Current Projects
COVID-19 Community Boards
Creating Equity in Testing, Treatment, and Vaccination
Working with the University of California-San Diego and supported by the National Institutes of Health (NIH), the Global ARC is bringing the community’s voice into the process of addressing the pandemic. Concerned with the disparities in testing, treatment, engagement in clinical trials and access to vaccinations, the Global ARC is engaged in organizing Community Advisory Boards with the task of identifying the barriers as seen by local communities and identifying strategies for overcoming those barriers.
These Community Advisory Boards will not only develop strategies for eliminating the disparities but will also monitor and evaluate how well the local healthcare system is achieving the goals they have set. Successful strategies will be shared nationally.
Click here to view the program for the Looking Back and A Look Ahead retreat for more details on our latest activity.
Parent-Student-Resident Organization
Building Equity in Education
California State law requires local School Districts to engage parents, students, and residents in the development of their plans for meeting the educational needs of students and the budget to support that plan. The PSRO is an alliance of Ethnically Based Community Organizations, Community Groups, individuals, etc. committed to bringing the community’s voice into the processes of planning, implementation, and assessment.
The PSRO provides year-round training for parents, students, and residents on how to become engaged and influence school policy. Its year-round work culminates with an Annual Community Dialogue that brings together more than 300 residents and produces a set of recommendations for the upcoming school year. The PSRO then leads an advocacy campaign focused on having the recommendations enacted. The Global ARC is a leading thought partner contributing to strategy development as well as providing research, training, technical assistance.
NOURISH
UC Researchers Use Artificial Intelligence and Data Science to Revitalize Food Deserts: NOURISH
AI-enabled Nourish Platform Helps Small Businesses Increase Access to Healthy, Sustainable Food.
NSF leads a $35M federal investment in future agricultural technologies and solutions. This investment will particularly address the needs of vulnerable and disadvantaged communities and involve a new partnership with the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA). A total of seven multidisciplinary teams from the NSF Convergence Accelerator's Track J: Food & Nutrition Security have been selected to advance from Phase 1 to Phase 2, each receiving up to $5 million.
An interdisciplinary team of University of California scientists and community partners were selected to build the NOURISH AI platform. The platform provides small business owners in food desserts with resources in multiple languages including access to loans and grants, and AI-enabled guidance on affordable ways to locally source fresh ingredients. Their approach builds on often-overlooked assets of communities in food desserts such as their rich and diverse food heritages and untapped entrepreneurial talent. This solution will create a more level playing field between large food companies and small businesses and will help to keep economic resources circulating within low-income communities. In 2024-25, the NOURISH team will test the platform in lower-income areas within San Diego and Imperial Counties in California, and then scale it nationally.`
NOURISH Team - Marcia Chong Rosado (NSF Coach); Amarnath Gupta (UC San Diego Supercomputer Center); Matthew Lange (IC Foods); and Paul Watson Jr.- (The Global Action Research Center)
[Additional Team Members not pictured – Laura Schmidt (UC San Fransico); Ilya Zaslavsky (UC San Diego); Hans Taparia (New York University); Tera Fazzino (University of Kansas); Keith Pezzoli (UC San Diego);
Past Projects
Youth Leadership Academy
The purpose of the Academy was to encourage young people to become civically engaged in efforts to improve the quality of life within the neighborhoods in which they live. Research shows that all successful social change efforts are either lead by or fueled by youth. The Academy also assisted the young academy participants in finding an organization or community group that they can connect to that is developing and has an active social change campaign that matches the young person’s interest. The youth were also be provided tools to develop their own campaign if an active campaign in their area of interest does not exist.
International Community Youth Development Projects
The Global ARC staff have completed a number of international Community Youth Development Projects. Below is a brief description of some of those projects:
( Kingston, Jamaica ) Co-designed a national youth development strategy for the country of Jamaica that was funded by USAID. The strategy was implemented by the newly formed Ministry of Youth, Sports and Culture.
(Central Asia) Provided training and technical assistance in the area of establishing Youth/Adult Partnerships, which facilitated cooperative efforts in democracy building and community development in two Central Asia countries, Kazakhstan and Kyrgyzstan, as a part of the Community Action Investment Program.