January 17, 2005
Community collaborations receive nearly $1
million from Kellogg Foundation
By Jennifer McNulty
Two of UCSCs most highly regarded community collaborations
have received nearly $1 million from the W. K. Kellogg Foundation
to support their work promoting educational achievement, economic
equity, and environmental justice.
UCSCs Bridging Multiple Worlds Alliance (BMWA) and the
Center for Justice, Tolerance, and Community (CJTC) will share
a grant of $978,125 over three years. The Kellogg Foundation
awarded the funds as part of its engaged institutions
program. Since 1930, the nonprofit foundation has focused on
helping people help themselves, and its programs
build the capacity of individuals, communities, and institutions
to solve their own problems.
Since opening in 1965, UCSC has gone beyond its purely academic
mission to distinguish itself as an engaged partner with local,
regional, state, nationwide, and global communities.
Our faculty are committed to building a better world,
and these two programs strengthen the capacity of community-based
organizations to change social policy and educational outcomes
for the underrepresented and disadvantaged, said Acting
Chancellor Martin M. Chemers.
Communities have a great deal to gain from interacting
with the university, and the university also sees important
gains from these collaborations. Our researchers are generating
exceptionally useful work on issues of equity, diversity, and
social justice.
Both BMWA and CJTC emphasize partnerships in which community
members are active participants who help shape the research
agenda, a commitment that the Kellogg Foundation also embraces.
BMWA was developed by UCSC psychology professor Catherine Cooper
and is codirected by Cooper and Elizabeth Dominguez, director
of the Cabrillo Advancement Program at Cabrillo College. The
alliance is devoted to encouraging young people from diverse
backgrounds to get on the path to higher education and college-based
careers by increasing their awareness of college as an option
for them and of the resources that are available to them. Active
in six states, the alliance reaches out to children, beginning
with sixth graders, and works with families, schools, and neighborhood
programs to bridge multiple worlds and build university/community
partnerships that open the academic pipeline to youth of all
backgrounds, including those of African, Chinese, Filipino,
Latino, European, Japanese, Cambodian, Vietnamese, and Native
American descent.
Within the alliance, we create partnerships to help low-income,
ethnic-minority, and immigrant youth create networks of support
so they can build pathways to college and careers, said
Cooper.
Under the leadership of Manuel Pastor and Dana Takagi, professors
of Latin American and Latino studies and sociology, respectively,
CJTC has built upon UCSCs reputation by building collaborative
relationships between the center and community organizations
working on issues of environmental degradation, regional empowerment,
employment assistance programs, and local impacts of globalization,
to name a few.
The CJTC is dedicated to leveling the playing field
in public policy debates by giving community organizations the
empirical data they need to seek social, economic, and environmental
justice, said Pastor.
The Kellogg grant will support the ongoing work of BMWA and
CJTC and will position each initiative as a model for university/community
collaborations across the country. Programs will provide training
to social justice leaders, educators, students, and policy makers
to encourage collaboration with community-based organizations
and the building of enduring alliances with other individuals.
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