ALRB hires UC Berkeley and UC Davis for outreach, schedules UCLA cultural‑competency training

The Agricultural Labor Relations Board said it has contracted UC Berkeley’s Possibility Lab and the UC Davis Western Center on Health and Safety to develop outreach materials and run focus groups aimed at farm workers.

Board Chair Hassid said the contracts will support "development of new materials, as well as an agency wide cross training program for the participating agencies." He added the Possibility Lab will provide research‑based messaging and design for print, digital and audio materials, while the UC Davis Western Center will run focus groups and help with translations, "including indigenous languages."

The board said products from the contracts are expected to start appearing in the latter part of the year and continue over the next two fiscal years. The board also announced it will post a request for proposals for an event coordinator or planner to help run the cross‑training program; the chair said the RFP should be posted "in the next few weeks."

In addition, the board has finalized an agreement with the UCLA Labor Center for a cultural‑competency training for staff, judges, board members and administrators. The training is slated for late August or September, with a tentative in‑person date of Aug. 27 in Visalia and a hybrid option; Chair Hassid encouraged attendance in person when possible.

Chair Hassid said he and Board Member Flores attended the California Immigrant Policy Center Day of Action and made contacts to help the board develop guidance for staff who work in the field, noting the board's work involves "a heavily, heavily immigrant population" and that staff safety in enforcement settings is a priority. The board described those conversations as preliminary.

The outreach and training items were presented as updates; no formal board action was taken during the meeting on these contracts, which the chair described as "now ready" and already under way.