Holding a press event is a tricky thing. It can generate great media coverage and public exposure, but you also run the risk of throwing a party where no one shows up.
If the key to your event is getting press to come, then you need to be able to get their interest and participation. That’s why I’ve jotted down the following tips to help you get the word out to the press in a way that will give you a high percentage shot at having them attend.
Media Alerts
Getting a television crew to your event requires some finesse, and the format of the pitch is different than that of a press release. A media alert is the appropriate tool which gives a TV producer or assignment desk editor all the information they need to decide on whether the event you’re holding is of interest to them. Write the media alert in five sections: Who, What, When, Where and Visuals.
■Who: Name your company and any key executives or dignitaries who might be in
attendance. Include only those who will be available to speak on camera.
■What: What is the announcement or the reason for the event? Include all material you consider news.
■When: Make certain to include the date and time of the event, and how long it will run. Also include the schedules of any on-camera spokespeople, and if they will be available before the event.
■Where: This is key. You need to include an address, directions, and a link for Google Maps or MapQuest if you can. Getting a reporter or a crew to an event can be won or lost in how well you direct them there. If security personnel will be at the event or venue, make sure they know the media might be coming.
■Visuals: TV is a visual medium, so make sure you have something for the cameras to shoot. Talking heads does not a press event make. Have demos, graphs, lots of people around, so they’ll have something other than an executive in a suit to shoot.
Communication
To get a television crew at your event, you should follow these instructions precisely, to ensure the highest level of communication possible without annoying the producers and assignment editors.
■First, send the media alert out two weeks prior to the event. Then, one week prior. Then send it to them each of the three days just before the event. The reason for this is that there are different desk editors on different days and different shifts, and they delete all their emails frequently to make room for new alerts.
■Two days before the event, call the assignment desks at all the TV stations you want to cover your event. Ask them if they received your alert – they’ll say no. That’s okay. If it doesn’t grab them right away, they’ll toss it. Send it again, and then call him back immediately afterward, and pitch your event. They’ll give you instructions on how to proceed, which will usually include them asking you to call the morning of the event. That’s okay – you’re going to do that anyway.
■Call on the morning of your event. By now, they know your event, and they know who you are. If your event is interesting enough for them, they’ll tell you. If your event is on a Saturday or Sunday, please be advised that most TV stations only have one crew on duty on the weekends. They’ll be stretched thin, so you reduce your chances for success with weekend events.
Use the right tools, making sure the producers and assignment desk editors are fully informed, but do it in a professional way so as not to drive them crazy, and you’ll have a much better shot at getting coverage for your event.
Marsha Friedman is a 20-year veteran of the public relations industry. She is the CEO of EMSI Public Relations, a national firm that provides PR strategy and publicity services to corporations, entertainers, authors and professional firms. She also hosts a national weekly radio talk show, The Family Round Table, and is author of the book, Celebritize Yourself.)
http://www.pnnonline.org/marsha-freidman-how-to-get-local-tv-to-cover-your-event
Tuesday, July 20, 2010
Tuesday, July 6, 2010
Businesses urged to rethink social role
Businesses urged to rethink social role
June 28, 2010
In an increasingly complex world, corporations need to change the way they do business by changing the way they address social problems, a new report says.
To compete in the global marketplace, it says, companies must develop integrated strategies to cope with big changes, including the growing shift in economic activity to Asia, rising stress on natural resources, social problems that are becoming more complex and widespread, and rising expectations that companies play a big role in addressing social issues.
Companies can prepare themselves to make greatest impact on social problems and their own bottom line through a strategy known as "sustainable value creation," says the report, prepared by the Committee Encouraging Corporate Philanthropy, based on research by McKinsey & Company.
That strategy consists of a "self-reinforcing state of trustworthy, pro-social corporate behavior that simultaneously delivers bottom-line results and community benefits," says the report, Shaping the Future: Solving Social Problems through Business Strategy.
"To bring about sustainable value creation in their firms," it says, "companies must challenge the tacit assumptions that underpin the functioning of their value chains, seeking to understand where social issues impede progress, and then work to engage others in ameliorating those issues for the good of business and society alike," the report says.
"Corporate involvement is required whenever the cost of inaction exceeds the cost of action," it says.
Companies should take a hard look at social issues on which they "lead and engage," the report says, and make sure those issues are "integral to the achievement of larger business goals."
A key question, it says, is whether working to address a particular social issue also will "help my firm creative a tangible competitive advantage."
Companies should pick social issues "that drive growth or reduce costs, all while demonstrably helping local communities and broader societies address their own development priorities," the report says.
