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.

Measuring Segregation With The Normalized Exposure Index

Ann Owens, sean f. reardon, Demetra Kalogrides, Heewon Jang, and Thalia Tom

Year: 2022

There are two broad approaches to measuring segregation: measures of exposure and measures of evenness. Exposure indices measure the school composition that the average student of a given racial group is “exposed” to — e.g., a White-Hispanic exposure value of … Continue reading →

Trends In Racial/Ethnic And Economic School Segregation, 1991-2020

Ann Owens, sean f. reardon, Demetra Kalogrides, Heewon Jang, and Thalia Tom

Year: 2022

Seventy years after legal decisions like Mendez v. Westminster and Brown v. Board of Education outlawed separate school systems on the basis of race, school segregation in the U.S. persists, with pernicious consequences for educational equity. Racial/ethnic and economic school … Continue reading →

The Segregation Index

Ann Owens, sean f. reardon, Demetra Kalogrides, Heewon Jang, Thalia Tom

Year: 2022

Neighborhood and school segregation remain key barriers to social mobility and equal opportunity. To tackle these long-standing inequalities, we must have a clear understanding of patterns and trends in racial/ethnic and socioeconomic segregation. The Segregation Index will be a comprehensive … Continue reading →

Are Social Impact Bonds an Innovation in Finance or Do They Help Finance Social Innovation?

Hilary Olson, Gary Painter, Kevin Albertson, Christopher Fox, Christopher O'Leary

Journal of Social Policy

Year: 2022

Outcomes Based Commissioning (OBC) – for example, Pay for Success (in the US) or Payment by Results (in the UK) – has been suggested as a way to provide ‘more’ social services for ‘less’ public resources. Such commissioning is often … Continue reading →

Survey Brief: The Impacts of COVID-19 On Employer Support Services

Victoria Ciudad-Real, Kyle Hulburd, Meghan Nazareno

Year: 2022

The current COVID-19 pandemic has highlighted housing vulnerability and its interdependence with employment. To understand this issue, the USC Price Center for Social Innovation and LeadersUp partnered to examine how employers adjusted their practices during the COVID-19 pandemic through a … Continue reading →

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