Program: Multicultural Collaborative, Los Angeles, CA Contact(s): Gary Phillips, Organizer: (213) 748-2105 Purpose: To promote the elimination of intergroup strife, violence and bias through collaborative actions on policy and grassroots levels to achieve equity and social justice Background Program Operations Outcomes Background Following the 1992 civil unrest in Los Angeles, the Multicultural Collaborative (MCC) was created to develop long-term solutions to intense ethnic conflict. MCC is made up of a multi-ethnic cross-section of community-based services and advocacy organizations. Program Operations The Community Schools Initiative (CSI) is an MCC program designed to support local involvement in school reform. Held in partnership with the Watts/Century Latino Organization, California Tomorrow, Watts Labor Community Action Committee and the Achievement Council, CSI currently works in the Watts area to organize black and Latino parents and students around school reform with a focus on educational equity, restructuring and inter-ethnic relations. Another program of MCC's is the Action Research-Initiative (ARI), a quasi think-tank designed to be a nexus between research, public policy advocacy and constituency building. The ARI is composed of community organizers, policy advocates and academics. It is also a participant of the civil rights consortium, a federation of various community-based organizations that have worked together to produce commentaries, op-eds and fact sheets on various social issues. Outcomes and Significant Accomplishments The ARI publishes a newsletter, The Fulcrum, that covers many social issues dealing with race and ethnicity.