Uncommon Good

Uncommon Good is a nonprofit community development organization established in 2000 that offers education, health, urban farming and environmental programs for low-income students and families in the Pomona Valley. Its Connect to College/CAUSA is a mentoring and educational enrichment program that has a 100% success rate getting its underprivileged students into college, breaking the intergenerational cycle of poverty. Its CAUSA urban farms give fair wage jobs to the parents of Uncommon Good students, provide locally grown, pesticide free produce to the low-income families in the program, and are a source of fresh local fruits and vegetables for the larger community whose purchases support Uncommon Good’s programs. The organization’s Medicine for the Economically Disadvantaged program gives educational loan repayment assistance to young health professionals throughout the Southland so that they can devote their careers to serving the poor. The program also has a medical career pipeline component that helps low-income students go to medical school. Uncommon Good’s office is the Whole Earth Building. It is a first-of-its-kind-in-the-world green building, built by hand by Uncommon Good families and hundreds of community volunteers, including artists, scientists and the local Tongva Tribe whose ancestors first settled the site 15,000 years ago. The building has received visitors from every continent who come to learn how to build attractive, comfortable, sustainable buildings that can withstand natural disasters.