GRANT AWARDED TO PITZER COLLEGE AND CLAREMONT GRADUATE 
UNIVERSITY WILL SUPPORT COMMUNITY REGENERATION PLAN OF  
ONTARIO GRASS-ROOTS ORGANIZATION


CLAREMONT, Calif. (Nov. 26, 2002) -- Claremont Graduate University (CGU) 
and Pitzer College have received a $350,000 grant from the Department of 
Housing and Urban Development (HUD) in support of the Ontario Community-
University Partnership (OCUP). The partnership is a grass-roots think tank that 
represents the culmination of years of collaboration between CGU and Pitzer and 
community representatives from Ontario. OCUP, formed two years ago by Marie 
Sandy, director of the Pitzer in Ontario Program and doctoral student in 
education at CGU, is comprised of representatives from a diverse group of 
community-based organizations, businesses, schools, city agencies, churches 
and residents. 
The HUD grant derives directly from the needs identified by the think tank during 
meetings this past year. "This grant would not have happened if not for the 
community members and residents who have been part of these meetings," 
explains Marie Sandy. The group has identified three areas in which to 
concentrate efforts for community redevelopment: education, health, and 
housing. The grant will allow CGU and Pitzer to provide resources to the grass-
roots community organization to address these areas through both research and 
outreach activities.
The project is designed to build the capacity of the partnership group to conduct 
outreach activities through enhancing its technological infrastructure and 
providing training in advocacy skills, grant writing, group facilitation and 
evaluation. The outreach activities will focus on creating more opportunities for 
current renters to become first-time homeowners through a financial literacy 
program; developing a promotoras de salud (health education) program along 
the model of a successful similar program in Montclair; and collaboration with the 
new International Trade Academy of Chaffey High School around preparing 
students to enter careers in Ontario's growing international trade and 
transportation sector.
While university resources will contribute to the redevelopment efforts in 
neighboring Ontario, the opportunity for Pitzer and CGU students who aspire to 
be future teachers and community leaders to participate in this project is an 
invaluable component of their training. Lourdes Arguelles, professor of education 
at CGU, explains, "I do not believe that teachers can be trained in the classroom 
only. In order to be a good teacher these days, you need to be able to walk the 
streets your students walk and you need to be able to know the assets of the 
community as well as its needs." Carol Brandt, vice president for international 
and special programs at Pitzer College, adds, "Projects like this utilize the 
culture, history, gifts, talents, and goals of both the university and the community 
to work in concert. Our students gain invaluable opportunities to link the 
classroom with the real world and develop the skills of engaged citizenship." 
The joint proposal from Claremont Graduate University and Pitzer was one of 
only two such partnership programs funded by HUD in the State of California and 
among 22 partnership projects nationwide to receive HUD funding. Marie Sandy, 
Professor Arguelles, and Pitzer Vice President Carol Brandt will travel to 
Washington, D.C. in early December to attend a conference for all HUD-
Community Outreach Partnership Center awardees.