The report suggests that people who mistrust business likely will criticize the proposed strategy of sustainable value creation as "corporate greed in sheep's clothing."
While the level of trust in business "is not wholly within the control of companies, the report says, the "integrity with which companies execute their strategies for sustainable value creation is of the utmost importance in earning public confidence."
Corporate and CEOs and thought leaders interviewed for the research that led to the report believe that "shaping the future through sustainable value creation is a mandate," the report says.
And developing those strategies demands new ways of business thinking, it says.
Leadership toward sustainable value creation "requires stepping outside typical business planning cycles and acknowledging the need for (and growth possibilities inherent in) new ways of thinking," it says. "It also entails embarking on new forms of collaboration."
Margaret Coady, director of the Committee Encouraging Corporate Philanthropy, says in a statement that, by moving beyond their traditional levels and models of corporate community involvement, "the zero-sum tension faced by corporate executives of increasing shareholder returns and doing the right thing for society can be dissolved."
http://philanthropyjournal.org/news/businesses-urged-rethink-social-role
June 28, 2010
In an increasingly complex world, corporations need to change the way they do business by changing the way they address social problems, a new report says.
To compete in the global marketplace, it says, companies must develop integrated strategies to cope with big changes, including the growing shift in economic activity to Asia, rising stress on natural resources, social problems that are becoming more complex and widespread, and rising expectations that companies play a big role in addressing social issues.
Companies can prepare themselves to make greatest impact on social problems and their own bottom line through a strategy known as "sustainable value creation," says the report, prepared by the Committee Encouraging Corporate Philanthropy, based on research by McKinsey & Company.
That strategy consists of a "self-reinforcing state of trustworthy, pro-social corporate behavior that simultaneously delivers bottom-line results and community benefits," says the report, Shaping the Future: Solving Social Problems through Business Strategy.
"To bring about sustainable value creation in their firms," it says, "companies must challenge the tacit assumptions that underpin the functioning of their value chains, seeking to understand where social issues impede progress, and then work to engage others in ameliorating those issues for the good of business and society alike," the report says.
"Corporate involvement is required whenever the cost of inaction exceeds the cost of action," it says.
Companies should take a hard look at social issues on which they "lead and engage," the report says, and make sure those issues are "integral to the achievement of larger business goals."
A key question, it says, is whether working to address a particular social issue also will "help my firm creative a tangible competitive advantage."
Companies should pick social issues "that drive growth or reduce costs, all while demonstrably helping local communities and broader societies address their own development priorities," the report says.
The report suggests that people who mistrust business likely will criticize the proposed strategy of sustainable value creation as "corporate greed in sheep's clothing."
While the level of trust in business "is not wholly within the control of companies, the report says, the "integrity with which companies execute their strategies for sustainable value creation is of the utmost importance in earning public confidence."
Corporate and CEOs and thought leaders interviewed for the research that led to the report believe that "shaping the future through sustainable value creation is a mandate," the report says.
And developing those strategies demands new ways of business thinking, it says.
Leadership toward sustainable value creation "requires stepping outside typical business planning cycles and acknowledging the need for (and growth possibilities inherent in) new ways of thinking," it says. "It also entails embarking on new forms of collaboration."
Margaret Coady, director of the Committee Encouraging Corporate Philanthropy, says in a statement that, by moving beyond their traditional levels and models of corporate community involvement, "the zero-sum tension faced by corporate executives of increasing shareholder returns and doing the right thing for society can be dissolved."
http://philanthropyjournal.org/news/businesses-urged-rethink-social-role
Monday, July 5, 2010
Building a fundraising board
Building a fundraising board
Keith Curtis | June 25, 2010
Will the board members of your nonprofit do anything but ask for money? When asked to make a donation themselves, do they point to their time as their gift?
For most nonprofits, the board of directors has two roles: governance, which involves making policy and stewarding finances; and support.
The support role is where boards sometimes fall short because, frankly, it's harder. Providing support, especially in this time of reduced government funding, requires that a board member be a participant, donor and fundraiser.
Your board is your link to the community, so it must lead your fundraising.
Here's a compelling reason why. A 2009 survey by Cygnus Applied Research found that 42 percent of respondents would give to a nonprofit they had not supported in the past if someone they knew asked them for a gift.
More than 80 percent of all U.S. charitable giving comes from individuals.
That's why the most successful boards are involved in planning, executing, and evaluating their nonprofit's development efforts.
They understand their organization's case for support and know how to make "the ask."
