| West Tampa, located in a HUD-designated Enterprise Community (EC), is one of America's most economically distressed areas with high rates of poverty, joblessness, crime, and teenage pregnancy. For a variety of reasons, West Tampa has not benefited from the economic development that has characterized the rest of the EC. Contributing factors are a fragmentation of services, lack of collaboration among stakeholders, and physical isolation (it is cutoff from the rest of the EC by the Hillsborough River).
Under its Community Outreach Partnership Centers (COPC) New Directions grant, the Community Partnership Center at the University of Southern Florida (FCPC) is expanding outreach and technical assistance to the West Tampa neighborhood. Its highest priority is to help establish a broad-based community-driven organization--specifically a community development corporation (CDC)--that will coordinate services currently available to residents of the community. After the CDC is established, FCPC will help tackle the need for jobs, affordable housing, and improved educational outcomes for children.
This project links together schools, social service agencies, economic development agencies, churches, and businesses. It represents a comprehensive approach to facing community revitalization issues that is more extensive than any single program.
The FCPC is an integral part of the university's outreach activities, and in addition to HUD receives financial support from the state legislature, local governments, national and local foundations, and private donors.
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