query: CDC and organizing examples

[colist-admin at comm-org.utoledo.edu]

[ed:  thanks to Jennifer, Lee and Kalima for the interesting responses to 
Mike's CDCs and organizing query.]

From: Jennifer.Hurley at phila.gov

The Philadelphia Unemployment Project/ Unemployment Information Center uses
a similar model, except that neither is a CDC.  PUP is a political advocacy
group [501(c)(4)] that organizes people around issues important to
unemployed and working poor people (in recent years issues have included
emergency mortgage assistance, welfare reform, bank mergers, and and health
insurance).  UIC provides services to people who are unemployed, including
assistance with unemployment payments and finding a new job.  PUP and UIC
share some staff and office spaces.  PUP also finds many of the people who
join in their actions through the services that UIC provides.

      *********************************************
      Jennifer Hurley
      Philadelphia, PA
      215-683-4613
      jennifer.hurley at phila.gov

*******************

From: Lee Winkelman <LeeW at jfjustice.org>

I can't let a query about CDCs and organizing go by without commenting.
There are a growing number of CDCs doing successful organizing.  In my
COMM-ORG paper, I cited some successful Massachusetts examples:  WATCH in
Waltham, Lawrence Planning NDC in Lawrence, Twin Cities CDC in Leominster,
and the Fenway CDC and Jamaica Plain NDC both in Boston.  In CDC organizing,
the membership vehicle takes different forms:  sometimes residents are
organized and take action as members of the CDC, other times as members of a
more or less autonomous CDC committee, and other times through a separate
neighborhood association.  How seperate that neighborhood association is
also varies:  in some cases the CDC starts and staffs the neighborhood
association, and it is dependant on the CDC for its continued existence; in
other cases, the neighborhood association would exist even without the CDC.

Should organizing groups start CDCs or spin them off as separate
organization?  There is no way to answer this question in the abstract.  It
is ridiculous to say that all organizing groups should become CDCs, but it
is equally ridiculous to say that in no cases should organizing groups
undertake housing development.  Each case must be examined on its own
merits, because each groups operates under different circumstances.  For
every organizing group that lost its way when it started doing housing
development, there is a case of an organizing group that spun off a CDC that
stopped being representative of and accountable to low income people in the
neighborhood.  In Massachusetts, there are two examples of organizing groups
that spun off CDCs.  In time, CDC staff and board members changed, and the
organizing groups ended up battling the CDCs that they felt was part of the
problem and not part of the solution.

The other side of the question is:  should existing CDCs do organizing?
Again, there is no blanket answer.  In neighborhoods where there already is
a group doing community organizing, then the CDC should support those groups
efforts.  In other neighborhoods, CDC organizing can lead to positive
results both for the CDC and the neighborhood.

The goal is shared by all who have participated in this ongoing discussion
in COMM-ORG:  how can needed neighborhood development efforts take place in
a way that supports and increases community organizing and is accountable to
neighborhood residents.  The challenges are difficult, as Randy's paper
indicates, and there is no simple formula about how to overcome those
challenges.

It will be interesting to see the results of the Ricanne Hadrian Initiative
for Community Organizing (RHICO) sponsored by the Massachusetts Association
of CDCs (full disclosure:  up to the beginning of this year, I was a staff
person for RHICO).  The association has provided funding, technical
assistance, and training to fifteen CDCs.  The three-year program comes to
an end in July (or at least the first phase of the program does.  They are
currently designing a phase II).  It will be interesting to see under what
circumstances CDCs were able to overcome the obstacles and do effective
organizing.

[ed:  I have been working with a much smaller project here in Toledo that 
began with three CDCs and finished with two, and through which we learned a 
number of important lessons that I hope to be writing publicly about soon.]

****************

From: Kalima Rose <krose at policylink.org>

Hi Mike,
I know that ACORN has been pursuing this idea, to teach CDCs community
organizing skills.  Steve Kest @ (718) 246-7900 is who I have heard is
leading the effort.

Here in Oakland, the East Bay Asian Local Development Corporation has done
more the model you're thinking of.  They  are excellent community
developers, and they partner with the community groups that help them do the
organizing to get development rights to prime properties here.  Lynette Lee
is the director there. 510) 287-5353  x596, ejunglee at ebaldc.com
	Center for Community Change's project in LA seems to have managed
both in the development of a jobs corridor.  Talk to Mary Ochs
ochsm at commchange.org

	Likewise with the 5th Ave. Committee in Brooklyn--they are community
developers who have taken up organizing to stop evictions and displacement
due to gentrification.  718.857.2990

Good luck.Kalima Rose, Senior Associate
PolicyLink; krose at policylink.org
101 Broadway, Oakland, CA 94607
ph: 510. 663-2333 x 305;  fx: 510. 587-1105