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Domestic Workers' Corner:
Training Workers to Conduct their own National
Survey
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 When
you hear survey statistics in the news do you
ever wonder: whoÂ’s out in the field asking these
questions?
Perhaps you imagine someone in a cubicle making
cold calls or a college student going door-to-door
with a clipboard.
When you hear survey results from DataCenter
this is what you can imagine: someone from a
community, talking to people they know, and
asking questions they have helped develop.
As
DataCenterÂ’s National Domestic Workers Survey
project continues to move forward, you can imagine
a Latina, Cambodian or Trinidadian woman, who,
after learning how to conduct a survey, will
be out collecting real stories so that women
from this largely isolated workforce can use
their experiences to acquire the basic labor
rights they deserve. Thank you for supporting
DataCenter as we gather our community research,
and currently embark on one of the key steps
in any research project: training our domestic
worker surveyors.
As of this e-newsletter, we have conducted a
Training for Trainers in New York, and are currently
leading one in Los Angeles. Check
out our Facebook
for daily training updates and photos!
Now
you’re wondering, what is a “Training for Trainers”?
Click here
to read more!
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California Indigenous Tribe Maps,
Advocates for Sacred Sites and Environmental Justice
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The
circumstances: The bulk of the Winnemem
Wintu Tribe territory has been submerged by the
construction of the Shasta Dam. Raising the Dam
would threaten their remaining territories, including
their sacred Sites.
The
project: In early March, DataCenter traveled
to join the Tribe in its community near Redding,
CA to review preliminary findings from interviews
with Tribal members and begin to formulate a plan
for public education and advocacy about the issue.
Because
of your support, DataCenter partnered with the
Winnemem Wintu Tribe and launched the Winnemem
Wintu Sacred Sites Oral Documentation Project
in 2007. The project served two main purposes:
- Preserve
the Tribal members' rich traditional knowledge
for future generations, and
- Document
their information using research tools to help
them advocate for environmental justice
The
future: Click here
to read about next steps in this project as Datacenter
partners with the Pacific
Institute, the Georgraphy
Department at San Francisco State University
and the Sacred
Land Film Project to lead participatory mapping
workshops to document the Winnemem Wintu Sacred
Sites.
We
are grateful to the California
Consumer Protection Foundation for its generation
support of the project.
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Bringing Community Voice
to the Academy |
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The
Academy, including universities and research institutions,
is designed to share its knowledge with the outside
world, but how does information travel in the
other direction? You, as a friend of DataCenter,
are a part of that transmission of information.
You help bring community voice to the Academy.
A
major goal of "research justice" is
to bring research equity to the world of the Academy.
One way DataCenter is fulfilling that goal is
through presentations in college classes. College
students learn the time-tested classics of research,
policy and social science in their academic work.
DataCenter strengthens that classical understanding
by bringing community-based research to the classroom.
DataCenter recently presented at University of
Southern California, Antioch, and at City College
of San Francisco. We discussed how research can
be a tool to support social change and best practices
of researchers working with communities.
Said a student from Antioch College,
"I loved how [the trainer] challenged the
idea of research and brought out the idea of
community research, gathering wisdom from the
people in our communities."
Click here
to read more about DataCenter's work with the
Academy!
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DataCenter Welcomes New Staff! |
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DataCenter
welcomes Leslie Parra and Jay Donahue!
Leslie
Parra,
Development Director
Leslie
Parra has focused her career in two fields, science
and the nonprofit world. She holds a Masters of
Science with a focus in conservation from San
Francisco State University and strongly supports
ecological sustainability. Throughout the past
10 years she has worked with program and organizational
development for several educational and community
organizations in the Bay Area. Leslie is excited
to be part of the DataCenter team, sharing the
vision of DataCenter, and looking forward to building
new partnerships within our social/environmental
justice community.
 Jay
Donahue,
Program Manager
Originally from Pennsylvania, Jay has lived in
the Bay Area for 8 years and currently lives in
Oakland. He holds a B.A. in Sociology and Anthropology
from Colgate University and an M.A. in Activism
and Social Change from New College of California.
Jay organizes with Critical Resistance, fighting
to abolish the prison industrial complex (PIC)
and end our reliance on prisons, policing and
surveillance as solutions to social problems while
simultaneously building strong, self-determined
communities. Jay is a competitive long distance
runner and when not out logging miles on the road
he might be found fly-fishing a Sierra stream
or brewing beer in his kitchen. Jay is honored
to be part of the Datacenter staff.
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Domestic
Workers' Corner
- Training
Workers to Conduct their own National Survey
Read
Other
Revelations
- California
Indigenous Tribe Adocates for Sacred Sites,
Environmental Justice
Read
- Bringing
Community Voice to the Academy
Read
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- Next
Week!
Thursday, April 14
Join Us for our "Threshold of Justice"
Event: Updates on DataCenter's
recent victories!
More
info
- Annual Report Coming Soon!
- May:
DataCenter to present at WORK IT OUT--A
CHAMBEAR! A free workshop for community
organizers.
Learn
more here!
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-
Leslie
Parra,
Development
Director
Read
-
Jay
Donahue,
Program Manager
Read
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Questions?
Suggestions?
Email us! datacenter@datacenter.org
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