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Chicano Studies Research Center
Research

Community-Engaged Research

Research and programming centering California’s young population remains a priority at the CSRC. To this end, we build relationships with community college partners, civic groups, and other stakeholders dedicated to uplifting young people’s well-being and success. California Freedom Summer and the Thriving Youth Study are two community engaged research projects led by the CSRC in collaboration with the UCLA Institute of American Cultures (IAC), and many other community and educational partners from across California.

Research Reports
Twelve California Freedom Summer student leaders in grey shirts standing in a circle and reaching their hands toward the center at Fresno convening.

Student leaders from the California Freedom Summer Participatory Action Research Project and Power California at a convening in Fresno, California, September 6, 2025. (CSRC)

California Freedom Summer Participatory Action Research Project

As low-income, immigrant, and racially diverse communities experience multiple threats and hardships, it is critical to equip young people with the skills and tools to take civic actions that advance their collective self-determination and safeguard democratic institutions. To this end, the California Freedom Summer (CFS) Participatory Action Research Project trains University of California, community college, and high school students in research and civic engagement. Through a participatory action research model, CFS guides students in examining youths’ multilayered concerns and conducting broad-based, nonpartisan civic action in their communities. Aiming to promote narratives that encourage civic engagement and well-being, youths’ participatory action research is attentive to evolving gender dynamics among their peers. CFS builds on the initial success of the 2018 Central Valley Freedom Summer project, which contributed to a 262 percent increase in voter turnout among 18-24-year-olds in the Central Valley.

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Thriving Youth Study

Today’s adolescents are coming of age during an era of significant economic, social, and health inequalities. These social disparities were laid bare during the COVID-19 pandemic, as young people from lower socioeconomic, Latinx, and immigrant backgrounds disproportionately experienced disruptions to their learning because their families endured sickness; job, housing, and food insecurity; and mental health challenges. Conducted across different regions of California, the Thriving Youth Study is a mixed-methods community-engaged research study that seeks to understand how young people are coping after the COVID-19 pandemic.

In partnership with community colleges and community-based organizations across California, youth researchers have surveyed young adults ages 18 to 34 to learn more about their education and career aspirations, family care responsibilities, health outcomes, and experiences with civic engagement.

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Yellow book cover for Learning to Lead by Veronica Terriquez, featuring youth holding colorful signs about voting, health, and justice.

Learning to Lead: Youth Organizing in Immigrant Communities

In Learning to Lead: Youth Organizing in Immigrant Communities (Russell Sage Foundation, 2026), CSRC Director Veronica Terriquez offers a rich examination of how youth organizing groups enable low-income, second-generation immigrant adolescents to collectively exercise political power alongside their non-immigrant peers and adult allies.

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