About the Center
Our mission
At the Center for Economic Justice and Action (CEJA), formerly the Blum Center on Poverty, Social Enterprise, and Participatory Governance, we are committed to alleviating poverty, reducing economic inequality, ensuring that the essential needs of all people are met, and engaging, training, and funding new generations of anti-poverty leaders.
Our work
- We specialize in community-engaged, anti-poverty research, particularly poverty alleviation, fiscal equity, and food and housing security. Much of our work focuses on experiences of women and families and UC students.
- We partner with community organizations, students, faculty, practitioners, and other stakeholders to develop scalable strategies for improving the well-being of low-income individuals and families, especially women and mothers, communities of color, people experiencing homelessness, and UC students.
- Our analyses illuminate community needs and assets, offer insight into program effectiveness, and provide tools and resources to challenge inequities and change systems.
- We are the home of the new UC Essential Needs Research, Training, and Promising Practices Consortium. Our community of practitioners, staff, faculty, and researchers is working to ensure that all students’ basic needs are met across the UC system.
We are supported by the Division of Social Sciences, the Campus Provost and Executive Vice Chancellor, the University of California Office of the President, grants, and gifts from our generous donors.
Our history
The Center for Economic Justice and Action was founded in 2014 as UCSC’s Blum Center on Poverty, Social Enterprise, and Participatory Governance thanks to a generous gift from Richard C. Blum, UC alumnus, business leader, philanthropist, and UC Board of Regent President Emeritus. Dedicated to engaging students in hands-on anti-poverty research, education, and training, Blum helped to establish Blum Centers on all of the campuses of the University of California and Hebrew University of Jerusalem, with each campus having their own unique focus. We continue to carry on Blum’s vision and dedication, and are grateful for his founding investment and vision.
Over the years, our focal areas and programs have continued to grow, expanding from food insecurity, housing precarity, and fiscal equity to incorporate emphases on understanding and addressing economic hardship among women and families and UC students. Likewise, our student enrichment opportunities have grown, from our Blum Scholars Program, which funds student research during the summer, to our current offerings which also include paid community-based internships and paid research assistantships to work with faculty and community partners on major center projects. In 2024, we will fund our first round of systemwide research grants to UC faculty to conduct research related to UC students’ essential needs.
To illuminate the center’s evolution, current mission, strengths, and initiatives, we relaunched as the Center for Economic Justice and Action in Fall of 2023. We remain deeply committed to the community-engaged research and student programs that have been integral to the center since it was founded, and are thrilled that the center is expanding to include new initiatives and programming related to UC students’ essential needs. We invite you to explore our site to learn more about us and our work.