Rights. Resilience. Respect.

At USC, our work stems from the universal values of equality, justice, peace, and dignity for all human beings. To focus our efforts, we apply the principles of Rights, Resilience, and Respect to all our work. These values, explained here, are central to our work.

	Rights This work is straightforward but hardly easy. People need and deserve their full civil and political rights and freedoms. The challenge is to strengthen legislation to foster just, sustainable change. We work with local organizations overseas to ensure those rights are respected.
	Resilience Resilience is the capacity both to recover from crisis and to draw on the creativity needed to move forward. Resilient communities recover quickly after crises that aggravate already difficult situations. The challenge is to recognize existing strengths and build on them. The people we work with are active participants because they possess the knowledge needed to solve their own problems.
	Respect Respect for our global heritage helps us value the diverse experience we all contribute. Only then can we recognize common cause and work towards those goals as equals. The challenge is to develop partnerships based on mutual respect, power-sharing, and a common vision. The kind of development we envision holds that people are the agents of their own change.

Download a Graphic Representation of this framework.