North East Los Angeles

Community Outreach Partnership Center

Northeast Los Angeles COPC was funded through a three-year grant to Occidental College from the Office of University Partnerships of the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD)

The Northeast Los Angeles Community Outreach Partnership Center partners Occidental College with the Northeast Community Resource Coordinating Council (NECRCC) on an ambitious array of urban and environmental improvement projects in the Northeast Los Angeles area.

Northeast Los Angeles is confronted by rapid population growth, overcrowding, deteriorated housing stock, commercial decline, crime and gang activity, economically, educationally, and nutritionally challenged households, environmental degradation, and lack of open green space. The COPC advances a plan and process to address these problems through ten project components, including:

COPC will produce a Community Data and (GIS generated) Map Bank and a Community Assets and Resources (CARE) Guide for the region. Mass outreach drives and street surveys will assist in forming two Business Improvement Districts. Homeownership and housing rehabilitation will be promoted through mass outreach drives and technical assistance workshops. Community heritage activities will be conducted through oral histories, photography, and video, culminating in real-site and on-line exhibitions.

A community website has been launched to provide some degree of free public Internet access to the information and research derived from these efforts. A symposium will be held to organize community and government partners in reclaiming a section of the L.A. River for habitat restoration and public recreation. A buying cooperative will be created to help local residents gain access to affordable, nutritious fruits and vegetables. A community garden will be created as a local food source, which promotes neighborliness and healthy family life.

The Northeast Los Angeles region suffers from a status of relative invisibility in the metropolitan media and political affairs, and is threatened by administrative neglect. COPC will work with NECRCC to form an organizational "hub" which coordinates the mobilization of regional resources and advances a strategy for effective leadership and innovative governance.

For further information contact:

Dr. Jan Lin, Principal Investigator
Ph: 323-259-2994
Fax: 323-256-6246
jlin@oxy.edu