A USC Student assists two 9-year-olds in an after-school program at Weems Elementary School

Clean and Restore Our Environment ($40,000)

Last year, Clean and Restore Our Environment (CARE) created a “zero-tolerance” zone around the University Park neighborhood – removing graffiti within 24 hours in the streets surrounding the USC Family of Five Schools. This year, CARE will decrease the number of “canvasses” available to graffiti vandals by using a number of methods that make a wall or structure inaccessible to them. CARE will continue to employ local at-risk youth and adults, providing them with job training and leadership skills. The grant helps support staff positions such as a program coordinator, crew leaders and at-risk youths who receive paid internships. Partners are the Division of Business Affairs and the Youth Empowerment Project.

Afterschool Enrichment Program ($38,950)

How can children fill those unstructured hours between school and dinner time? Some 1,000 Family of Five Schools children each year reap the benefits of the Afterschool Enrichment Program, which stimulates their creativity and intellectual ability while filling the time void. Funded for the fourth year, ASEP offers after-school classes, taught by qualified USC students, in performing arts, visual and language arts, physical education, computer literacy and other subjects. This year, the program’s arts component will be expanded through a new partnership with the Los Angeles County Museum of Art and another spring session with the J. Paul Getty Museum. USC student instructors will be trained in classroom management, and half of all classes will be team-taught by two USC students. Partners are USC Civic and Community Relations and the USC Family of Five Schools.

Web Masters/Info Masters 1998 ($15,408)

This partnership of the Leavey Library and the USC Family of Five Schools continues the Web Masters project begun last year, offering instructional, technological and career-planning expertise at USC to a nucleus of 20 teachers from the five schools. The teachers will be trained in Internet and Web authoring skills, which they will then share with their peers. The grant funds staff support for the program, which this year will emphasize enhancing each school’s Web sites with information about colleges, admissions procedures and pre-college placement testing.

Something for Everyone ($31,541)

Last year the 24th Street Theatre and the USC School of Theatre took community youngsters for “A Walk on the Wilde Side.” This year, there’s “Something for Everyone,” a free Saturday series of theater workshops for neighborhood kids and their families. The series will consist of 16 professional performances over eight months, designed to teach local youths about the arts and meet one of the School of Theatre’s goals: creating Los Angeles’ first international youth theater festival. This festival is planned for 1999 at the University Park Campus. The grant will help pay for directors to produce the series, production and publicity assistants, and theater rental space for 16 productions.

Lincoln Heights Tutorial Program ($24,886)

Seeking to provide academic assistance for Asian/Pacific American immigrant and refugee children in the Lincoln Heights area, USC Asian Pacific American Student Services has joined for-ces with Lincoln Heights Neighborhood Community Out-reach. The Lincoln Heights Tutorial Program builds on last year’s program, adding an interactive computer learning component. The program offers a series of after-school enrichment classes for first- through sixth-grade students in schools near the Health Sciences Campus. USC students tutor the grade-school children in subjects such as math, science, physical education and the arts.

Intersession Enrichment Program ($23,500)

Funded for the fourth year, the Intersession Enrichment Program (IEP) provides innovative courses for students in the USC Family of Five Schools who are off track. This year, IEP has revamped its curriculum with input from William McComas, assistant professor of science education, and his graduate students. McComas and his students will help IEP with planning, delivering and evaluating its series of science and mathematics classes. The program is a partnership of the School of Education, the Edu-cation Consortium of Central Los Angeles and the USC Family of Five Schools.

Partners in Friendship ($15,500)

Troy Camp, a tried-and-true Trojan tradition, will get a boost from a Neighborhood Outreach grant. This summer camp, organized and run by USC students, provides many inner-city children living near USC with their first outdoor wilderness experience. Established in 1948 in Idyllwild, Troy Camp provides this experience at no cost to the children’s families. Each year, USC student volunteers raise $30,000 to finance the program. With the grant money, each Family of Five school can send 28 children to camp, freeing up Troy Camp volunteers to expand the project’s education and outreach efforts. The Troy Camp executive board will continue to raise funds for the expenses of student counselors, transportation and other camp activities. Partners are the Office of Student Activities and the USC Family of Five Schools.

Street Law Program ($11,750)

Founded in 1992, Street Law teaches inner-city high school students about legal literacy and respect for law and its institutions, as well as offers advice about higher education. This partnership between the USC Law School and Woodrow Wilson High School Administra-tion of Justice and Law Magnet provides an annual Mentor Day and classroom lectures taught by law students. The program will be expanded to include more mentor days and field trips as well as technology for computerized research at Woodrow Wilson and for high school students to e-mail their mentors.

Project Forward Bound ($27,000)

Project Forward Bound builds on the occupational therapy programming developed at the Salesian Boys and Girls Club and at Unity House through last year’s Neighborhood Outreach-funded program, Operation Safe House. Project Forward Bound – which offers job training, arts and crafts, social skills and one-on-one mentoring for at-risk local youths – is a collaboration of the department of occupational science and therapy and the Salesian Boys and Girls Club, Unity House, Soledad Enrichment Action (SEA) Lincoln Heights, and the Los Angeles County Pro-bation Department.

New Stories/New Cultures ($37,500)

Teaching children about their ethnic culture, and how stereotypes and the media affect our self-definitions is the premise of New Stories/New Cultures. The program is an after-school enrichment series to help grade-school children make critical choices about images depicted in the media and create new personal stories and cultural “scripts.” The interdisciplinary curriculum combines narrative theory, anthropology and occupational science, using activities, film and television excerpts, and other forms of expression. The program also incorporates a community health component. The partners are the department of occupational science and therapy, along with Foshay, Vermont, and Weemes schools and Esperanza Community Housing Corp.