Dominican Faculty, Students Contribute to Canal Alliance Housing Justice Initiative

Dominican University of California faculty and students are working with Canal Alliance to enhance an initiative aimed at empowering Spanish-speaking residents of San Rafael's Canal neighborhood to educate their neighbors and others in the community about tenants' rights and housing policies.

The Canal Leadership for Affordable Housing Project is grounded in a tenant-leader model in which trained community leaders conduct weekly door-to-door outreach to learn about housing challenges, share trusted tenant rights information, and connect residents to support, says Aaron Burnett, Canal Alliance's Director of PACE (Policy and Civic Engagement).

Faculty from Dominican's Gilardi Center for Community Engagement & Partnerships are training Canal Alliance staff and the Dominican students in community-engaged research methods and data analysis.

Three Dominican students - two of whom grew up in the Canal neighborhood - are involved with the work. This semester, the students are working alongside members of Voces del Canal, a community coalition of leaders, on door-to-door outreach to gather information about tenant experiences, inform residents of their rights as tenants, and outline the steps that can be taken to protect those rights. The students are assisting in data analysis to identify patterns in tenant experiences. This includes specific issues as well as the impact these issues have on the lived experience of residents. The data will be used to improve responses from service providers and support future advocacy, policies and programs.

Other student activities include assisting community leaders with outreach activities, assisting with tenant interviews, and connecting tenants with support services.

The Dominican team is supporting Canal Alliance staff in creating research protocols to ensure informed consent and confidentiality, accurate transcriptions, and safe data storage.

In February and March, Dr. Emily Wu, who teaches foundational courses for Dominican's social justice major, conducted two trainings in community-engaged research methodologies for Canal Alliance staff. The first workshop provided an overview of the goals and processes of a research justice approach. The second workshop focused on learning a process for qualitative analysis. For this workshop, the Dominican students prepared the tenant interview transcripts and an initial analysis. At the workshop, they shared their findings and then paired up with Canal Alliance staff to identify major themes. The workshop culminated with recommendations to refine the interview process and questions as the project proceeds.

"This project will recruit and cultivate grassroots leadership, expand civic participation, strengthen community networks, and alleviate strain on local service providers who must currently respond to the housing crisis one client at a time," Burnett says.

The work is an example of community engagement at Dominican. Earlier this year, Dominican earned the prestigious 2026 Carnegie Community Engagement (CE) Classification, a national designation that recognizes the university's deep commitment to community engagement.

"As the only four-year university in Marin County, Dominican has an important role to play as an advocate and ally," says Julia van der Ryn, executive director of Dominican's Gilardi Center for Community Engagement & Partnerships.

Nationwide, 279 institutions (of which only 81 are private universities) currently hold the designation. The classification recognizes the highly collaborative work of Dominican's faculty, students, and partner organizations in expanding opportunities to advance thriving for all members of our community.

The students working this semester on the Canal Alliance housing project are Diana Yax, a biology major and social justice double major and a Canal neighborhood resident; Emberly Lopez Escobar, a biology and social justice double major and a Canal neighborhood resident; and Karina Abundiz, a social justice major.

The project is providing the students with practical exposure to tenant rights work, community organizing strategies, and the operational realities of a community-based nonprofit, says Julia van der Ryn, executive director of Dominican's Gilardi Center for Community Engagement & Partnerships.

"The Dominican students bring their own cultural knowledge and lived experience to this project as well as a specific skill set in community engagement practices," van der Ryn adds.

"As social justice majors, they are deeply committed to using their education to co-create more equitable conditions for people and communities that have been historically marginalized. They also know the strength and generosity present in these communities and are able to build trusting relationships," she adds. "Central to their education at Dominican, they are learning frameworks and methodologies for uplifting and centering community knowledge to advocate for policy and systemic change."

For Karina Abundiz, a first-generation Latina and daughter of Mexican immigrants originally from East Side San Jose, the work aligns with her interests and her future goals.

"My journey has been defined by a deep-rooted commitment to community, advocacy, and a passion for lifelong learning," she notes.

After beginning her undergraduate studies at Georgetown University, Karina transferred to Dominican as a junior to pursue a social justice major that aligns with her goals and provides a strong foundation and experience in place-based, community-centered practices that are vital to social change work. Working on the tenant rights project allows her to engage deeply with the San Rafael community "The grassroots power I see in the Canal neighborhood reminds me of the strength of organizations like Somos Mayfair in my hometown-a constant reminder of the love and solidarity that shaped me."

Dominican has a long history of collaboration with Canal Alliance. In 2012, Dominican faculty collaborated on a participatory action research project that culminated with the Voces del Canal: Building Safe Communities Through Strong Partnerships.

During the pandemic, faculty and staff co-designed and implemented several programs with Spanish-speaking Dominican students, including Digital Literacy, Family Support, and Rental Assistance. In 2022, faculty and students collaborated with Voces del Canal members on another participatory action research project, Lighting the Beauty of the Canal, which culminated in a presentation to the San Rafael City Council and the commitment of $100,000 to improve public safety in the canal with increased lighting.

Dominican's van der Ryn describes how the Service-Learning program is the nexus of the Center for Community Engagement. With more than 300 students a year enrolled in service-learning designated classes, the program has built trust over 20 years of collaboration with Canal-serving schools and non-profit partners and directly with community members.

In 2022, Dominican created the Memorandum of Understanding (MOU), ​​Dominican and Canal Community Partnership for Equity with Canal Alliance and Voces del Canal.

"This MOU reinforces Dominican's commitment to a long-term vision for a safe and thriving Canal community while deepening the educational practices and policies within the university itself," van der Ryn says.

"Through the intentionality of this agreement we have also created stronger pathways for Canal youth to see Dominican as a viable opportunity for college, and we have greatly increased representation on campus of students from this nearby neighborhood."

The MOU was recently featured in a chapter in the book "Exploring Equitable Community-Campus Relationships," published by the American Association of Colleges and Universities. The chapter, titled "Grounded in Community: Transformative Relationships in an Evolving Campus-Community Partnership for Equity," is co-authored by Omar Carrera, CEO of Canal Alliance, and Dominican faculty van der Ryn, Wu, and Dr. Lucia Leon.

The Canal neighborhood is among the most segregated neighborhoods in the Bay Area and is characterized by low educational attainment, disproportionately high levels of environmental health risks, high vulnerability to climate change and displacement, historic underdevelopment, and inadequate representation in local government.

Canal residents also face barriers to accessing public systems and civic decision-making, such as participation in local planning processes, access to housing and safety services, and engagement with emergency response systems. Yet the Canal is also a vibrant neighborhood where people come together to support each other and celebrate cultural traditions.

Canal community leaders actively seek to create more equitable conditions, van der Ryn says.

The tenant rights project, alongside Canal Alliance's community planning initiative, Nuestro Canal, Nuestro Futuro, seeks to support and expand the capacity of Canal residents to advocate for their rights to better their neighborhood, Burnett says, adding that he is grateful for the opportunity to deepen the partnership with Dominican and the expertise the Dominican team brings to a resident-led planning initiative.

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• University News
• Service-Learning
• The Dominican Experience
• Center for Community Engagement and Partnerships
• Community Engagement