USC HSC Partner Schools Task Force USC HSC Partner Schools Task Force
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At its Health Sciences Campus (USC HSC), USC has formed a partnership with local schools and community-based organizations to benefit thousands of neighborhood schoolchildren. USC students, faculty and staff volunteer hundreds of hours every year to work on programs that support the partnership.

A Success Story
One first-grader says she wants to be a ballet dancer; several others want to become teachers. Another child hopes for a career as a scientist.

Each of these students’ dreams became more of a reality thanks to a partnership between the I Have A Dream Foundation (IHAD) and USC. Through the program, IHAD adopted 148 first-graders at Murchison Street Elementary School who participated in a comprehensive, dropout, prevention program that was designed to follow them until they graduate from high school. Scholarships for college or career training are the expected outcomes for their participation in the program.

For its first year in 2002, USC funded and developed a summer program that included academic and arts enrichment activities. And the university continues to provide support to other programs that impact student lives.

This is but one example of the USC’s community outreach efforts made possible through the USC HSC Partner Schools Task Force.

Program Overview
In 1999, USC Civic and Community Relations (USC CCR) expanded its community outreach efforts into the neighborhoods surrounding the USC Health Sciences Campus. There it partnered with two schools and later added two more. It also formed a task force partnership among community-based organizations, health and social services providers, and government and civic institutions. The USC HSC Partner Schools include:

  • Griffin Avenue Elementary School
  • Murchison Street Elementary School
  • Sheridan Street Elementary School
  • Francisco Bravo Medical Magnet High School

The primary goals of the USC HSC Partner Schools Task Force is to increase access to healthcare by students, their families and community members; and to leverage the university’s resources in order to provide services that benefit the schools and community. A sampling of some of the services that have come about as a result of the partnership includes:

  • An annual community health fair for families and area residents.
  • A program for high school students to learn science by joining a basic science research team at USC HSC.
  • An annual science expo that partners elementary school children with USC HSC students to work on science projects.
  • A program that teaches children and parents about poison prevention.
  • A program that recruits lay health workers to educate the community about the importance of folic acid.