They identify, cultivate, and recruit potential donors and new board members.
They would never assume fundraising is a staff function.
And they give not only time but money. How can board members justify asking others to give if they haven't yet made a gift?
But effective boards don't just happen. Building them begins with the recruitment process, which must be strategic.
It's not just filling open positions. Being asked to serve on a nonprofit board should be considered an honor by the prospective member.
Once that's established, present the prospective member with a job description that spells out expectations. Be clear that every board member must support your events and make a gift.
If a prospective member isn't willing to give, don't ask her to serve.
Before a new member attends her first board meeting, orient her by reviewing your mission, programs, role of the board, role of the staff, financial picture, development program and fundraising plans. Offer a tour; introduce her to volunteers and staff leadership.
If a board member has little experience in fundraising, involve her slowly.
Arrange for board training and role-playing. Send a new member with an experienced one to make a gift call.
Untrained members making gift calls are likely to fail, and that's a disservice to the board member, the prospective donor, and the people served by your organization.
A board member sharing his or her story with a potential donor is one of the most effective ways to raise money.
Another 2009 survey, this one by our colleagues at the Indiana University Center on Philanthropy and Campbell & Company, found that donors asked to give in person by someone they knew gave 19 percent more than if asked another way.
Board members also can identify people who might be interested in your cause, engage attendees at your organization's events, make thank-you calls to donors and bring potential donors to cultivation events.
If your board members aren't willing to do all of the above, it might be time for this question: Why are they on your board?
Keith Curtis is a board member of Giving USA, board member of the Giving Institute, and president of the Hampton Roads Gift Planning Council. He is also president and CEO of The Curtis Group, a fundraising consulting firm based in Virginia.
Keith Curtis | June 25, 2010
Will the board members of your nonprofit do anything but ask for money? When asked to make a donation themselves, do they point to their time as their gift?
For most nonprofits, the board of directors has two roles: governance, which involves making policy and stewarding finances; and support.
The support role is where boards sometimes fall short because, frankly, it's harder. Providing support, especially in this time of reduced government funding, requires that a board member be a participant, donor and fundraiser.
Your board is your link to the community, so it must lead your fundraising.
Here's a compelling reason why. A 2009 survey by Cygnus Applied Research found that 42 percent of respondents would give to a nonprofit they had not supported in the past if someone they knew asked them for a gift.
More than 80 percent of all U.S. charitable giving comes from individuals.
That's why the most successful boards are involved in planning, executing, and evaluating their nonprofit's development efforts.
They understand their organization's case for support and know how to make "the ask."
They identify, cultivate, and recruit potential donors and new board members.
They would never assume fundraising is a staff function.
And they give not only time but money. How can board members justify asking others to give if they haven't yet made a gift?
But effective boards don't just happen. Building them begins with the recruitment process, which must be strategic.
It's not just filling open positions. Being asked to serve on a nonprofit board should be considered an honor by the prospective member.
Once that's established, present the prospective member with a job description that spells out expectations. Be clear that every board member must support your events and make a gift.
If a prospective member isn't willing to give, don't ask her to serve.
Before a new member attends her first board meeting, orient her by reviewing your mission, programs, role of the board, role of the staff, financial picture, development program and fundraising plans. Offer a tour; introduce her to volunteers and staff leadership.
If a board member has little experience in fundraising, involve her slowly.
Arrange for board training and role-playing. Send a new member with an experienced one to make a gift call.
Untrained members making gift calls are likely to fail, and that's a disservice to the board member, the prospective donor, and the people served by your organization.
A board member sharing his or her story with a potential donor is one of the most effective ways to raise money.
Another 2009 survey, this one by our colleagues at the Indiana University Center on Philanthropy and Campbell & Company, found that donors asked to give in person by someone they knew gave 19 percent more than if asked another way.
Board members also can identify people who might be interested in your cause, engage attendees at your organization's events, make thank-you calls to donors and bring potential donors to cultivation events.
If your board members aren't willing to do all of the above, it might be time for this question: Why are they on your board?
Keith Curtis is a board member of Giving USA, board member of the Giving Institute, and president of the Hampton Roads Gift Planning Council. He is also president and CEO of The Curtis Group, a fundraising consulting firm based in Virginia.
Monday, June 21, 2010
Is fostering fatherhood an effective means to promote rehabiltation?
Is fostering fatherhood an effective means to promote rehabilitation?
