Featured Projects
Changing Culture & Building Power: Evaluating Berkeley’s Sugar-Sweetened Beverage Tax
In 2014, voters in Berkeley, CA passed Measure D, the nation’s first tax on the distribution of sugar-sweetened beverages, positioning the policy not only as a strategy to reduce chronic disease risk, but also as a mechanism to advance racial equity and invest in community-led health initiatives.
From 2023-2024, the Praxis Project partnered with Shayla Spilker Consulting to conduct a 10-year impact evaluation using a culturally responsive, mixed-methods approach that combined retrospective analysis and data collection with residents, advocates, and program participants. Grounded in a story-centered methodology, the evaluation examined how tax revenues supported systems change, strengthened community power, and contributed to health-related shifts within the city of Berkeley. This work culminated in a public-facing report with recommendations for Berkeley and other municipalities considering similar policies, while also informing real-time strategic decision-making related to the City’s 2024 ballot efforts to extend the tax.
Women’s Opportunity Fund Research & Design
The San Francisco Bay Area is one of the nation’s largest economies, with thriving tech and healthcare sectors and a diverse population that represents a powerful economic asset. Yet opportunity is not shared equally. Workers of color, particularly women, remain disproportionately concentrated in lower-wage jobs, making earn and learn and on-the-job training programs an important pathway for building transferable skills and increasing earning potential.
In 2023, Shayla Spilker Consulting partnered with Bienestar Community Economics and Tipping Point Community to design a novel demonstration project focused on creating pathways for Bay Area women to advance in their careers while building wealth, with a focus on earn and learn programs paired with cash assistance. Shayla conducted formative research, co-led a collaborative design process, and co-authored two reports to support project implementation and inform the field.
Council District 8: Reimagining Community Investment
Efforts to shift public dollars away from punitive systems continue to gain traction nationwide. Rather than focusing on dismantling systems, these movements demonstrate the meaningful impact that even modest municipal reinvestments can have on improving quality of life and reducing harmful system involvement. In 2022–2023, Councilmember Marqueece Harris-Dawson reinvested $3.24 million from policing budgets into 57 community-based organizations serving residents of Los Angeles’s Council District 8 (CD8).
In 2023, Jemmott-Rollins Group (the CD8 Grant Fund administrator) partnered with Shayla Spilker Consulting to conduct an evaluation of the CD8 Grant Fund. The evaluation culminated in a report that illustrates how a community-grounded grantmaking approach successfully directed critical resources across the district, demonstrating what becomes possible when local government and municipal budgeting prioritize a holistic vision of community health, economic opportunity, and overall quality of life.