The west side of Salt Lake City is an exciting place –with rich and varied cultural communities– home to nine parks – two libraries –eight medical clinics – 48 religious congregations and many historic sites. More people need to understand these strengths.

     UNP has a presence in 17 different locations throughout the Rose Park, Glendale, Westpointe, Jordan Meadows, Poplar Grove, State Fairpark, and People’s Freeway neighborhoods. With a main office situated in the Glendale area, UNP also has space at the Northwest Multi-Purpose Center, and is connected to three different spaces at the Hartland Apartment Complex (an office for the center, an after-school Youth Center, and now a Head Start facility). In addition, UNP does partnership work at six different area schools and in six neighborhood parks. UNP has a utilized space along the North Temple corridor to hold a class on community redevelopment as well as using the offices at Salt Lake City’s Neighborhood Housing Services for leadership classes.

UNP office on 1060 S. 900 W.

Map of UNP in West Salt Lake

Did you know:

• 21% of Salt Lake City’s population are ethnic minorities and 39% of west Salt Lake residents are ethnic minorities?
• UNP serves a west Salt Lake population of over 50,000, half of whom speak a language other than English in their homes.
• The U of U has a population of 29,102 students, 3,101 faculty, and 12,639 staff.
• At the University of Utah, minorities make up less than 10% of enrolled students and 12% of the faulty.
• Since 2000, less than half of a percent of U of U students have been from west Salt Lake neighborhoods.
• Each year, only about 500 of Utah’s 33,000 high school graduates are ethnic minorities who are academically prepared for college.
• In 2006, the University of Utah graduated 91 of west Salt Lake residents. In 2007, the University of Utah graduated 117 west Salt Lake residents.
• Census estimates indicate the greatest growth of Salt Lake’s school age population and college-age population over the next 10 years in the coming years will come from minority youth.
• Diverse student populations have been shown to provide positive effects on both learning and democratic outcomes as a result of informal interaction among different racial and ethnic groups during the college years.
• Pro-active campus-community connections can help counter the potential fragmentation and social division challenges posed by Salt Lake City’s historic east-west divide

“The west side provides all sorts of socioeconomic, political, and immigration microcosms for study to further the education of students interested in building healthy communities.” Lisa Yoder, West side Resident