Local Community Gets Empowerment

USC’s College of social work teamed up with the Columbia housing Authority to help members of the community finds ways to make their community safer. Residents say some of their biggest concerns were the lack of area resources, updating and beautifying area playgrounds, and fixing broken street signs they say will help make the area a safer place to live. A more than 4 hundred thousand dollar grant will now make some of those items on their wish lists, realities. USC Assistant Professor, Dr. Ronald Pitner says they began phase one a few months ago, asking residents for their input. Tuesday night they entered into phase two, putting some of those suggestions into action. “there is a lot of moving parts to our project, but the spirit of it is very community focused.” The project is a 3 year plan that is slated for completion by 2013.