History of CCREC

From 2009 to 2015, the UC Center for Collaborative Research for an Equitable California (CCREC) operated as a multi-campus research initiative to link interdisciplinary university researchers, community organizations, and policy makers in equity-oriented, collaborative, community-based research projects. These projects aimed to achieve creative solutions to the interrelated challenges in the economy, employment, education, environment, food systems, housing, and public health. CCREC was created in an effort to build institutional capacity for collaborative community-based research methodologies within the UC system. CCREC provided initial “seed” funding for collaborative research projects, incubated regional-level coalitional collaborative research projects for justice, and prepared a new generation of engaged scholars and community leaders who seek to make truth matter in the public sphere. CCREC also engaged in critical analyses of these very modes of research and the complex ethical questions they raise for university researchers and aggrieved community members specifically, and for social science research more broadly.

CCREC’s core funding was not renewed by the University of California Office of the President (UCOP) and its central operations were formally concluded at the end of the 2015 academic year.

Many of the CCREC projects that were cultivated in this short time period continue in various forms. Active projects include the Ethics Project, graduate student and early career scholar Summer Institutes, as well as various Partnerships.

CCREC was supported by a $1.54M Multi-Campus Research Programs and Initiatives (MRPI) grant from the University of California Office of the President (UCOP) between 2009 - 2015.

Additional institutional support was provided by the UC Santa Cruz's Division of Social Sciences, Office of the Vice Chancellor for Research, Graduate Division, School of Engineering as well as UCSC Departments of Anthropology, Computer Science, Education, Latin American & Latino Studies, and Sociology.

The CCREC Ethics Project has been supported by two major grants (> $600K) from the Spencer Foundation. CCREC's community-engaged data initiative was supported by a National Science Foundation grant (> $353K).

CCREC has also been generously supported by individual donors: Anonymous; Rima and Michael Apple; Karen Benson; George Brown and Julie Dryden Brown; Gabriel Cruz; Lori and Arnold Danzig; Gustavo Fischman; Elizabeth and Douglas Glass; Kate and Dan Glass; Deb Glass and Maria Hernandez; Lisa Goldoftas; Hannah and Kyle Heller; David M. Hooks; Marcia and Michael Katz; Deborah Kerdeman and David Tarshes; Meira Levinson; Linda and George Magre; Chogallah Maroufi; Nel Noddings; John Perry; David Peterson; Martha Powell; Susan Verducci Sandford; Jeanine and Guy Saperstein; Harvey Siegel; Alison Taysum; Diane R. Thomas Living Trust; Pia Wong and Bruce Griesenbeck.