Bridging the Coast: UCSB and Central Coast Communities Come Together

On May 8, 2026, more than 100 people gathered at OASIS in Goleta for the inaugural Central Coast Community Summit, “Bridging the Coast: Building Relationships between Campus and Community.” The event marked the first time UCSB convened community organizations from across the region alongside university researchers, staff, and students for a shared conversation about what meaningful partnership can look like.

The Coalition for Publicly Engaged Social Sciences (CoPES) organized the summit, coordinated with the UCSB Blum Center on Poverty, Inequality, and Democracy. Research on these issues cannot be done in isolation from the people most affected. The questions it asks show up in concrete ways across the Central Coast: rent burdens, low wages, language barriers, limited access to decision-making. The summit set out to close some of the distance between the university and the communities whose realities this work is meant to address.

Chancellor Dennis Assanis and Dean of Social Sciences Charles Hale opened the day with remarks underscoring UCSB’s commitment to deepening its regional relationships. Two working sessions followed. The first centered community voices, inviting organizations to share the challenges they are navigating right now, before any university resources or research entered the conversation. The second turned toward possibility, asking what UCSB-community partnerships could actually look like, from research and data analysis to student internships and policy expertise.

Attendees came from across San Luis Obispo, Santa Barbara, and Ventura counties and represented an extraordinary breadth of the region’s civic life: nonprofits and social services, housing and tenant rights organizations, labor unions, health advocates, environmental groups, education and workforce programs, philanthropy, and local government. Spanish interpretation was offered throughout the day so language would not be a barrier to full participation.

CoPES brings together eleven UCSB research centers and initiatives under a shared commitment to publicly engaged social science, and the collective effort of its member centers made this summit possible. This was a first conversation, not a final one. The day closed with a list of ideas, interests, and potential partnerships to explore in the months ahead.