Research
Across the Central Coast, structural inequality shapes nearly every dimension of daily life: wages and employment, housing, education, healthcare, the environment, immigration status, civic participation, and more. National and statewide data capture broad trends but obscure what is happening in individual counties and communities. The Central Coast has its own history, its own labor markets, and its own patterns of exclusion that require regional analysis to understand.
Whether you work in a nonprofit, serve on a local body, conduct research, or live in one of the region’s three counties, the Central Coast Regional Equity Initiative builds that understanding through rigorous research rooted in community engagement, producing a tri-county picture of where inequality persists and what residents and organizations actually need. Our key findings are documented in two regional reports: Towards a Just and Equitable Central Coast (2021) and Equity Matters 2024, both available below.
Through the Blum Center on Poverty, Inequality, and Democracy at UC Santa Barbara, we also fund community-engaged research projects by UCSB faculty and graduate students and host an annual symposium that brings these findings to a regional audience. We also support organizations and communities interested in developing their own research capacity, connecting them with tools and resources to investigate the conditions that shape their work.
CCREI Reports
Our most recent report, Equity Matters 2024, builds on our 2021 Central Coast Regional Equity Study Towards a Just and Equitable Central Coast by incorporating San Luis Obispo County within the broader Central Coast region. This rigorous, community engaged research addresses the shared socioeconomic inequities by advancing a regional approach to meaningfully provide solutions.
Equity Matters 2024 offers expanded analysis that identifies structural challenges affecting the region’s 1.5 million residents, particularly working-class families who sustain the local economy. Understanding the factors underpinning regional inequality is critical given that the region faces widening income inequality.
Neither report is designed to be prescriptive. Rather, the structural inequities documented speak to the urgent need for collective action that draws on the resources of local government, philanthropy, businesses, and academics as well as community activists and social movements.
Community Engaged Methods
At the University of California, Santa Barbara, the Blum Center on Poverty, Inequality, & Democracy provides funding to support academic research centered on community engagement within the tri-county region of the Central Coast. Learn more about these CCREI projects by accessing the link below.
Additional resources include our community consultations that informed both the original study Towards a Just and Equitable Central Coast (2021) and the inclusion of San Luis Obispo County alongside Ventura and Santa Barbara counties for a regional update in the recently released Equity Matters 2024 (2025) report. These consultations provide a comprehensive tri-county view of challenges that span jurisdictional boundaries. Though they were not designed to be a representative sample of the Central Coast, they provide valuable guidance and ongoing community engagement and organizing as part of the ongoing Central Coast Regional Equity Initiative.
The Central Coast Regional Equity Initiative
The Central Coast Regional Equity Initiative is a collaboration between:
USC Equity Research Institute (ERI)
The Fund for Santa Barbara
The UCSB Blum Center on Poverty, Inequality, and Democracy