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New Web Site Targets USC’s Outreach

By Eddie North-Hager on October 16, 2009 9:30 AM

  • New Web Site Targets USC’s Outreach

It’s no secret that USC, which recently was named tops in community engagement among all colleges and universities, has a multitude of flourishing programs and projects in the neighborhoods surrounding its campuses. But finding out about all these initiatives - and getting a sense of the richness of activity in the neighborhoods - has in the past involved a lot of digging.

A new USC Web site solves that problem.

Our Communities (http://communities.usc.edu), launched in September by the USC Office of Government and Community Relations and University Public Relations, documents the university’s outreach and research across various disciplines and campuses. It includes descriptions of collaborative programs, recent photographs of Trojans and neighborhood residents engaged in projects, and supplies detailed maps of neighborhood resources, including schools, parks, churches, museums and historic buildings.

The site targets the university-community initiatives stated by President Steven B. Sample when he joined the Trojan Family. These initiatives were a key element of the president’s goal to make a difference in the communities surrounding the University Park and Health Sciences campuses.

“This site illustrates some of USC’s core missions in the communities: putting students on the path to college from head start through high school; stimulating the local economy; and making neighborhoods safer,” said Thomas S. Sayles, USC vice president for government and community relations. “It shows the depth and breadth of USC’s efforts and our commitment to the neighborhood.

“We are now able to more clearly define our outreach to include not only programs that serve the community, but the academic research that our professors are doing,” Sayles said. “These studies are informing policymaking decisions that result in services to these neighborhoods and others like it.”

Susan Heitman, associate senior vice president of university relations, said: “When he arrived nearly 20 years ago, President Sample made our relationship with the community the hallmark of his administration. He set hugely ambitious goals. He believes in the concept of being a good neighbor, and we have that responsibility.

“This Web site is our latest effort in building this partnership in our community,” she said.

Through a searchable database, Our Communities highlights programs that carry out the initiatives that Sample laid out in the early 1990s. These areas include:

• Educated Children: Educacion Primero, a Keck School of Medicine of USC program, pairs medical students with elementary school students as tutors and mentors

• Service Learning: The School of Dentistry’s Community-Campus Partnerships for Health provides oral health education and clinical service to nearly 20,000 people a year

• Safe Streets: The USC Gould School of Law’s Street Law Society teaches legal literacy skills to children in neighborhood schools

• Healthy Families: Kids in Sports provides after-school and weekend sports opportunities for more than 1,000 low-income boys and girls

• Thriving Businesses: The Los Angeles Minority Business Enterprise Center offers consulting services, access to capital and advanced business training

• Research: The USC Science, Technology and Research (STAR) Program is a collaborative science education venture involvingthe university, Francisco Bravo Medical Magnet High School, El Sereno Middle School and Murchison Elementary School. STAR high school students take part in hands-on research in USC labs.

The Our Communities site, created by USC Public Relations and ITS Web Services, can be updated with the submission of new programs.

The neighborhood resources maps pinpoint the locations that make up the fabric of nearby communities. Additional locations can be placed on these maps at any time.

“What we are trying to do with the site is bring together the disparate efforts the university has made in this area and to strengthen those efforts by improving our internal and external communications,” Heitman said.

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