Blueprint for Belonging

Photo of shelves packed with books at a school library

Press Release
October 24, 2023

Poll: Californians Want Curriculum on Native Peoples in Schools, Tuition Waivers for Native American Students

BERKELEY, CA – Even as the teaching of race and history has become an increasingly divisive issue nationally, there is near consensus among California voters that schools in the state should be required to adopt and teach curriculum on the history...

Curriculum
May 8, 2023

Rebuilding Public Power

This 90-minute workshop dives into the history of how corporate power is organized in the United States and contemporary cases of how growing corporate power has rolled back successful gains in democratic rights, environmental justice, migrant...

Press Release
February 22, 2023

Poll: Fewer OC Residents Experience Belonging in Schools than in Other Public Places

Schools are the context where Orange County residents are least likely to experience a sense of belonging, according to a survey conducted prior to the 2022-23 academic year by the Othering and Belonging Institute at University of California, Berkeley (OBI) and Orange County Congregation Community Organization (OCCCO).

Publication
July 11, 2022

Cash for Californians

Introduction To meaningfully advance economic justice, we must enhance existing government systems and create new supports targeted to residents most impacted by inequality. In 2019, more than one in three California residents was considered poor or...

Publication
February 22, 2022

Vietnamese Voices from Orange County, CA

This research brief published by OBI and VietRISE, a community-based organization in Little Saigon, Orange County, CA, reveals prevailing beliefs, policy preferences, and narratives among Vietnamese residents in Orange County on topics related to...

An aerial view of the city of Riverside centered around a highway interchange.

Publication
November 29, 2021

Margins in Movement

This report chronicles more than two years of research with the people of the Inland Empire — the two-county region of Southern California often seen as a periphery “at the margins” of Los Angeles. This research seeks to understand prevailing beliefs and narratives across different groups on ideas of community, economic opportunity, government, and more.

A young Black child wearing glasses smiles a big toothy grin while hanging on a playground bar.

Publication
October 26, 2021

Reimagining Revenue Measures by Centering Community Voices

Introduction California’s convoluted system for raising revenue is not transparent, and confusing to the general public. Unless they closely follow wonky budgeting and legislative news, most people typically don’t learn about upcoming revenue...

A close crop of a mural. Two faces appear mirrored, adorned by ornaments and flowers.

Publication
October 15, 2021

Redefining Who Belongs

Recent acute instances of failed political leadership—particularly around the pandemic and an ongoing lack of action to protect Black lives—have shone a bright light on questions essential to our future as a country: Who are we? Who are we becoming? Who must we become if we are to create a different world where everyone belongs?

Publication
September 30, 2021

Housing Affordability in the Wake of COVID-19

This paper begins by describing current housing affordability dynamics across Los Angeles and the Inland Empire. Although rent burden metrics help identify households vulnerable to instability, it is the underlying housing and work conditions that...

Press Release

Poll: Anti-maskers small minority of Inland Empire voters

Greater than 4 in 5 Inland Empire voters support requiring people to wear face coverings or masks inside public spaces, and 86 percent consider it important that local public officials wear masks, a new poll of California voters finds.

Publication
May 1, 2020

Will Corporations Pay their Share?

Public opinion polling shows that the idea that corporations and the wealthy are not paying their fair share of taxes has gained wide currency in the United States.

Inland Empire Paper Series

The Othering & Belonging Institute’s California Survey on Othering and Belonging found that 67 percent of Inland Empire residents either somewhat agreed or strongly agreed that economic inequality is a major problem in California. This set of papers...

Press Release

Poll: OC residents want more housing support for homeless

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE Oct. 7, 2020 BERKELEY: Across lines of race and ethnicity, majorities of Orange County residents say they support building housing with supportive services for people experiencing homelessness, including in their own...

Publication
December 12, 2019

Warehouse Employment as a Driver of Inequality in the Inland Empire: The Experiences of Young Amazon Warehouse Workers

Paper accepted December 2019 Download a PDF of this paper here. The Inland Empire is currently one of the main logistics hubs, and centers of warehouse employment, in the nation. Logistics and warehouse employment in the region has been on the rise...

Publication
July 22, 2020

Study: Inland Empire police budgets swelled to $1 billion annually after Great Recession

New study shows that, following the 2008-2009 foreclosure crisis, Inland Empire police budgets ballooned to a whopping $1 billion annually, with increases unrelated to violent crime rates. Jurupa Valley, with 100,000 residents, tops the list with 37...

Blueprint for Belonging Videos

Can You See It? "Can You See It?" is a digital short released in the lead up to the 2020 election that calls on Californians—particularly young voters and youth of color—to exercise their civic power to address the state’s major structural...

Publication
April 18, 2018

Building a Strategic Narrative for All of California

Over the past few decades, successful movements for social and racial justice in California have illuminated just what is possible when social change strategy is developed with deep roots in community organizing. In many cases, major progressive wins...

A group of protestors march with signs in hands; their demands include jobs, homes, and justice in Richmond.

Blog

Video: Transforming California from Red to Blue

By Gerald Lenoir and Serginho Roosblad California is currently leading the resistance against the current Trump administration. And that’s not new. The state has a reputation for being the most progressive state in the union. Important social and...

