CARA: Community-based Action Research and Advocacy
The CARA Program at Oakes College offers undergraduate students a variety of opportunities to engage with the communities and social justice issues that matter most to them, through experiential learning in fields like education, law, housing, and counseling. Most of our opportunities allow students to earn academic credit; we also offer some paid internships (see We Belong) and student staff positions (see Corre la Voz).
I think that it is a great way to actually interact with the community and understand the implications of doing research. When all you are learning is theory it can be hard to see how it is actually applied and the difficulty of real world problems.
Oakes CARA courses (see course list page) work to build skills and relationships on and off-campus from the time students first get to Santa Cruz. Some of our courses are cross-listed with other departments, or may be used as electives to satisfy major credit.
Oakes Community-Building Courses (here) develop community and communication skills among students in supportive spaces for resilience in academics, life, and any creative endeavors.
Puentes Community Engagement Courses (What is Puentes?) build outreach, documentation, and advocacy skills; grassroots ethics; knowledge of Santa Cruz; and useful training for community development work (Oakes 76) and (Oakes 152)
and at sites providing professional legal aid intake and counseling (188A) and (188B)
Action-Research Courses offer intensive training in participatory action research field methods, ethical observation and field notes, and practical development of team-work and leadership skills students need to organize and take their next steps toward graduate school, careers, and community organizing.
Community Literacies Seminar & Field Study in Curriculum Design, Observation, and Team Teaching (151A/B) is offered year-round (F, W, S), as part of the Corre la Voz Program. (Read more about Corre la Voz)
Community Mapping (153) is offered in Winter. Currently, Oakes 153 is part of the We Belong Collaboration for Community-Engaged Research and Immigrant Justice Project (2018 to the present). (Read more about the We Belong Project)
I gained a lot of life long skills such as interviewing, transcribing, and being an engaged community member. It has meant a lot to me to learn about the community that I am going to school in and interact with different community organizations.
Learning Outcomes: In CARA courses and projects, students build communication and research skills, critical thinking, mutual support relationships, and confidence. Our courses are interdisciplinary, and designed to be adapted to emergent issues and shifting partnerships in our community, but our principles stay the same. Following decolonizing pedagogies of the Global South and the Oakes tradition, our courses pursue critical, participatory “literacies” and “geographies” for justice. Following our Program Learning Outcomes, each of our endeavors aims to develop:
- situated, informed understandings of ourselves and others;
- a sense of belonging and community;
- a politics of solidarity toward common causes; and
- methodologies for democratizing the production of knowledge–recognizing diverse cultures, languages, and perspectives across age span and educational backgrounds–to effectively represent ourselves and our communities.
Partners for Community Resources & Advocacy
We are committed to developing partnerships, collaborative projects, and placements through respectful, ongoing dialogue, toward a more connected and inclusive community and region.
We prioritize projects that build individual and community capacity for action; and that develop Oakes students’ pathways for community engagement in a sustainable way.