Welcome to the UCSB Blum Center on Poverty, Inequality, and Democracy

The UCSB Blum Center aims to foster interdisciplinary, socially engaged research and learning about poverty and inequality, and to contribute to collective action that advances intersectional economic and environmental justice regionally, in the United States, and abroad. Established with funding from UC Regent Richard C. Blum and the UC Office of the President, it is part of a campus-wide network across a number of UC campuses system.

This year the Blum Center is focusing on three core initiatives:

The Central Coast Regional Equity Initiative (CCREI) was launched in 2021 in partnership with The Fund for Santa Barbara. Building from the Central Coast Regional Equity Study, conducted in collaboration with USC’s Equity Research Institute, the initiative documents widening inequality in California’s increasingly diverse central coast counties of Santa Barbara, Ventura, and San Luis Obispo with trend data on employment and wages, housing, health, education, political  representation, and environmental risk, among other indicators. In addition to funding collaborative community-engaged research, the CCREI  has set out to foster a collective, region-wide conversation and to advance a research-informed action agenda to improve the lives of all, and especially of the increasingly multi-racial working class communities who live, work, learn and contribute to the vitality of the region. 

Access our most recent report: Equity Matters 2024. This report builds on the 2021 study Toward a Just and Equitable Central Coast by incorporating San Luis Obispo County as part of the tri-county Central Coast region.

Our initiative on Cooperative Economics encompasses a broad spectrum of collaborative endeavors, from the communal practices and empowerment strategies of indigenous communities to the support and exchange networks developed within the contemporary mutual aid movement. There is a rich tradition of cooperative endeavor in movements for racial and intersectional justice. Thanks to generous support from the family of Dr. U.S. Awasthi, UCSB faculty and students are eligible for funding opportunities. 

Our most recent efforts, the Central Coast Community Labor Project & Labor Summer initiative, will provide UCSB students with opportunities to learn about community and labor organizing and research practices. As part of the immersive Labor Summer internship experience, Central Coast unions and allied organizations will support UCSB students in paid internships to advance labor causes and achieve social and economic justice. 

We invite you to join us in the work and to stay informed about up-coming events and programs. We can be found on Bluesky, Instagram, Facebook, X, and YouTube, and we also distribute a regular newsletter to our audience. Sign up to join our listserv!

See below for our most recent announcements & up-coming events:

Summer Transfer Application Window Now Open: Declare the PISJ Minor

 

Transfer students can now apply to declare the Minor in Poverty, Inequality, and Social Justice (PISJ). The Summer Transfer Application Window runs July 1 through July 31, 2026, for the 2026/27 academic year, and transfer students receive priority during this cycle.

The PISJ Minor gives students the tools to understand the structural and political roots, dynamics, and consequences of poverty and intersectional inequality. The program combines coursework across disciplines with a community-based internship and a capstone seminar, building both critical analysis and hands-on experience.

To apply, complete or currently enroll in History 74, plus one upper-division elective outside your major department. Submit the online application by July 31; the program is not rolling admissions, so decisions arrive within a few weeks after the window closes. Note: students declared in the Labor Studies Minor cannot also declare the PISJ Minor.

Apply here: https://blumcenter.ucsb.edu/academics/minor-application

Questions? Contact Jasmine Perez, MPISJ Peer Advisor, at jasmine_perez@ucsb.edu or schedule time through Shoreline.

Documenting ICE’s Impact on California’s Central Coast: The Record Belongs to the People

 

The UCSB Blum Center is collaborating with 805 UndocuFund and the UCSB Community Labor Center to gather first-person testimonios from families affected by ICE enforcement across the Central Coast.

Gaye Theresa Johnson explains why this work matters — and what we lose when communities go unheard.

Read the full op-ed here.

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If you would like to learn more about the Blum Center's initiatives, events, and ways to get involved in addressing poverty and inequality both on campus and in the community, please sign up for our newsletter here.