of the survey. We led activities in which retreat participants were able to practice writing survey questions, learn about the qualities of good and bad questions, and dialogue about what they were learning. During group discussions, we came to understand the importance of having each and everyone one of us present. Sometimes while discussing a question we would hear from those with previous survey experience. This helped us understand the effectiveness of the question and the ways in which to modify it. At other times, domestic workers would give us unique input on why a question was confusing or was not getting to the core of the issue.

This week was a testament to why participatory research, like the one the DataCenter engages in, is so important to organizing our communities and pushing for change. We all bring unique experiences, knowledge and expertise.

Miho and I, as a new DataCenter intern, co-facilitated this workshop during the National Youth Organizing Training Institute (NYOTI) by School of Unity and Liberation (SOUL), hosted at Center for Third World Organizing (CTWO) in Oakland.  A total of 15 youth organizers from the Bay Area, New York City, Boston, and Arizona actively engaged in activities and shared in discussions, to learn the why and how of using research for their work.  Our aim was to demystify research and investigation, and to reframe it as a strategic tool to build the power behind their voices in campaigns.

We began with a bingo game that reaffirmed we are already using research every day, and that our communities are experts.  “Of course we are experts in our lives, we know that! But what does society say about youth of color?” Miho asked.  “Problems,” “criminals,” “stupid,” the participants replied.  When Miho asked how they and their own communities see themselves as youth of color, however, we heard “We are the future!” “Strong!” “Beautiful!” “Smart!”… It was very powerful.

But why this gap?  “There are three types of knowledge in this world,” Miho explained, “experiential, community, and mainstream knowledge.”  In fact, mainstream knowledge is more valued than the knowledge in our communities and everyday lives because the mainstream institutions have more legitimacy in addition to, as the participants pointed out, “money!”

Mainstream prejudice against youth of color renders their voices invalid from the get-go in many cases, regardless of the truth of their arguments.  Policies are often informed by what the mainstream perceptions and notions are of youth of color, not what they know about themselves.  These policies criminalize youth and perpetuate violence and neglect against youth of color in low-income communities.  It takes political power to refine policies.  How do we build that political power to make it happen?  “By using research strategically – to build legitimacy behind our voice!”  Now the why of research was crystal clear to all of us.

Next step was the how to do research, by identifying the need for information tied to a specific goal, then assessing the best way to get it.  We asked the participants to match up cards to figure out the effective, not necessarily right or wrong, way to get the information we want.

Miho also drew a picture of a crock-pot of beef stew, asking how she can feed her baby brother.  “How about a ladle?” “Stir and scoop it!” “Slowly, with love!” And voila!  To the surprise of participants, these were actually the ‘Three Core Elements’ of research: figuring out the 1) sources (in the pot), 2) tools (ladle), and finally, the 3) methods (stir slowly, with love).

We then discussed packaging the information strategically for the target audience.  For youth and communities of color, it is often critical to not only use research for their campaigns but also present it in a way that it carries the necessary political legitimacy, with numbers and citations to back up their arguments, especially when faced with decision-makers in mainstream institutions.

When the time was up, we left them with ample resources and handouts, including the popular ‘Research Bingo’ game, of which many people got multiple copies to train more youth back home.

I felt empowered and inspired by the passion and hope that the participants were exuding all around the CTWO building, and I am honored to have been part of that particular moment.  Thank you for your amazing work to SOUL, CTWO, and all the participants!

Special Thanks to Jon Frappier and Max Weintraub for presenting at the Camp!

On September 11th & 12th, the DataCenter hosted it third annual research training academy, and first research academy focused on environmental justice. The academy had an amazing turnout with participants from local organizations such as: Asian Pacific Environmental Network, Youth United for Community Action, Greenaction, Pacific Institute, and the Winnemem Wintu tribe.

What made this academy particularly special was the level of enthusiasm and dedication the participants brought. They were not gathered in the 3rd floor conference room to dwell on our past successes or commend each other for the most recent, campaign endeavors. Instead, the DataCenter staff was met with gregarious community organizers, interns, and staff that came prepared with serious questions about how to strategically improve their research framework and realize the goals of their campaign issues. We came prepared to challenge our colleagues and happily they came ready to make the utmost of this opportunity and pose their questions and concerns related to their on-going organizing.

Participants identified with DataCenter’s concept of “research as an organizing tool” framework, and found it helped strategically plan their campaign agenda. The Environmental Justice Research Training Academy accomplished its goal to provide the necessary skills-based workshops that would transform the community’s expertise (intimate understanding of the goings on in their community) into political ammunition that would hold up in mainstream knowledge.

