Superfund Research Program

Community Engagement and Urban Agriculture: Addressing Concerns About Toxicants in Soil, Water and Plants

Project Leader: Keith Pezzoli
Grant Number: P42ES010337
Funding Period: 2005-2023

Project-Specific Links

Final Progress Reports

Year:   2016  2009 

University of California-San Diego’s Superfund Research Center’s Community Engagement Core (CEC) is a community-university partnership to help reduce exposures to toxicants and improve environmental public health in vulnerable neighborhoods of San Diego, California and Tijuana, Mexico. The CEC focuses on neighborhoods where high rates of poverty, obesity and poor nutrition may be exacerbating health risks associated with exposures to environmental toxicants. The CEC works with disadvantaged communities to understand and reduce cumulative impacts in neighborhoods where there is concern about environmental toxicants in locally grown food, soil and water. The CEC’s educational approach and interventions include creation of community gardens, workshops, public forums, leadership training and civic events. During 2016 significant progress was made in new participatory methods for designing and conducting environmental public health community workshops. The CEC did four major workshops and many smaller meetings under the banner: “Making Science Matter: Community-University Engagement for a Healthier Society.” The CEC partnered with the University of California (UC) Global Food Initiative to co-design and host this series of workshops with a local non-profit organization called the Global Action Research Center. The workshops brought together community leaders and researchers in a two-way learning experience where the community learns about the science emanating from the UCSD SRC and its relevance to them, and we learn from the communities their needs, priorities and concerns and explore together possible solutions for environmental health issues dealing with Superfund toxicant exposures.