Join Center for Community Voices during its first faculty listening session at 10 a.m. Friday, April 22. Co-directors Andy Levine and Dr. Amber Crowell are eager to learn about the community-based and community-led work that you are doing to help them map out the future of this initiative and to create structures of support for the work that you and your community partners do. If you currently work with and support any community members, groups, or organizations to bring positive social change in the Central Valley, or you hope to do this sort of work, join the listening session.

The Center for Community Voices at Fresno State is a University-community initiative with the central mission of uplifting the stories and lived experiences of communities that are most impacted by the social challenges of the Central Valley to ensure that the system's changes made to improve living conditions in the region are informed and driven by these communities. The center aims to support and partner on projects that engage in storytelling and community-based research with communities whose voices have been historically marginalized in the Central Valley and compensate folks for their knowledge. These include communities that represent Black, Latinx, Indigenous, immigrant, LGBTQ+, low-income, disabled, unhoused and youth populations.

"We believe the wisdom that is needed to address the Central Valley’s social challenges is all around us through lived experiences," said Crowell.

This first listening session will focus on the following topics:

1. What is the Center for Community Voices currently working on?

2. What work do we hope to support moving forward?

3. What community-based and community-led projects are you currently involved in, or hope to become involved in?

4. How can we support you, your community partners, and your students in this work?

The Zoom link to join is: bit.ly/ccvspring2022