UCLA Center for Community Partnerships Celebrates Its Sixth Year!

The UCLA Center for Community (CCP) marks its sixth year as the portal for Civic and Community Engagement and Engaged Scholarship at UCLA. Serving as a resource for faculty, staff and students and their non-profit community partners, the Center promotes existing and new partnerships in research and teaching between UCLA and Community to develop new knowledge that improves the quality of life in Los Angeles. More >

The State of South Los Angeles Report Released

Convened by the UCLA Center for Community Partnerships, Dr. Paul Ong, from the UCLA School of Public Affairs, and lead author on the recently released The State of South LA Report, presented his findings before an audience of South LA community and stakeholders.

With support from the UCLA Center for Community Partnerships, Dr. Ong, his graduate students from the Department of Urban Planning, and the Los Angeles Urban League, conducted the one year study focused on demographics, public safety, education, housing and employment in South Los Angeles.  

The State of South LA Report was released on September 14, 2008; 15 years after UCLA published an earlier assessment of South Los Angeles neighborhoods in 1993. More >

Dr. Gilliam Lectures at the University of Iowa

Bridging universities with community needs through innovative forms of teaching and scholarship was the focus of a public presentation at the University of Iowa by Franklin D. Gilliam Jr., associate vice chancellor for community partnerships. The lecture was entitled "Civic Engagement and the Research University: Challenges and Opportunities." More >

UCLA Honored for Community Engagement

The Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching has selected UCLA for its new Community Engagement Classification, which recognizes universities with outstanding community-based curricula, outreach and partnerships. Read more >

UCLA was the sole university in the University of California system, and the only research university in the Los Angeles area, chosen for the designation. In order to be selected, institutions were required to provide extensive descriptions and examples of institutionalized practices of community engagement that showed alignment among their mission, culture, leadership, resources and practices.

“We are honored to be recognized as a university that is deeply committed to community engagement at all levels,” said Franklin D. Gilliam, Jr., Associate Vice Chancellor for Community Partnerships. “UCLA is in L.A. every day, in many ways, working to make life better for people and shedding light on those big questions that also are the responsibility of a world-class public research university.”

Institutions were classified in one of three categories: curricular engagement, outreach and partnerships and curricular engagement plus outreach and partnerships. UCLA was recognized for both its curricular engagement and its outreach and partnerships.

Curricular engagement describes teaching, learning and scholarships that engages faculty, students and community in a mutually beneficial and respectful collaboration. Outreach refers to a focus on the application and provision of institutional resources for community use, with benefits to both campus and community. Partnership focuses on collaborative interactions with the community for the exchange and application of knowledge, information and resources.

Among the other schools selected were New York University, the University of Pennsylvania and the University of North Carolina Chapel Hill – all of which, along with UCLA, are members of the Association of American Universities, an organization of leading research universities in the United States and Canada.

UCLA’s Center for Community Partnerships is the driving force behind the universities commitment to civic engagement with communities throughout Los Angeles. Founded in 2002 as part of the universities UCLA in LA initiative, the center is dedicated to developing partnerships between UCLA scholars and local nonprofit organizations to produce academic projects connected to community-based applications that will improve the quality of life for Los Angeles residents.

The projects are designed to support children, youth and families, to foster economic development, and to enrich arts and culture. To date, the center has facilitated and funded nearly 100 academic projects involving UCLA faculty, staff, graduate students and nonprofit organization partners, totaling more than $2 million in private donations.

The center also directs several other engagement activities. It convenes Community Knowledge Forums, operates an internship program and awards the Rosenfield Distinguished Community Partnership Prize, which recognizes the most compelling partnerships.

About UCLA

California’s largest university, UCLA enrolls approximately 38,000 students per year and offers degrees from the UCLA College of Letters and Science and 11 professional schools in dozens of varied disciplines. UCLA consistently ranks among the top five universities and colleges nationwide in total research-and-development spending, receiving more that $820 million a year in competitively awarded federal and state grants and contracts. For every $1 state taxpayers invest in UCLA, the university generates almost $9 in economic activity, resulting in an annual $6 billion economic impact on the Great Los Angeles region. The university’s health network treats 450,000 patients per year. UCLA employs more than 27,000 faculty and staff, has more that 350,000 living alumni and has been home to five Nobel Prize recipients.