We are Campus and Community members committed to uniting and empowering the University Park Community to create a just and vibrant neighborhood.
We are USC’s first cross-discipline and multicultural coalition to promote neighborhood opportunity (our Campaign for Neighborhood Opportunity) and pursue Los Angeles’ first bottom-up community plan with local grassroots community leaders and residents.
As a group of students from all over the country, involved on campus and in the community, we fundamentally recognize the linked fate between the campus and the community.
In our work across Los Angeles, we saw firsthand the unequal landscape of opportunity that exists in the city, whether seen in intensifying economic and racial segregation, one of the highest rates of poverty and pollution rates in the city, and an inequitable landscape of job, transit, and educational opportunities. Importantly, we see much this inequity’s history in our urban and regional policies and institutions.
All of this points to a renewed focus on our cities.
We see the need for us, as students and faculty on campus, with local community leaders and residents–and even inter-sectoral alliances with environmental, labor, faith-based, civil rights organizations, academia, civically-minded business, and city government agencies–to take responsibility for our neighborhood.
We thus seek movement toward a new urban and regional vision and proven metropolitan strategies.
We urge the implementation of environmentally sustainable, socio-economically responsible, and economically innovative strategies and policies shown to promote economic mobility, freedom, security, improved public health, and a second chance. These strategies encourage individual and social responsibility to strengthen our communities and cities for the future.
We seek a just and vibrant future for both campus and community members through:
Advocating for Affordable Housing, both in its preservation and creation
Advocating for Innovative Economic Development through local small business development, entrepreneurship, and connections to education & workforce development in strategic and sustainable industries
Advocating for Environmental Sustainability, Smart Growth, transportation alternatives, and welcoming urban design
Advocating for Safety and Security with the community
Advocating for Inclusive Participation and Transparent Public Planning toward a revitalized democracy
Read about and join us on our Campaign: Campus and Community United for Neighborhood Opportunity.
Our Partner Organizations:
USC Women’s Creative Collective For Change,
USC MEChA,
USC SCALE,
USC Latino Social Work Caucus,
University Church Peace Center,
USC Political Student Assembly,
USC Save-Our-Selves,
USC Peers in American Studies and Ethnicity Organization (PASEO),
USC Food not Bombs,
USC Student Coalition for Asian Pacific Empowerment (SCAPE),
USC Associated Students for Planning and Development (ASPD),
USC Asian American Tutorial Project (AATP),
USC Sikh Student Organization (SSO),
USC Episcopal Urban Mission Project,
USC Student Association for Public Policy and Development (SAPPD),
USC Marshall Microfinance Association,
USC Graduate Professional Student Senate, Students of Color Network (GSCN),
Figueroa Corridor Coalition for Economic Justice (FCCEJ),
Strategic Actions for a Just Economy (SAJE)
Center for American Progress/ Campus Progress
Los Angeles American Civil Liberties Union
