Mar/Apr 2002
Issue #122
Times aren’t easy for housing advocates. But a dose of perspective can be healing. The basics of community development have always included organizing and collaboration. And this work has gone on before, more often than not, with grudging and minimal federal support. At the low points, like now, we need more than ever to remember and reinforce our fundamental strategies and strengths – and the successes they bring. The articles in this issue remind us that, in the face of numerous challenges, community-based organizations are persevering, and that our deepest-held principles of community organizing and empowerment endure.
Running on Faith (Office of Faith-Based and Community Initiatives)
In the latter part of January 2001 the phrase “faith-based” seemed to be on everyone’s lips. The White House Office of Faith-Based and Community Initiatives (OFBCI) had just been unveiled, […]
Back to Basics
Times aren’t easy for housing advocates. The HUD budget, like so many other domestic programs, has been treated as expendable in favor of boosting the military. Despite proclamations from various […]
Organize! A media campaign on the value of affordable housing
Advocates for affordable housing and a high-powered public relations firm make an unlikely team, at first glance. But that’s exactly who teamed up over the past couple years to create […]
Using Special Events for Fundraising
Special events or fundraising benefits expand the reputation of an organization, provide participants an interesting time, and sometimes make money. Because of their variety and flexibility, special events are excellent […]
The New Urban Leaders (by Joyce Ladner)
The New Urban Leaders, by Joyce Ladner. Brookings Institution Press, Washington D.C., 2001. 135 pp. $22.95. Kent Amos was an IBM executive who, with his wife, raised at-risk foster children […]
Time for a Common Sense Policy on Homelessness
On any given day, at least 800,000 people are homeless in the United States, including about 200,000 children in homeless families. Over the course of an average year in the […]
LA Story – The Los Angeles Coalition that Made a $100 Million Housing Trust Fund Happen
January 2002 was not an auspicious time for launching expensive social initiatives in California’s largest city. Still reeling from September 11, Los Angeles faced a $200 million deficit. Mayor James […]
Building Blocks (Block Group Organizing)
Ralph Quinn was ticked off. Things in his Utica, New York neighborhood were getting intolerable. His high school step-daughter was propositioned seven times by local prostitutes while waiting for the […]