Community Partners

IBL is a partner on a USF-St Petersburg community research collaboration on social stratification

A USF Team of researchers was sought by the City of St. Petersburg to collaborate in providing infrastructure support for a study on racism, including both quantitative and qualitative data analyses. The true voices and wisdom driving and inspiring the collaboration are those of the community leaders who bring both the lived and historical perspectives that will breathe life into the work. Ms. Gwendolyn Reese, Ms. Gypsy Gallardo, and Mr. Jabaar Edmond have been educating the team about the city's current realities with respect to racial disparities and providing real-life examples of ways current policies and practices further the differential treatment of Black citizens daily. They have also been enlightening the team about historical governmental and social decisions that created the disparities, and leading conversations about some of the changes that will be needed to uproot racism in its structural form. Mr. Tim Dutton has been collaborating with the USF researchers to access historical data needed to help make the case about how past and existing practices reinforce current disparities and gather and analyze never-before examined data. The initiative stands to create an important template in which the Tampa Bay community provides voice and leadership, and USF listens, follows, allies, and serves. The results of the collaboration stand to have meaningful impact for the citizens of the city of St. Petersburg.