In April, the CCE hosted an interactive workshop luncheon with Natalia Deeb-Sossa, an Assistant Professor in Chicana/o
Studies at UC Davis focusing on Community Based Participatory Research (CBPR). Natalia is known for her work with migrant farm working communities in Northern California and talked about these underserved and marginalized communities and their engagement in community-based participatory
research efforts. She spoke about her personal experiences with these farm working communities, as well as shared her academic and philosophical reasons for choosing this community engaged scholarshipapproach. She also discussed how faculty, students, and community members can get involved to deepen their own community engaged scholarship by sharing how to integrate all voices involved, how to build a sustainable partnership, and how to cross barriers. She went on to talk about the best ways to engage with community to develop trust, which is a crucial component to CBPR.
Photograph taken by farmworker community member that participated in a CBPR project lead by Natalia Deeb-Sossa.
"It was important for me to build a reputation as an advocate for the
migrant community" she said. The main point Natalia emphasized was that
all partners have to be involved; everyone has different strengths to
bring to the table and not all strengths consist of academic knowledge.
Ultimately, she was able to successfully demonstrate the great value in
doing CBPR. Be sure to be on the lookout for more information about
Community-Based Participatory Research.
Speaker Natalia Deeb-Sossa shares her personal story on working with the migrant farm-working community. Natalia gave touching recollections on working with the children and their families and noted she was able to take back much more than expected from the project.