The work of CURE is rooted in an anti-oppression analysis and a community-driven social justice research model that seeks to:
1. Give community organizations, specifically those experiencing social and economic marginalization, access to the knowledge and resources circulating in the academic sphere;
2. Facilitate productive, mutually transformative interactions between students and activists that redefine the boundary between universities and the communities that surround them;
3. Broaden the kind of academic work that is available to students;
CURE strives to avoid the pitfalls associated with academic research, specifically with academic research that objectifies community organizing and activism. Co-optation of grassroots knowledge and movements by the academic sphere is a widespread occurrence and CURE aims to avoid this by taking direction from community organizations to define and have autonomy over their research needs.
For more information on the community-driven social justice research model, please read our article “By way of Introduction: Community-based Social Justice Research.”