Introduction continued
Co-creating our Future In keeping with our commitment to actionable data and community-engaged research, the research team conducted 16 community consultations, held virtually with groups of community stakeholders between August 2020 and March 2021. Eight were general discussion sessions and eight were issue-specific, covering K-12 education, public higher education, racial justice, housing and houselessness, access to public health, small business, climate justice, and criminal justice. Over 130 people attended one or more discussion sessions, bringing the perspectives of a diverse array of community-based organizations, academics, local government officials, service providers, and local philanthropies to the conversation. In addition to providing input on the purpose, priorities, and potential uses of the study, participants contributed insights on the inequities they see and experience in their work and how they can be addressed. It was also an opportunity to reflect upon the social as well as the material impacts of COVID-19, from the grief, trauma, and exhaustion experienced in the community to the openings for change created by the deep inequities it brought to the surface. Despite its widely disparate impacts along lines of race/ ethnicity, class, gender, nativity, language, and neighborhood, the widely expressed sentiment from these community consultations was that the experience of the pandemic, as an exceptionally stark reflection of the consequences of the inequities that structure our lives, can be an opportunity to take collective action towards a more equitable future for all. This study is intended to inform that collective process, with data that illuminate the conditions and experiences of people who, though a large and recognizably essential presence in the region, have for too long been marginalized in local and regional politics, policies, and resource allocation. These are the community members who will keep civic leaders accountable to the change that is needed rather than the change that is feasible. Data and research alone are insufficient. But together with community-based organizing, outreach, knowledge-building, and policy advocacy, data and research provide vital resources for needed change.
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TOWARDS A JUST AND EQUITABLE CENTRAL COAST
Data and research alone are insufficient. But together with community-based organizing, outreach, knowledge-building, and policy advocacy, data and research provide vital resources for needed change.
