Youth Creating Change (YCC) is a program that connects inspired high school students with UCB student groups. The design of this program will includes high school students submitting proposals for projects they believe will positively benefit their community. UCB student groups will then pledge to serve as mentors, advocates, and partial funders for those projects. YCC believes community-led projects are most reflective of community needs and youth’s perspectives should be more valued. Organizing students and making them experts in their community helps youth see that they have agency and the possibilities of change. YCC gives students the financial support to work on these issues, as well as the logistical support to help them succeed. (Note: This project originally won in the Big Ideas “Social Justice & Community Engagement” category.)
Project Pueblo is seeking to build a sustainable cordwood office Hogans and a 20’x40’ multipurpose warehouse in the former Bennett Freeze region of the Navajo reservation for Forgotten People, a grassroots nonprofit organization formed and based in the region. With only 24% of homes in the region habitable, these funds will provide a base that will enhance organizational capacity to house work crews, host meetings, and conduct distribution and storage of safe drinking water, produce, and other forms of aid. This project will also enable UC Berkeley students from various disciplines to engage in a unique and sustainable construction project while simultaneously learning and experiencing the Navajo culture. (Note: This project originally won in the Big Ideas “Social Justice & Community Engagement” category.)
This project will enhance community engagement on campus on three levels: practice, education, and research. A collaborative process between design students on campus, a nearby community, and CARES – a multidisciplinary team of designers and researchers – will be initiated through a design challenge, where students will offer design ideas to a real life design problem of an underserved community in need. The collaborative design process will provide ideas ready to be used by the community, real-life design experience, and a research platform for evaluating various methods for their ability to engage the community in the design process and produce more locally appropriate designs. (Note: This project originally won in the Big Ideas “Social Justice & Community Engagement” category.)
The goal of CAL Community Kitchen is to create a community-run kitchen which makes use of consumable leftover food goods from a network of local restaurants and small farms to creating healthy boxed meals for families in need. This work will be done by UCB undergraduate and graduate students and various community organizations dedicated to hunger alleviation and food justice. Ultimately, CAL Community Kitchen will offer a sense of community and a safe space to enjoy healthy meals. (Note: This project originally won in the Big Ideas “Social Justice & Community Engagement” category.)
Social Resources for a Healthy Community aims to take available social services and fully maximize their effects on communities. The program is designed to engage Berkeley students in service learning and immerses them in real life issues. Students will be trained through DeCal classes on campus in social work approaches and methods with the assistance of the School of Social Welfare. The ultimate goal of this project is to establish a Volunteer Income Tax Assistance site at Berkeley, establish a social resource consultant structure, and provide information regarding finance, health, education, and legal rights through workshops and educational outreaches.(Note: This project originally won in the Big Ideas “Social Justice & Community Engagement” category.)
The Youth Empowerment Program (YEP) aims to provide a network of support and hope to immigrant children held in federal custody by connecting them to student role models from the University of California. YEP uses a five-month curriculum to help detained youth develop teamwork and leadership skills, reflect upon their past and make positive plans for their future while connecting with college student mentors. YEP provides an extensive leadership training program for volunteers by bringing in experts in diverse fields with the purpose of building future leaders for social justice. YEP volunteers utilize their leadership immediately by working with detained unaccompanied immigrant children every other week and engaging in direct community outreach. (Note: This project originally won in the Big Ideas “Social Justice & Community Engagement” category.)
Development organizations around the world are increasingly reliant on accurate and timely data for decision-making at all levels. Unfortunately, the infrastructure and capacity for data entry and management have not kept pace, especially for low-resource organizations in the field. Even though millions of dollars of aid money each year is spent on data collection, entry and cleaning, most data efforts suffer from delays, inefficiency and difficulties in maintaining quality. Shreddr provides organizations an affordable and effective data digitization service that ensures accurate paper data entry with minimal additional investment in technology, training, or staffing through a series of simple “microtasks.” (Note: This project originally won in the Big Ideas “Social Entrepreneurship Category” category.)
Access to standard lab equipment is a serious limitation to scientific education, research and capacity building in many parts of the world. To combat this problem, Tekla Labs aims to empower scientists and engineers to construct their own quality lab equipment from locally available supplies using detailed and reliable protocols. While many real-world examples of doit-yourself (DIY) equipment already exist, quality assurance and comprehensive instructions on how to build education and research grade lab equipment are lacking. To address this, Tekla Labs is creating an interactive online library of tested “How-To” blueprints. All equipment instructions will be freely available under an unrestricted creative commons license to allow users throughout the world to use and add to Tekla Labs. The interactive online forum will allow researchers to ask questions and make requests, share their own improvements and alternative solutions, and connect to other labs worldwide.
(Note: This project originally won in the Big Ideas “Social Entrepreneurship” category.)
There are countless student projects completed each year in academic classes that never get used in the real world because students do not know how to move them to the next level. Similarly, there are real causes that desperately need creative solutions. They can provide a forum for learning in class projects. “Class Projects to Social Ventures” will facilitate collaboration with social ventures to lead to a win-win situation: students will be more motivated because they will know their work can be utilized in a real world context, and the organization will benefit from a project overseen by experts: professors who are specialists in the field. “Class projects to Social Ventures” will provide the missing matchmaker that can 2 connect these parties. Through it, collaborations would be facilitated and students would have more opportunities to apply the knowledge they learn in classes in engaging “real world” projects. (Note: This project originally won in the Big Ideas “Social Entrepreneurship Category” category.)