The question in the title of this post is inspited by this recent USA Today article, which is headlined "Prison dads learn meaning of 'father'" and which seems like a fitting post in honor of today's Hallmark holiday. Here is an excerpt:
More than 1.7 million children across the USA have a parent in U.S. prisons, according to the Bureau of Justice Statistics. T he number of children with a father in prison grew by 77% from 1991 through mid-2007. And those children are two to three more times likely to wind up behind bars themselves, says Christopher Wildeman, a University of Michigan sociologist who has studied the effects of imprisoned parents.
To try to snap that trend, Angola and other prisons across the country sponsor two programs aimed at reconnecting prison dads with their children: Returning Hearts, a day-long carnival-like celebration where inmates spend eight hours with their kids, and Malachi Dads, a year-long training session that uses Bible passages to help improve inmates' parenting skills.
Inmates must show good behavior to participate in the programs, Warden Burl Cain says. Once they feel reconnected to their family, their attitudes improve, he says. Around 2,500 inmates have participated in Returning Hearts since it began in 2005. Malachi, which started in 2007, currently has 119 men. "The ones who were problematic before are not problematic anymore," Cain says. "Prison didn't straighten them out; their kids straightened them out."...
Rehabilitating prisoners through better fathering is a growing movement, says Roland Warren, president of the National Fatherhood Initiative. InsideOut Dad, a program run by the initiative designed to connect inmates with their families, started in 2004 at a handful of facilities and has spread to more than 400 prisons and jails nationwide, he says. "This is a paradigm shift," Warren says. "People are saying we have to figure out a way to reduce recidivism. Connecting them to family and community is a key way to do that."
The question in the title of this post is inspited by this recent USA Today article, which is headlined "Prison dads learn meaning of 'father'" and which seems like a fitting post in honor of today's Hallmark holiday. Here is an excerpt:
More than 1.7 million children across the USA have a parent in U.S. prisons, according to the Bureau of Justice Statistics. T he number of children with a father in prison grew by 77% from 1991 through mid-2007. And those children are two to three more times likely to wind up behind bars themselves, says Christopher Wildeman, a University of Michigan sociologist who has studied the effects of imprisoned parents.
To try to snap that trend, Angola and other prisons across the country sponsor two programs aimed at reconnecting prison dads with their children: Returning Hearts, a day-long carnival-like celebration where inmates spend eight hours with their kids, and Malachi Dads, a year-long training session that uses Bible passages to help improve inmates' parenting skills.
Inmates must show good behavior to participate in the programs, Warden Burl Cain says. Once they feel reconnected to their family, their attitudes improve, he says. Around 2,500 inmates have participated in Returning Hearts since it began in 2005. Malachi, which started in 2007, currently has 119 men. "The ones who were problematic before are not problematic anymore," Cain says. "Prison didn't straighten them out; their kids straightened them out."...
Rehabilitating prisoners through better fathering is a growing movement, says Roland Warren, president of the National Fatherhood Initiative. InsideOut Dad, a program run by the initiative designed to connect inmates with their families, started in 2004 at a handful of facilities and has spread to more than 400 prisons and jails nationwide, he says. "This is a paradigm shift," Warren says. "People are saying we have to figure out a way to reduce recidivism. Connecting them to family and community is a key way to do that."
Wednesday, June 2, 2010
New NAACP report on "prison-based gerrymandering"
New NAACP report on "prison-based gerrymandering"
As detailed in this press release, this morning "the NAACP Legal Defense and Educational Fund (LDF) released Captive Constituents, a report on prison-based gerrymandering." Here is more from the press release:
As the report details, most states and local governments count incarcerated persons as residents of the prison communities where they are housed when drawing election district lines, even though they are not residents of those communities and have no opportunity to build meaningful ties there.
“This practice is known as ‘prison-based gerrymandering,’ and it distorts our democratic process by artificially inflating the population count—and thus, the political influence—of the districts where prisons and jails are located,” said John Payton, LDF Director-Counsel. “Everyone should care about this anti-democratic phenomenon because it distorts our political system.”
The United States Constitution requires that election districts must be roughly equal in size, so that everyone is represented equally in the political process. This requirement, known as the “one person, one vote” principle, is undermined by prison-based gerrymandering.
Prison-based gerrymandering results in stark racial disparities as well. African Americans are nearly 13% of the general population, but are 41.3% of the federal and state prison population. But incarcerated persons are often held in areas that are far removed, both geographically and demographically, from their home communities. Thus, prison-based gerrymandering not only weakens the political strength of communities of color, it is also eerily reminiscent of the infamous “three-fifths compromise,” which enabled Southern states to amplify their political power by counting enslaved and disfranchised African Americans as amongst their constituents.
