MEDIA ADVISORY: USC Professor Teams with Community Groups on 2015 State of the Neighborhood Report

Report provides baseline data and recommendations for communities surrounding USC University Park and Health Sciences campuses

Contact: Eddie North-Hager at (213) 740-9335 or edwardnh@usc.edu or Cindy Monticue at (213) 740-2021 or monticue@usc.edu.

WHAT: The 2015 USC State of the Neighborhood Report sheds light on specific community conditions that shape life opportunities for residents in the neighborhoods surrounding USC’s University Park Campus and the USC Health Sciences Campus.

The report is the result of an 18-month effort led by Hortensia Amaro, Associate Vice Provost for Community Research Initiatives; a community advisory board; faculty task force and Advancement Project, a next generation, multiracial civil rights organization.

The State of the Neighborhood Report provides baseline data and recommendations to guide efforts to create positive change in these local neighborhoods. The report reviewed economic stability, education, health and health care, neighborhood and built environment and social capital.

The presentations at each of USC’s two main campuses in Los Angeles will focus on recommendations specific to each neighborhood and community.

WHO:

Presentation of findings by Hortensia Amaro, Associate Vice Provost for Community Research Initiatives, and the Advancement Project.

Health Science Campus panelists:

• William Vega, Provost Professor and Executive Director of USC Edward R. Roybal Institute on Aging, USC School of Social Work
• Cynthia Sanchez, Executive Director, Proyecto Pastoral at Dolores Mission
• Alex Morales, President and CEO of Children’s Bureau
• John Moretta, Monsignor, Resurrection Church
• Arturo Chavez, Chief of Staff, Los Angeles City Councilmember Gil Cedillo
• Jorja Leap, Director, Health and Social Justice Partnership, UCLA Luskin School of Public Affairs; and Evaluation Specialist, California Endowment

University Park Campus panelists:

•  Manuel Pastor, Provost Professor; Director, Program for Environmental and Regional Equity; and Co-Director, Center for the Study of Immigrant Integration
• Isela Gracian, President, East LA Community Corporation
• Joe Donlin, Director, Equitable Development and Assoicate Director, Strategic Action for a Just Economy
• Alex Morales, Magnolia Place Community Initiative

WHEN and WHERE:

8 a.m. Monday, April 13

USC Health Sciences Campus

Herklotz Seminar Room

Zilkha Neurogenetic Institute of USC

1501 San Pablo St. Los Angeles

8 a.m. Wednesday, April 15

USC University Park Campus

Town and Gown

PARKING:  For HSC, enter San Pablo Street Parking Structure. Map. For UPC, enter Entrance 3 to Parking Structure X on Figueroa Street. Map

FULL REPORT: http://bit.ly/SON2015

MORE: Amaro, who also has appointments as Dean’s Professor in the USC School of Social Work and Professor of Preventive Medicine at Keck School of Medicine of USC, is developing USC’s capacity to conduct interdisciplinary, community-based scholarship. While an associate dean at Northeastern University, she founded the Institute on Urban Health Research and worked with the city of Boston to develop a spectrum of outpatient and residential treatment programs for women and children. Based on her work, Amaro was elected to the Institute of Medicine in 2012 and in 2013 received the Ernest R. Hilgard Lifetime Achievement Award from the American Psychological Association’s Society for General Psychology. Last year she received the Elizabeth Hurlock Beckman Award for professors who inspire their students to change the world.

Healthy City is the Advancement Project’s information and action resource that unites community voices, research and technology to solve social inequity in California.

More than 20 years ago, USC launched an initiative to develop community-university partnerships. Today, USC invests $35 million annually to support community initiatives, which now serves nearly 40,000 community members.

The USC Office of the Senior Vice President for University Relations, the Office of the Provost and various deans proposed and supported this report.