University of Southern California

The University of Southern California’s Dornsife Center for Economic and Social Research conducts the Understanding America Study, a nationally representative survey of approximately 8,000 households. The study includes a subsample of households with at least one K-12 child in the home. In addition to fielding questions about the ongoing impact of COVID-19, Dornsife is collecting new survey data from parents to deepen the survey’s focus on civic and racial topics. This grant supports the Dornsife Center’s survey research efforts, including the analysis and dissemination of results. (Strategy: K-12 Teaching and Learning)

USC’s Equity Research Institute (ERI) provides data and analysis to power social change. ERI produces research and facilitates discussions on issues of the economic, environmental, and social conditions facing low-income communities and immigrant populations — and the social movements that are working to change those conditions. ERI, in partnership with the Institute for Social Transformation at UC Santa Cruz, is working on a theory, narrative, and policy platform of “solidarity economics,” which addresses widening income inequality, rising economic insecurities, and growing social and racial fragmentation, while also promoting innovation and economic growth. It approaches this work in collaboration with social movement organizers and change-makers seeking to make solidarity economics a reality.

Recent research has suggested that reducing disparities in income may promote economic growth. A parallel set of research suggests that reducing environmental inequality related to race and income can improve environmental quality overall. Researchers at USC and UC Berkeley used Foundation funding in 2013 to gather the data for empirically testing this theory. In 2014, the team would complete this empirical work and produce a report for advocates and decision makers linking environmental inequality and environmental quality, particularly with respect to issues of climate change.