On July 1st, the California Civic Engagement Project moved to its new home at the USC Price School of Public Policy in Sacramento.

At USC, the CCEP will carry on its mission of conducting research

that will inform and empower a wide range of policy and organizing efforts, as well as support equity,  well-being, and representative governance around the state. We are excited about the opportunities this new partnership will bring.

Sacramento, CA

To register for this event, visit the PPIC event page here.

Washington DC

To read the first two briefs in the policy brief series, visit the link to the CCEP policy brief page here.

National Disability Voter Registration Week was July 16-20th and coordinated with the REV UP campaign to help increase the political participation and representation of all people with disabilities. 

In addition, this campaign is working to engage political candidates and the media to recognize the disability community, and to take positions on disability issues that will promote the community integration vision in the American Disabilities Act (ADA) while meeting the ADA's goals of: full participation, equal opportunity, independent living, and economic self-sufficiency.

To learn more, visit the American Association of People with Disabilities (AAPD) site here.

San Mateo County

During the event, sponsored by the Silicon Valley Community Foundation, advocates and election administrators shared their ideas on voter education and outreach, and election officials from Madera, Nevada, Sacramento, and San Mateo counties served on panels where they discussed outreach to underrepresented voters. The findings from this event will be published in a report to be released in early September.

The group For Freedoms has launched its 50 States Initiative, a nationwide public art and political engagement campaign that is said to be the largest public art campaign in the country.

This campaign will pair over 200 cultural institutions with 175 different artists across the nation to create art that encourages people to vote in November. 

To learn more about the 50 States Initiative check out the LA Weekly article here.

In late June, a new research  paper by Mindy Romero and Jennifer Puza using  CCEP  data on the Ballot Initiative Transparency Act (BITA) was published in the  UC Berkeley Institute of Governmental Studies  California Journal of Politics and Policy.

The paper examines the extent of BITA's impact on influencing the state legislature and initiative proponents to seek legislative compromise during the 2016 election cycle.

Visit the California Journal of Politics and Policy to check out the research paper.

On June 22nd, Asian Americans Advancing Justice - Los Angeles (AAAJ) launched the Hindi Helpline which will provide Hindi-speaking individuals in need of assistance, to speak in their native language with Advancing Justice-LA advocates.

AAAJ states that lawful permanent residents from India are the fourth largest population of immigrants eligible to naturalize in the country as of 2014.  According to Reshma Shamasunder, Vice President of Program Strategy at Asian Americans Advancing Justice - Los Angeles:

"Many immigrant communities, particularly Asian communities, face language barriers, which continue to impact their ability to access critical services such as citizenship, health care, social services, and the judicial system."

To learn more, check out the Advancing Justice-LA press release here.

Mutual Housing California just elected Cathy Creswell to be the new chair of their board of directors. Creswell, a leading affordable housing expert and advocate, will be filling the chairship vacated by Mindy Romero, who served on the board for the past ten years. 

Mutual Housing works to develop and advocate for sustainable and stabilized housing communities by providing leadership development support and encouraging residents to participate in their communities.

To learn more about Mutual Housing California, visit their website here.

The November election is just around the corner. But what ballot measures will Californians be voting on?

Check out the 12 propositions that will be appearing on the November 2018 California ballot by visiting the Capital Public Radio article here.

A new report by the Annie E.Casey Foundation found that nearly one quarter of the nation's children under the age of 5 - or over 1 million kids - are at risk of not being counted in the 2020 U.S. Census.

In addition, the study found that the children most at risk of being undercounted are children of color, low-income kids, and immigrant children. Implications of undercounting children include: less money allocated to federally funded programs (around 300 federally funded programs rely on Census data), potential overcrowding in classrooms, understaffed hospital emergency rooms, and more kids without healthcare, to name a few.

Check out the  Los Angeles Times article for more details.

The U.S. Supreme Court has ruled in a 5-4 decision, that all  Texas legislative and congressional maps, except for one district, are not racially gerrymandered.

Check out the NPR article for more details.

The Associated Press reported that 37% of registered California voters cast a ballot during the June primary, making it the highest turnout rate for California since 1998.  CCEP director Mindy Romero commented on California's turnout rate  and noted the importance of waiting for future research to fully understand how people participated in the primary.

For more details, read The Washington Post article here.

Super PACs collectively spent over $30 million on California's primary election this year. While only a small portion of that money went towards mobilizing people to vote, the majority of the money was spent on TV and digital ads aimed at suppressing the vote for another candidate. CCEP director Mindy Romero commented on this issue.

Check out the San Francisco Chronicle article here.

On July 19th, Capital Public Radio's Ben Bradford asked CCEP director Mindy Romero, and Mike Madrid from GrassrootsLab to discuss why Latinos have the lowest voter turnout of any demographic, as well as the role the Latino vote could play in Congressional district races.

To listen to this podcast, visit the Capital Public Radio page here.

UnidosUS and the California Civic Engagement Project collaborated and released a new report on July 9th that examined the strength of the Latino vote. The report also highlighted competitive House districts where the Latino vote could have a sizable impact in influencing the election results.  

To read the Campaigns & Elections article discussing the new report, visit the story here.

PolicyLink is looking to fill three positions:

- Communications and Outreach Strategist, National Equity Atlas/Bay Area Equity Atlas (Oakland, CA)

- Senior Associate, Water Equity (Oakland, CA)

- Senior Program Associate, Boys and Men of Color (Sacramento, Oakland, or Los Angeles)

To learn more about these job positions, visit the PolicyLink career page here.