All Research Topics

The USC Price Center for Social Innovation brings an interdisciplinary and cross-sectoral approach to social innovation research. Through relevant, rigorous research, Price Center faculty explore a variety of topics that seek to inform and advance new models of equity and opportunity for low-income children and families.

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The Social Innovation Trap: Critical Insights into an Emerging Field
Emergency Aid Programs at USC and LACCD
Education
An Evaluation of the Emergency Aid Programs at the University of Southern California and Los Angeles Community College District

In its third year of implementation, the Leonetti/ O’Connell Family Foundation’s emergency aid programs at the University of Southern California (USC) and the Los Angeles Community College District (LACCD) have continued to provide direct cash assistance to students experiencing financial hardships.

Research
Criminal Justice
Building Safety In Los Angeles: A Policy Agenda For Local Health and Safer Communitie

This report aims to assist jurisdictions trying to reimagine public safety through focusing on key policy areas, and applies policy frameworks to present day Los Angeles.

Research
Housing Instability
Accelerating Employment Retention Strategies for the Precariously Housed

This report outlines the findings from the project’s activities including an employer survey, Innovation Lab sessions, and case studies

Research
Education
The Segregation Index

The Segregation Index will be a comprehensive resource for tracking neighborhood and school segregation in the U.S., across every neighborhood and every school.

Research
Inequality
Resilience and Rebuilding: Recommendations for an Equitable Recovery in South L.A.

This report examines ways to improve pandemic recovery and to remove pre-pandemic barriers in South Los Angeles.

Research
Inequality
Examining the Complex Social Safety Net For Low-Income Working Families

This report examines the resources and benefits available to families and identifies the points at which the social safety net may become a barrier to economic independence.

Research SIB
Social Innovation
Social Impact Bonds 2.0

The complexity of social problems, paired with constrained public resources, requires social innovators to identify new approaches for financing the delivery of social services.

Offices of Strategic Partnerships: Helping Philanthropy and Government Work Better Together

James M. Ferris, Nicholas P. O. Williams

The Foundation Review

Year: 2014

Historically, non-profits and gov worked together to address public problems. Recent research indicates that new public-private partnerships are effective models to deliver social impact. Read more here:

Evaluating the Academic and Behavioral Impact of School in the Park

Danielle Williams, Gary Painter, Johanna R. Lacoe

USC Sol Price Center for Social Innovation

Year: 2014

This brief summarizes estimates of the impact of School in the Park, a museum-based educational program for low-income students that takes place within the cultural institutions and museums of San Diego’s Balboa Park. The study evaluates the impact of participation … Continue reading →

Identifying high risk youth for secondary gang prevention

Cheryl L. Maxson, David C. Sloane, Flor Vindel, Karen M. Hennigan, Kathy A. Kolnick

Journal of Crime & Justice

Year: 2014

Efforts to reduce gang violence by deterring youth from joining street gangs are of major interest in cities across the United States. Current thinking supports a comprehensive gang reduction approach that includes concurrent efforts that prevent joining, encourage leaving, and … Continue reading →

Building Organizations to Change Communities: Educational Entrepreneurs in Poor Urban Areas

Christine M. Beckman and Brooking Gatewood

In K. Golden-Biddle and J. Dutton (eds.), Using a Positive Lens to Explore Social Change and Organizations.

Year: 2012

This chapter focuses on charter schools in poor urban areas. Charter schools are an organizational form that emerged in the early 1990s as one potential solution to failing public schools. Rather than address the performance of charter schools relative to … Continue reading →

Transforming the urban food desert from the grassroots up: A model for community change

LaVonna Blair Lewis, Lark Galloway-Gilliam, Gwendolyn Flynn, Jonathan Nomachi, LaTonya Chavis Keener, David C. Sloane

Journal of Family and Community Health

Year: 2011

Confronted by continuing health disparities in vulnerable communities, Community Health Councils (CHC), a nonprofit community-based organization in South Los Angeles, worked with the African Americans Building a Legacy of Health Coalition and research partners to develop a community change model … Continue reading →

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