A workshop held by DataCenter co-founder Jon Frappier and private investigator Amie Fishman covered corporate and individual profiling in such a manner that something initially viewed as dreadful and overwhelming by participants, was “kind of fun”. In addition to this duo, Max Weintraub, held a roundtable discussion covering the different agencies of the Environmental Protection Agency and laid out the different pathways participants could follow to acquire the necessary government resources to build their research issue. Lastly, Catalina Garzon & Eli Moore of Pacific Institute, added to the participant’s repertoire of tools to help transform the community’s reality into the empirical evidence widely accepted in mainstream media. Their presentation introduced two techniques—photo-voice & community mapping—not often used by community organizations.

Overall our intensive training academy was nothing short of amazing. Participants took home binders packed with resources that covered over and beyond what DataCenter managed to cover in those two short days. More importantly, many participants left inspired and ready to employ more innovative perspectives to environmental issues in their community.

As a Research and Policy Intern for DataCenter, in collaboration with the Food Chain Workers Alliance (FCWA), I completed several projects dealing with low-wage workers in the food supply-chain.  The purpose of this research is to assist the members of the FCWA to gather information about workers in the industries all along the food chain so that they can improve conditions for all food-related workers. The industries analyzed include: agriculture, fisheries, animal husbandry, meatpacking/poultry processing, food processing and manufacturing, logistics (includes warehouses, transportation, food distribution), grocery, and restaurants.  The primary focus of these projects addressed mobility of the workers within these industries, whether there were opportunities for advancement, barriers to advancement, differences between unionized and non-unionized workplaces, and wage inequities.

The project began with a literature review where I found and summarized over 50 reports, articles, and publications that have been written about mobility and career ladders along the U.S. food supply-chain.  A major trend that this research highlighted is the vulnerability of those on the lower pay-scale of the food supply chain.  Also, citizenship status, lack of a formal education, and discrimination were among the barriers that many workers faced to moving up career ladders.
I also assisted in a data research project that focused on the number of those employed in food-related fields and the median wage and annual salaries of these workers.  We gathered most of our data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics.  We also looked at the National Agriculture Workers Survey and the USDA to find more specific numbers on U.S. agricultural workers.  Unsurprisingly, the data we found reinforced what the literature review had indicated; many workers in food-related industries are greatly underpaid and face many difficulties because of it.

Lastly, FCWA member organizations were interviewed to provide a first hand account on the above issues.  The first part of the survey focused on key positions within their field of expertise, the second looked at mobility of workers, and the third addressed companies and other major players within the industry.  Again, discrimination was a major barrier to advancement, organized workplaces had many more opportunities for those with a lower-wage, and mobility between industries was infrequent for workers.

Joann Lo, coordinator of the FCWA was quoted in saying:

“As far as we in the Food Chain Workers Alliance knows, no one has ever produced an extensive report on the state of workers throughout the food system in the U.S., including data on wages, career ladders, mobility, demographics, and health and safety conditions.  Chris’ research this summer has laid the foundation we need to organize and write this report, which will help guide the Alliance’s work as well as make an impact on allies and policy makers to support our campaigns and initiatives.”

My hope is that my work will further the goals of the DataCenter and the FCWA as much as it has furthered my own abilities and experience.  The research, the data collection, the interviews, and analysis were extensive and challenging, but I greatly appreciate the opportunity to engage in such meaningful work with two wonderful organizations.

View the Report Card

Acknowledgements

DataCenter provided research support to the Right to the City Los Angeles on a report card based on 481 surveys of residents living in Koreatown, South Los Angeles and Boyle Heights.  The survey, similar to what the city uses for its housing inspections, found residents living in substandard housing – facing issues of infestations and problems with the structure (particularly walls and ceiling), plumbing, heating, wiring and building upkeep and safety.  The report card fails the city in its role to provide habitable living conditions for most tenants and its Code Enforcement process that has not worked.  RTTC LA will use the report card to urge the City of Los Angeles to enact stricter policies along with community based solutions to improve the housing and living conditions for over 1 million tenants in the City.

The survey was implemented by Right to the City Alliance members: ¡Comunidad Presente!, Koreatown Immigrant Workers Alliance, South Asian Network, Strategic Actions for a Just Economy, Union de Vecinos with additional research support provided by UCLA Professor Jackie Leavitt.

you can download the report here (pdf).

Check out the article in National Organizer’s Alliance Ark Magazine about the Sustaining Organizing Survey!

Stay tuned for additional local events this summer and fall where we’ll discuss the findings of the Sustaining Organizing Study around the country and online.  Updates will be available on the blog: Sustaining Organizing.