Center for Regional Change
The Center for Regional Change is a university-affiliated and non-partisan research center within the UC Davis College of Agricultural and Environmental Sciences. The center also hosts a Distinguished Lecture Series annually in which scholars and leaders in the field are invited to share their knowledge with the campus community.
Purpose
The Center for Regional Change has three aims:
- It connects university research with planners, land managers, non-profits, environmentalists, communities and social service providers.
- It links university knowledge with state and local governments to develop policies that effect regional change.
- It works across boundaries, leverages resources, builds unity and creates programs to address unmet needs.
History
The Center for Regional Change is a research center at UC Davis in Davis, California. It exists as one of 18 centers and institutes within the College of Agricultural and Environmental Sciences. The center was created in 2006 after having been formulated and developed by an ad hoc committee of faculty and regional leaders in 2005 under the leadership of the late Ted K. Bradshaw.[1] Ted conceived the idea for a Center for Regional Change as a way to break down disciplinary silos and to better bridge campus-community divides. The faculty and administration of the College of Agricultural and Environmental Sciences embraced the concept of such a center as a way to expand the base of excellence of the College to address the social, economic, political and environmental dimensions of sustainability on community and regional scales.
In 2008, Jonathan London, professor of Community Development, became the center's Director after having served as Interim Director since 2006. London still serves as director and oversees the center's work, as well as engages with the professionals and academics that serve as Faculty Advisors, Regional Advisors, and members of the Executive Committee. Today the center continues to bring together faculty, students, & communities to collaborate on innovative research to create just, sustainable, & healthy regional change in California's Central Valley and Sierra Nevada.
Projects
The center is continually engaged in actionable research to improve regional outcomes and guide policy toward more equitable and sustainable outcomes.
Current projects
- California Civic Engagement Project (CCEP)
- Building Rural Prosperity from Regional Collaboration
- Sacramento Diasporas Project
- Healthy Youth/Healthy Regions Initiative
- Healthy City Sacramento Regional Partnership
- Energy Program Youth Corps
- California Labor Studies/Community Scholars Program
- Art of Regional Change
- Coalition on Regional Equity and the SCORECARD
- San Joaquin Valley Cumulative Health Impacts Project
Completed projects
- Economic and Workforce Development Opportunities in San Mateo
- 2008 Conference: Regionalism in California
- Demographic and Socio-economic Profiles of Sacramento Area Census Tracts
- Up from the Understory
- Merced County Affordable Housing Mapping Project
- California Coalition for Rural Housing
- Sacramento Civic Amenities
