About

Two men rebuild their lives at USC Village development

By the numbers, USC Village is massive: 1.25 million square feet, 4,800 construction jobs, 1.7 million hours of labor.

Hundreds of those hours have been worked by two men. Both grew up in Los Angeles, got into trouble at an early age and then began a journey toward a better life working side by side on the biggest development in South Los Angeles history.

Read More →

USC Expands in a ‘Neglected’ Neighborhood, Promising Jobs and More

LOS ANGELES — When the University of Southern California’s campus extension opens in South Los Angeles on Thursday, it will not just welcome 2,700 new college students. It will also be an ambitious test of a public-private partnership hoping to remake a historically underserved neighborhood.

Read More →

LA Coliseum revamp

“We’ve had 1,765 people working on this project since we started on Jan. 2 of last year,” said Theodora Oyie, the company’s senior manager of community engagement. “Right now we have about to 500 workers each day out there and nearly all of them are subcontractors.”

Oyie said 70 percent of the workers her company hired are from Los Angeles County. Their wages range from $18 an hour for starting positions to $71 an hour and more for seasoned professionals.

Read More →

From the boots up: Local workers get help from Trojans

ke any career or trade, masonry has startup costs. Tools, boots, union initiation fees and dues can total more than $400 — no small sum for a worker like Marco Sanchez who’s just getting started. That’s where the Good Neighbors Campaign comes in.

“They helped me get going,” said Sanchez, a 27-year-old father who walks to work at USC Village. “I used to work at the airport, but I wanted to pursue a career with better pay and benefits.” 

In order to advance his career, several community partners joined forces to ensure that more community members get an opportunity to work at USC Village.

Read More →

USC promised millions in community benefits

Initially, hiring the required number of local workers mandated by the agreement proved challenging for USC. In late 2014, USC had fallen behind on its 30 percent local hiring requirement, so the university and general contractor decided to make changes.

Hathaway Dinwiddie, the general contractor on the project, also hired Theodora Oyie, a community outreach specialist, to bolster its efforts in late 2015. Oyie attacked the issue from several angles. She opened up lines of communication with unions and subcontractors. She held a fair where local trades could connect with the general contractor. She launched an industry standard tracking system to provide instantaneous data on local workers’ hours.rite a description for this tab and include information that will interest site visitors. For example if you are using tabs to show different services write about what makes this service unique. If you are using tabs to display restaurant items write about what makes a specific dish particularly worthwhile or delicious.

Read More →

Rose Bowl Renovation

"A Special congratulations and thaks to Theodora Oyie for her focus and diligence in executing the Plan for the RB12 work package (for the Rose Bowl Project)."

Read More →

Local residents find - and the path to a career

Those living within five miles of USC were moved to the front of the line as part of the local hiring initiative at the USC Village construction project. That meant Cooper, a pipe fitter who lives four miles away, would be getting some much-needed work.

Read More →

Contractor Builds School by Becoming Part of the Community

“The economy is challenging and being able to place so many residents is gratifying for us,” Project Outreach Coordinator Theodora Oyie said.  “We are very serious about LAUSD’s local hire initiative.”

Read More →