Curriculum
March 22, 2018

Blueprint for Belonging Popular Education Curriculum Resources

Advancing a new strategic narrative will require popular education that provides spaces and resources for people concerned with social justice to gain new analysis and strategies for engaging with the world. Towards this end, the Blueprint for...

A young Black woman with a purple-yellow paisley hair wrap and big sunglasses smiles. A blurry sign behind her reads "YOU ARE BEAUTIFUL."

Publication
April 18, 2018

A 21st Century Movement-Building Challenge

One of the essential elements in the building of a cohesive social movement across communities of color aimed at dismantling structural racism is the formation of a common identity that is a marker for a common worldview and set of politics. Drawing...

Publication

California Survey on Othering and Belonging

April 18, 2018 Click here to read our Press Release on the results of this survey In December 2017, the Haas Institute for a Fair and Inclusive Society at UC Berkeley and Latino Decisions fielded a statewide public opinion poll to better understand...

A Black bearded man chants into a bullhorn at a demonstration. He is wearing a #BlackLivesMatter shirt.

Publication
April 18, 2018

The Role of Government

Ultimately, we cannot win any major fight on the environment, the economy, health care, or civil rights—and secure that victory—unless we have an effective, well-resourced, inclusive, and responsive government. An effective government is not simply a...

A map of the United States populate by small silhouettes of people. Some people are linked together in a network, but most are excluded. Bold text at left reads "We Lack Coverage. Narrative Impact requires Narrative Infrastructure."

Publication
April 18, 2018

Changing Our Narrative About Narrative

Introduction The culture of the progressive sector—as with all sectors—is rooted in stories. They are stories that convey values, mental models, assumptions and identities, all of which ultimately guide our behaviors. Unsurprisingly, the most...

March 26, 2018

Audio: The Battle of the Narratives

This conversation between Othering & Belonging Institute Director john powell and Christina Livingston, the Executive Director of the Alliance of Californians for Community Empowerment (ACCE), called “The Battle of the Narratives: Organizing for Transformative Change,” focuses on issues facing 21st century social justice movements.

A person at a demonstration holds a placard. The placard features an illustration of a woman with a bold stare, and under her reads "WE THE PEOPLE."

Publication
April 18, 2018

The California Story

For many Californians, having a good life here is getting harder and many feel it will be even harder for the next generation. University of Southern California Dornsife College of Letters, Arts and Sciences/Los Angeles Times Poll (February 27, 2015)...

The silhouettes of many people are visible against a dim sunset. Their images are reflected on some body of water.

Publication
April 18, 2018

The Next California

California is America on fast forward. The state’s demographic changes have outpaced and foreshadowed the nation. The shifts in our racial composition between 1980 and 2000 are what the US will experience between 2000 and 2040. Moreover, the state’s...

Protesters holding signs demanding environmental protections

Publication
April 18, 2018

Shifting the Narrative

Since the 2016 election, interest in the concept of “narrative” has spiked in the nonprofit and philanthropic worlds.

Big red text reads "Bog Whistle Politics." A dangling dog whistle is looped through the O in "Dog" and forms the letter I in "Whistle" and "Politics"

Publication
April 18, 2018

California Dog Whistling

Over the last half-century, politicians have exploited a public discourse emphasizing fear of nonwhites. This is “dog whistle politics,” a dynamic grounded in powerful racial narratives expressed in coded terms. The code allows these racial stories...

A birds eye view of San Francisco at sunset. A brightly-lit Market Street cuts across the city. A blue, then purple-yellow gradient streak stretches across the bottom of the image.

Publication
April 18, 2018

Building A Real Sharing Economy

We are in the midst of an unfolding fundamental restructuring of the economy that we still only partially understand. The scale of this restructuring is similar to the industrial revolution, but instead of being centered on the uses of new energy technologies, this revolution is characterized by the development and application of information technologies.

Publication
March 23, 2018

Mind Sciences and Creating New Narratives

By Rachel D. Godsil He who defines reality holds power. Cognitive science confirms what every culture in the world has intuitively understood—reality is defined through narrative. Our brains process and remember narratives more powerfully than facts...

Publication
April 18, 2018

Corporate Democrats and the Corporate Power Structure in California Politics

After the 2016 presidential election, California has been a leader in progressive politics, pushing back against the agenda of Trump. However, a growing corporate-backed moderate faction of the Democrat Party in California has been able to stop policies that are seen as dangerous to corporate interests.

Rev. Deborah Lee, an Asian woman wearing a red shirt and red clerical shawl, speaks at a demonstration.

Publication
April 18, 2018

Faith Communities as Partners of Hope

Introduction Bringing forth an inclusive, fair, and humane society will require a coordinated movement of diverse sectors of society working towards this compelling vision. I am heartened and hopeful that faith communities can be a key building block...

A large crowd of Black people raised their hands in the hair

Publication
April 18, 2018

Race-Based but Not Race-Bound

Malcolm X used to say that racism is like a Cadillac because they make a new model every year. When automobile models change, repair manuals have to be updated. Problems in a 2016 Escalade cannot be solved by consulting the manual for a 1965 El...

Publication
April 2, 2019

Grow Your Vote

Download this report here . View the Cultural Strategy Ambassadors video by Barni Qaasim here. In the 2018 midterm elections, narratives of inclusion and exclusion went to battle. In the preceding years, politicians trumpeted bold and explicit...

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