“Because incarcerated persons in the United States are disproportionately African Americans and other people of color, the current counting of prisoners at their place of incarceration severely weakens the voting strength of entire communities of color,” said Payton.
The full (and brief and colorful) NAACP report is available at this link.
http://www.naacpldf.org/content/pdf/felon/captive_constituents.pdf
As detailed in this press release, this morning "the NAACP Legal Defense and Educational Fund (LDF) released Captive Constituents, a report on prison-based gerrymandering." Here is more from the press release:
As the report details, most states and local governments count incarcerated persons as residents of the prison communities where they are housed when drawing election district lines, even though they are not residents of those communities and have no opportunity to build meaningful ties there.
“This practice is known as ‘prison-based gerrymandering,’ and it distorts our democratic process by artificially inflating the population count—and thus, the political influence—of the districts where prisons and jails are located,” said John Payton, LDF Director-Counsel. “Everyone should care about this anti-democratic phenomenon because it distorts our political system.”
The United States Constitution requires that election districts must be roughly equal in size, so that everyone is represented equally in the political process. This requirement, known as the “one person, one vote” principle, is undermined by prison-based gerrymandering.
Prison-based gerrymandering results in stark racial disparities as well. African Americans are nearly 13% of the general population, but are 41.3% of the federal and state prison population. But incarcerated persons are often held in areas that are far removed, both geographically and demographically, from their home communities. Thus, prison-based gerrymandering not only weakens the political strength of communities of color, it is also eerily reminiscent of the infamous “three-fifths compromise,” which enabled Southern states to amplify their political power by counting enslaved and disfranchised African Americans as amongst their constituents.
“Because incarcerated persons in the United States are disproportionately African Americans and other people of color, the current counting of prisoners at their place of incarceration severely weakens the voting strength of entire communities of color,” said Payton.
The full (and brief and colorful) NAACP report is available at this link.
http://www.naacpldf.org/content/pdf/felon/captive_constituents.pdf
Tuesday, December 22, 2009
US Prison Population Faces First Drop Since 1972
DALLAS — The United States may soon see its prison population drop for the first time in almost four decades, a milestone in a nation that locks up more people than any other.
The inmate population has risen steadily since the early 1970s as states adopted get-tough policies that sent more people to prison and kept them there longer. But tight budgets now have states rethinking these policies and the costs that come with them.
"It's a reversal of a trend that's been going on for more than a generation," said David Greenberg, a sociology professor at New York University. "In some ways, it's overdue."
The U.S. prison population dropped steadily during most of the 1960s, and there were a few small dips in 1970 and 1972. But it has risen every year since, according to the Bureau of Justice Statistics.
About 739,000 prisoners were admitted to state and federal facilities last year, about 3,500 more than were released, according to new figures from the bureau. The 0.8 percent growth in the prison population is the smallest annual increase this decade and significantly less than the 6.5 percent average annual growth of the 1990s.
Overall, there were 1.6 million prisoners in state and federal prisons at the end of 2008.
In the past, prison populations have been lower when drafts were enacted, including during World War II and the wars in Korea and Vietnam.
"People who go to war are young men, and young men are the most likely to get arrested or prosecuted," said James Austin, president of the JFA Institute, a research organization that advises states on prison issues.
Story continues below
The ongoing wars in Iraq and Afghanistan haven't involved in a draft.
Instead, the economic crisis forced states to reconsider who they put behind bars and how long they kept them there, said Kim English, research director for the Colorado Division of Criminal Justice.
In Texas, parole rates were once among the lowest in the nation, with as few as 15 percent of inmates being granted release as recently as five years ago. Now, the parole rate is more than 30 percent after Texas began identifying low-risk candidates for parole.
In Mississippi, a truth-in-sentencing law required drug offenders to serve 85 percent of their sentences. That's been reduced to less than 25 percent.
California's budget problems are expected to result in the release of 37,000 inmates in the next two years. The state also is under a federal court order to shed 40,000 inmates because its prisons are so overcrowded that they are no longer constitutional, Austin said.
States also are looking at ways to keep people from ever entering prison. A nationwide system of drug courts takes first-time felony offenders caught with less than a gram of illegal drugs and sets up a monitoring team to help with case management and therapy.
Studies have touted significant savings with drug courts, saying they cost 10 percent to 30 percent less than it costs to send someone to prison.
"I don't think they work. I know so," said Judge John Creuzot, a state district judge in Dallas.
