We are located in the heart of the Mission District, San Francisco’s multi-ethnic neighborhood, and function as a bridge between the academy and community-based groups and organizations that serve disenfranchised populations in the Bay Area and beyond. Our projects focus on health and educational disparities that are produced by structural and institutional inequalities on the basis of race, class, gender, ethnicity, immigration status and sexual orientation. We are guided by principles of participatory research, with the conviction that our science will be meaningful and relevant to the extent that affected communities have a voice at the research table.

Our research teams address a wide range of social problems and situations, from the vulnerability of Latino migrant day laborers to the “academic apartheid” within our public school systems that keeps African-American and Latino children at the margins of society. Our capacity building activities bring our scholarship and research skills to the hands of those who work in the trenches of community empowerment. Our intervention efforts include the creation of materials for parents of LGBT adolescents, who face the difficult task of raising healthy children in the context of a homophobic and heterosexist society.

Above all, we see ourselves as a community of scholars committed to the work of social justice. We work on problems that at times seem insurmountable -- like the intertwining epidemics of HIV and methamphetamine abuse among gay men of color. However, guided by the work and the spirit of our namesake César Chávez, we are encouraged by his most famous words: “Sí se puede”! (“Yes, we can”!).

We welcome your comments and express our gratitude for your continued support.