By Keri Brenner | [email protected] | Marin Independent Journal
PUBLISHED: March 12, 2026 at 4:57 PM PDT | UPDATED: March 12, 2026 at 5:27 PM PDT
Dominican University of California is helping a San Rafael nonprofit build a stronger platform of tenant rights knowledge and housing assistance.
Faculty and students are training Canal Alliance staff in “qualitative data analysis” gathered from weekly door-to-door interviews with residents in the Canal area, said Emily Wu, a professor in social justice.
“We mobilized our service-learners who are bilingual, fluent in Spanish and English,” Wu said. “Two of our students are from the Canal neighborhood, so they have a lot of local knowledge and connections into this work.”
“We wanted to get some perspectives from residents in the Canal, more than just asking them for quantitative numbers and data,” Wu said. “We wanted to get an idea of what they’re thinking about, how they interpret their experiences.”
Aaron Burnett, director of policy and civic engagement for Canal Alliance, said the work with Dominican is accelerating the progress of the Nuestro Canal, Nuestro Futuro movement, or, in English, Our Canal, Our Future. The movement covers a number of Canal programs now in play, Burnett said.
“This Dominican 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 said.
Nuestro Canal, Nuestro Futuro also includes a five-year neighborhood plan that is expected to be completed by the end of the year, Burnett said. The predominantly Spanish-speaking Canal area faces numerous challenges, including poverty, housing instability and fragmented systems, according to Marin Promise Partnership, which is facilitating the five-year plan.
Emberly Lopez Escobar, one of three Dominican students involved in the program with Canal Alliance, said she is assisting community leaders from Voces del Canal in interviewing residents and helping them understand their tenant rights and housing policies.
“I was born in the Canal and I lived there my whole life,” said Escobar, 18, a first-year biology and social justice major. “Just being able to empower my community and make sure that everybody knows their rights and can grow my community makes my heart feel full. I love being here.”
She said she likes Wu’s idea to get more information about what people are thinking, rather than just statistics on their households or rental conditions.
“I like to hear more of their stories and how they feel,” she said. “Yes, we know that the Canal is overcrowded and there is a lot of room for improvement, especially in tenants’ rights. But we also would like to understand why … what is keeping them here?”
“As the only four-year university in Marin County, Dominican has an important role to play as an advocate and ally,” said faculty member Julia van der Ryn, executive director of the school’s Gilardi Center for Community Engagement and Partnerships.
The other Dominican students in the Canal Alliance project are Karina Abundiz and Diana Yax Rodas. Rodas, a biology major with a minor in community action and social change, is a Canal resident. Abundiz, a social justice major who transferred to Dominican from Georgetown University, lives in the East Bay, van der Ryn said.
“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,” she said.
Van der Ryn said the students “are deeply committed to using their education to co-create more equitable conditions for people and communities that have been historically marginalized.”
Dominican has a history of collaborating with Canal Alliance. In 2012, faculty research helped to establish “Voces del Canal: Building Safe Communities Through Strong Partnerships.” During the pandemic, faculty and staff also helped design and implement several programs with Spanish-speaking Dominican students on digital literacy and rental assistance.
In 2022, Dominican faculty and students collaborated with Voces del Canal members in a project called “Lighting the Beauty of the Canal.” That led to a presentation to the San Rafael City Council and the commitment of $100,000 to improve public safety in the Canal with increased lighting.
Also in 2022, Dominican created a formal agreement to continue work with Canal Alliance and Voces del Canal in social justice programs. The agreement “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 said.