The reforms in many state prisons and courts come even as crime rates continue to drop nationwide.
"It's economically driven, but the science is there to support it," Austin said. "They are saving money, but not doing it in a way that jeopardizes public safety."
One exception to the trend is Florida, which has enacted a law requiring all convicts to serve a high percentage of their sentences. The law is straining the state's prison resources.
"They know that they are stuck in a time bomb they can't get out of," Austin said.
The inmate population has risen steadily since the early 1970s as states adopted get-tough policies that sent more people to prison and kept them there longer. But tight budgets now have states rethinking these policies and the costs that come with them.
"It's a reversal of a trend that's been going on for more than a generation," said David Greenberg, a sociology professor at New York University. "In some ways, it's overdue."
The U.S. prison population dropped steadily during most of the 1960s, and there were a few small dips in 1970 and 1972. But it has risen every year since, according to the Bureau of Justice Statistics.
About 739,000 prisoners were admitted to state and federal facilities last year, about 3,500 more than were released, according to new figures from the bureau. The 0.8 percent growth in the prison population is the smallest annual increase this decade and significantly less than the 6.5 percent average annual growth of the 1990s.
Overall, there were 1.6 million prisoners in state and federal prisons at the end of 2008.
In the past, prison populations have been lower when drafts were enacted, including during World War II and the wars in Korea and Vietnam.
"People who go to war are young men, and young men are the most likely to get arrested or prosecuted," said James Austin, president of the JFA Institute, a research organization that advises states on prison issues.
Story continues below
The ongoing wars in Iraq and Afghanistan haven't involved in a draft.
Instead, the economic crisis forced states to reconsider who they put behind bars and how long they kept them there, said Kim English, research director for the Colorado Division of Criminal Justice.
In Texas, parole rates were once among the lowest in the nation, with as few as 15 percent of inmates being granted release as recently as five years ago. Now, the parole rate is more than 30 percent after Texas began identifying low-risk candidates for parole.
In Mississippi, a truth-in-sentencing law required drug offenders to serve 85 percent of their sentences. That's been reduced to less than 25 percent.
California's budget problems are expected to result in the release of 37,000 inmates in the next two years. The state also is under a federal court order to shed 40,000 inmates because its prisons are so overcrowded that they are no longer constitutional, Austin said.
States also are looking at ways to keep people from ever entering prison. A nationwide system of drug courts takes first-time felony offenders caught with less than a gram of illegal drugs and sets up a monitoring team to help with case management and therapy.
Studies have touted significant savings with drug courts, saying they cost 10 percent to 30 percent less than it costs to send someone to prison.
"I don't think they work. I know so," said Judge John Creuzot, a state district judge in Dallas.
The reforms in many state prisons and courts come even as crime rates continue to drop nationwide.
"It's economically driven, but the science is there to support it," Austin said. "They are saving money, but not doing it in a way that jeopardizes public safety."
One exception to the trend is Florida, which has enacted a law requiring all convicts to serve a high percentage of their sentences. The law is straining the state's prison resources.
"They know that they are stuck in a time bomb they can't get out of," Austin said.
Tuesday, October 6, 2009
Wednesday, September 16, 2009
Friday, September 11, 2009
Dudley Street Neighborhood Initiative Creates an Urban Village
http://www.cpn.org/topics/community/dudly2.html
Case Study: Urban Village Vision Process Towards a Wholesome Community
Summer 1996
DSNI Mission
To empower Dudley residents to organize, plan for, create and control a vibrant, high quality and diverse neighborhood in collaboration with community partners.
Profile of the Urban Village
Boston
Population
12,018
24,068
574,282
Race/Ethnic CompositionWh : Bl : Hsp : C.Verde
7%-37%-29%-25%
59%-24%-11%-6%
Per Capita Income
7,634
8,631
15,581
Unemployment Rate
16.3%
8.3%
Households
3,513
7,584
228,466
Housing Units
4,040
8,680
250,365
Home Ownership
21%
22%
28%
Persons less than 18 years of age
36%
34%
19%
Vacant parcels
in 1984 1300
in 1996 1000
"Together, We'll Find the Way"
The Beginnings In 1984, Dudley residents came together to resist the patterns of abandonment and gentrification that had already pushed low income people out of the South End and the West End. Red-lining, disinvestment and arson fires combined to physically and spiritually devastate the community, the devastation symbolized by 1,300 vacant lots. We refused to accept these conditions. At DSNI's founding meeting, residents declared our intention to control community land and services for the benefit of the community.
