On the national level, we manage this re-granting program which directed $1.4M in funds to schools nationwide in support of successful nutrition and health promotion programs during the 2014-2018 school years. In Southern California, we provide technical assistance to more than a dozen of the program’s grantees that are working to create a culture of health and wellness for students, staff and teachers in K-12 schools.

This exciting new partnership with California State University, Los Angeles, and the City of Los Angeles’ Data Team is creating an unprecedented opportunity for Community Partners projects and other nonprofit organizations to increase their understanding of and access to data as a powerful tool to strengthen their organizations and their ability to serve their communities. Funded by the National Science Foundation (NSF) with a grant of just under $1M, the Big Data Project will increase data capacity, inform decision making and promote citizen engagement among underserved and marginalized populations through a series of workshops, coursework with service learning opportunities that match teams of students with nonprofit organizations, paid student internships, and hands-on training in data visualization. All of the work will tap into the City of Los Angeles’ open-data portal, GeoHub, and Geographic Information Systems (GIS) mapping software.

We are in our sixth year supporting the Los Angeles County Department of Public Health (DPH) in building and fostering community resilience as a more effective way to deal with emergencies in the county. Reaching into numerous and diverse communities and departments related to DPH, we have supported the training of transgender and non-conforming people of color to work with frontline staff at homeless shelters; overseen work preparing families of children with severe disabilities for disasters; assisted with plans and guides for Medical Reserve Corps members and offered cultural sensitivity training.

We provide ongoing grant administration services that allows the USC Good Neighbors Campaign office to fund numerous small, grassroots efforts that serve neighborhoods near the university. Because many of these projects are more modest efforts without formal nonprofit status, USC relies on Community Partners to help some of their grantees with administration and basic bookkeeping, and to monitor grant expenditures to ensure that funds are spent as intended. Funds provided to roughly 30 programs are directed through a USC employee giving campaign.