West Side Community Organization

The West Side Community Organization's founding in 1973 grew out of two grassroots, community-led

movements. One saw the community rally around Humboldt High School and save the campus from

closure. Meanwhile, the presence of a metal shredder on the riverfront sparked a successful neighborhood

campaign to shut down the shredder due to toxic emissions detrimental to residents' health.

Today, WSCO remains committed to those activist roots, using organizing and community economic

development principles as a foundation for our work on the West Side of St. Paul. We have been the West

Side's neighborhood organization and District Council for more than 40 years, walking in hand with

community – both residents and businesses. We work to increase civic participation by launching organizing

campaigns, offering leadership development opportunities for West Side residents, and by educating and

building a power base of residents from all backgrounds to tackle civic issues.

As the planning council for Saint Paul District 3, WSCO also acts as a vehicle to inform and shape issues

concerning the “built” environment through community economic development planning, organizing

resources to clean up urban blight and advocating for equitable development. Finally, the organization

promotes a healthy natural and social environment by promoting access to urban agriculture, and

residential energy efficiency, and organizing on issues of environmental justice.

WSCO's Equitable Development Scorecard—the project described in this proposal—is at the heart of our

mission: to work together in creating a vibrant and thriving neighborhood for all.