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Region Matters
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November 2nd, 2012 Vol. 3. Issue 7
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Dear Community,
Fall is in full bloom and winter will soon be on the way! As the holiday season approaches we hope everyone can make time to connect with family and friends. 
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Activities
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The Center for Regional Change has been involved in a series of consultation processes on the science and policy of cumulative impacts drawing on our work with Cumulative Environmental Vulnerability Assessment (CEVA). On October 17, CRC Director Jonathan London presented, "Cumulative Environmental Vulnerability Analysis: Opportunities for Innovation" as part of the US EPA's Cumulative Risk Assessment webinar series: http://tinyurl.com/aq3sal. London has helped advise the California Office of Health Hazard Assessment on its development of the Draft California Communities Environmental Health Screening Tool (CalEnviroScreen). CRC Graduate Associate Tara Zagofsky has designed and facilitated the public meetings associated with this review. On October 23, the CRC hosted a convening of state and federal agencies, researchers and environmental justice and health in partnership with the Governor's Office of Planning and Research intended to better coordinate efforts on cumulative impacts and to provide input on the Governor's Environmental Goals and Policy Report (EGPR). On November 1, the CRC participated in a convening organized by the US EPA Region 9's Environmental Justice program designed to design and implement a set of pilot projects to apply a range of cumulative impacts methodologies, including the CEVA, the Environmental Justice Screening Method, and OEHHA's CalEnviroScreen. The CRC is also developing a partnership with Comite Civico del Valle -http://ccvhealth.org/ -- to integrate our CEVA with IVAN, the crowd sourcing platform for community-based reporting of environmental hazards.
The CRC has also joined in efforts to develop a northern California node of (Urban Research-based Action Network) URBAN - http://web.mit.edu/colab/work-project-urban.html a new multi-disciplinary network of scholars and practitioners committed to the use of community-based research for collaborative generation and testing of knowledge. Initiated by colleagues at MIT, the Miller-McCune Center for Research, Media and Public Policy and SAGE Publications, URBAN will develop, debate, and apply collaborative research to envision solutions to pressing challenges in communities and regions. The CRC will contribute its community-engaged and participatory research expertise throughout California to the partnership and hopes to leverage the resources of a regional and national network to further enrich this work.
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Regional Change in the News
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Racies Cultura, a non-profit organization promoting culture and art in the community, revealed the findings of its yearlong Youth-Led Participatory Research Project (YPAR) at the most recent Building Healthy Communities collaborative meeting. Over the course of the project, youth research leaders reached out to the different communities of the Eastern Coachella Valley to find answers to the following questions:
What are the recreational activities available to youth in the community?
What changes would you like to see in your community?
For a copy of the report, please visit our website www.raicesdelvalle.org
CITRIS Data & Democracy Initiative recently developed AirQuest is a location-based video game about air-quality management and asthma, initially based in the California Central Valley but extensible to other locations and regions. Unlike the vast majority of games, AirQuest represents a specific geographic and sociocultural reality, highlighting the irony that although the Central Valley is one of the most productive agricultural regions in the nation, it faces high levels of poverty and unemployment and severe air-quality problems arising from the Valley's unique topography and weather. The game is being developed by a team of scientists and video artists from the campuses of UC Berkeley, Merced, and Santa Cruz, in collaboration with students from Fresno High School. For more information, visit the project website or contact Principal Investigator Greg Niemeyer.
Recently, ArtPlace spoke with the Building Imagination Center about succeeding in its initiative to create community change. Click here to read the article.
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Special Reports on Regional Change
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 Health Status of Adolescents in California's Rural Counties
California Adolescent Health Collaborative is excited to announce the release of a new brief. The brief provides a review of the health status and needs of teens who live in rural, agricultural and non-metropolitan areas of California. Indicators include: graduation rates, crime, injury, and chronic illnesses such as asthma and obesity. The document concludes with discussion and recommendations on how to best support youth in rural areas.
Health Disparities Fact Sheets
The California Pan-Ethnic Health Network (CPEHN) has developed a series of fact sheets about health disparities among children of color and the social and environmental factors that influence these inequities. Focusing on the nine California counties with the highest populations of communities of color, the fact sheets highlight how factors like poverty, school safety, and high school drop outs impact the health of children and young adults of color.
On October 16, 2012, the Office of Environmental Health Hazard Assessment (OEHHA) closed a public comment period on its Draft California Communities Environmental Health Screening Tool (CalEnviroScreen).
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Upcoming Events
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ISSI's Joseph A. Myers Center for Research on Native American Issues, the Native American Studies Program, and the Department of Environmental Science, Policy, and Management present:
Three Bodies:
Rethinking Environmental Health and Food Production in a Mohawk Community
Tuesday, November 13
4:00-5:30 pm
Wildavsky Conference Room
2538 Channing Way, Berkeley
For more information, call the Institute for the Study of Societal Issues at 510-642-0813 or email isscucb@gmail.com.
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