Community Water Center

Hello!

My name is Julia Gutierrez and I am a 3rd year student at UCSC majoring in Politics and Environmental Studies. I am extremely passionate about environmental conservation and sustainable development. On campus I work at the Sustainability Office as a Green Office Certification Program Coordinator, am a member of Kappa Kappa Gamma sorority, and was a member of the Student Environmental Center.

Who am I partnering with?

For my project I am partnering with the Community Water Center (CWC). CWC is a non-profit organization that works to bring safe, clean, and affordable water to low-income marginalized communities in the San Joaquin Valley.  CWC has successfully been fighting water insecurity and environmental injustice in this region since 2006, but have struggled with making aspects of their website appealing to community members. CWC wants to reach community members who are personally experiencing issues of water injustice, not just activists who are already engaged in the organization.  

What am I doing?

During my partnership with CWC I am taking their text heavy, fact based, online-pdf annual report and transforming it into an interactive, professional web page. This new and improved annual report will provide interactive graphics, weed out "fluff" information, and have a storytelling rhetoric. The purpose of this project is to highlight the incredible accomplishments that CWC has achieved in the past year. With their current annual report format, they are concerned that their accomplishments go unnoticed by local community members.

These community members are commonly hesitant to work with CWC because of language and cultural barriers. It is important for these affected communities of color  to see their fellow local residents securing safe water after working with CWC.  CWC has enhanced political engagement by registering 710 new voters as well as engaging over 1,000 community members. This noteworthy information is currently getting lost in the current text and data heavy annual report. The way that this annual report is structured is exclusionary to many of the community members and is prohibiting them from being able to access the resources CWC can offer. My intent is to accentuate an image based story telling rhetoric that can be universally comprehended and inspiring to local resident. In order to make my project a success I need $65.00 to purchase an Avada theme for the new annual report webpage.

Who is supporting me?

I am a student of the Everett Program which is a program that trains students each year to implement social enterprise projects. The Everett Program provides students with valuable technical knowledge and simultaneously, sharpens their leadership and project management skills. The Everett Program has provided me with the resources and mentorship tools to be able to create my project.