The Vision - Our Urban Village Turning planning on its head, we created the vision for the neighborhood: the 1987 plan for an urban village. It laid out comprehensive strategies for the physical, economic and human development of a vibrant, diverse, empowered community where people could live, shop, work and play.
Our vision for an urban village built on the community's greatest asset - the rich diversity of cultures, talent and willpower of residents.
Dudley Village: A work-in-progress
Dudley village is work in progress. Early organizing victories against illegal dumping and trash transfer operations lead to hope that seemingly impossible barriers to progress could be removed. Hope replaced dispair. As we came together and started to develop a village spirit, more accomplishments followed:
The City of Boston's adoption of our plan as its redevelopment plan for the Dudley area.
Eminent domain authority to assemble parcels of vacant land for development.
Long-term control of land through a community land trust (Dudley Neighbors Inc.) to ensure neighborhood benefit and to prevent speculation.
Over 225 new affordable homes built according to criteria set by residents.
More than 300 units of housing rehabilitated.
Over 300 of the 1,300 vacant lots transformed into attractive homes, safe play spaces, gardens and community facilities.
The "Unity Through Diversity" mural, designed and painted by neighborhood youth.
Improved environmental safety from lead-contaminated soil, hazardous wastes and illegal dumping.
A DSNI Board of Directors elected by, representative of, and accountable to community residents.
A full youth summer camp program ran by "Bird Street Community Center" at Mary Hannon Park, and the park upgraded by the City.
The Multi-Cultural Festival in September, an annual community building event, sharing cultural pride and contributions through food, music and crafts.
Collaboratives of human service agencies and other organizations to achieve coordinated services responsive to residents' needs and priorities.
The opening of the Dudley Town Common at Dudley, Blue Hill and Hampden, serving as an elegant gateway to Dudley village.
A number of key features to the village are in the works:
Conversion of the old Dudley Mill Works building into youthbuild Boston's training headquarters and charter school, DSNI's new office, as well as commercial space.
The City of Boston's commitment to renovate the old vine Street Municipal Building (the Cape Verdean Community House) as a community center.
A Vision For the Future
Out of the rubble, Dudley residents have dreamt, fought and built. We have new housing, community gardens, play spaces, multicultural festivals, new neighbors and friends. We also have a new spirit of hope and possibility.
We are now taking the next steps in defining and realizing our urban village. It is time to take our vision to the next step based on what we have been able to accomplish. Our understanding of what we want and need has changed and grown as the neighborhood has changed and grown.
This report is about the steps we just took to update our shared vision. Over a period of eight months, we designed and carried out a community visioning process. Residents from throughout the neighborhood have met together in several groups to develop an updated and shared vision. Many of those in the earlier sessions came back; many long time residents participated for the first time; and many new neighbors joined in; participants and workers at some of the area's businesses and agencies also took part. Some spoke English; some spoke Spanish; some Cape Verdean Creole.
It was a fun and creative process. We challenged each other to think boldly, to push the limits on traditional barriers and expectations. We encouraged each other to dream and to treat those dreams as things that we can and will accomplish together. We envisioned a whole and wholesome community:
One which builds on and respects our rich cultural diversity and our sense of community values.
One in which we, the residents, have political and economic power.
One with a planned environment that is physically beautiful, environmentally sound, green and clean, affordable and safe for everyone.
A neighborhood based on a profound respect for lifelong learning.
One with a full range of recreational, educational and cultural activities.
One with safe, reliable, accessible and affordable transportation.
One where there are strong partnerships with public and private institutions that share our vision.
Please take a look at what follows - at all the ideas - big and small - that, together, will create the entirety of our village. discuss it with your neighbors. Add to it. Because this is a guide of our minimum expectations.
Perhaps the best way to describe what we think in a few words is in this poem:
You're What it Takes (To Make a Village)
by Paul Yelder
Some will claim It takes stores and shops Others believeWe need more bus stops
These are important That's for sure But You're what it takes For a Village to endure
Houses with yards Some will say Safe places where Our children can play
These are important Yes, indeed But You're what it takes For a Village to succeed
Mail-boxes, tot-lots Malls and park benches Clearing up vacant lots Eliminating foul stenches
These are important I will admit But You're what it takes For a Village to be legit
You're what it takes For a Village to be real Sharing with your neighbors A love you can feel
Yes, You're what it takes Both young and old You give us true worth More than silver, More than gold
Village Visioning
Groups met throughout the neighborhood. Using the type of scenarios that are on the next page, we dreamed about what we wanted in out future village, and shared these dreams within our groups. We drew, we talked, we wrote. We told stories. We recorded our best ideas on "post-its" and put them on the wall. Some of us took a field trip to other "Villages" and neighborhoods in the area. Some talked to friends and relatives about their vision. We added more of "hot ideas".
Then we grouped or clustered the ideas that came up with cluster names. We recorded everything publicly - so the entire group could see, discuss and make our changes together. We were weaving the fabric of our community to create something truly shared. We asked ourselves, if this is what we want, then what do we need? We tried to understand the relationship of the clusters to each other, and came up with some new insights.
Here are a few samples of the initial dreaming that we did:
Scenario:
Imagine . . . It is a pleasant Saturday morning in May. You are meeting a friend at the Dudley Town Common - the village gateway - for a leisurely stroll down Dudley Street.
Describe what you do, where you go for the next hour or so.
We talk and gaze at the beautiful flowers that the neighborhood planted. We sit at the Common and plan our time - what to do for the next two hours. We decide to go to the movies. Before that we go have an ice cream near the Commons in the ice cream parlor. We walk in the neighborhood stores, gaze around and buy nothing. We chat with other neighbors whom we meet along the way. We buy some popcorn in the neighborhood pop corn shop and watch the neighborhood kids swing, play ball and cheer them up. We could even go to visit the beautiful animals in the zoo close by your house
-Bahjah Zarinah Muhammed and Raheil Bernard
. . . For the most part, Dudley Street today is cleared of traffic. I notice the monorails soaring swiftly and silently overhead . . .
As I continue my trek to Dudley Common, I pass the Dudley shopping Mall which is really sort of a plaza. I see the parking area reserved for electric cars. Instead of gas stations, I see the service station designed for electric cars. Actually, all it is is a picturesque stone wall that is fitted with electrical outlets for customers to recharge their cars while shopping, if necessary. . .
-Warren Brown
I see shop owners sweeping the front of their stores. The street cleaners and cleaning trucks are sweeping and washing the streets. What a time we had with the City getting the contracts so that these residents could have these much deserved jobs with the right pay and benefits.
Out Bed and Breakfast place is always open. However, it's usually full. What a perfect spot for it in the middle of the village. . . .They can walk to the commuter rail if they want to connect to anywhere else in the state. Thank God that it was remodeled and we have that beautiful parking lot. So many of my neighbors own and operate everything in our community.
Well, we're still learning. There's a Board of Trade meeting at 7PM. We're looking over our guidelines and procedures for our new Resident Banking and Lending institution...
- JacQuie Cairo-Williams
Village Visioning
After all the small group meetings, a core team took the reports from all the sessions and put them together. We clustered the clusters and came up with the theme areas listed below.
This was a truly amazing process that allowed us to consider hundreds of ideas.
Themes From Visioning
Out of the many dreams, stories, and images of out future that emerged from these vision groups, these were the themes or goals that seemed to organize our ideas:
Encourage lifelong learning
Build and sustain unity through neighborhood activity
Community economic power
Physical and visual quality of life
Harmony with nature
Community security
Community friendly transportation
Self and group expression
Political power
Mutually supportive relationships
Within each theme, we listed "standards" - that capture values or principles that will ensure maximum community benefit - and "actions" - the concrete activities that will help us meet our goals. The ultimate "standard" by which every activity will be judged is that it must benefit the community.
Encourage Lifelong Learning
What is our community's "competitive advantage" in these tough times? One advantage that will allow us to succeed is that we value learning on every level - for young and old, in and out of school. We want the information, knowledge, and skills to control our destiny.
Standards
Actions
Family, community and personal values
Community information center: organizers and speakers with information
Respecting what's healthy for the neighborhood
Parent involvement - paid release time form work
Superior public schools
Kids and adults playing together from all cultures
Maximum inclusive access to school information and participation
Opportunities and safe place to play
Value all learning styles
Community schools - open non-school hours
Less theft, more respect for property
Families and kids going to Sunday school and church
Community (including youth) evaluation of schools
Earning and learning program
Adults going to school
Job training programs
"This is the first time that anyone has asked my opinion about anything of importance." -- Vision Pilot Group Participant
Build and Sustain Unity Through Neighborhood Activity
Our village is a culturally vibrant, active, people-centered, mutually supportive community with a sense of "can-do" optimism. We want play spaces, community gatherings, and a full range of neighborhood services, activities and activism.
Standards
Actions
Be inclusive
Community centers
Learn from our elders
Schedule for park activities
Productive meetings
Playgrounds
Build people/Build community
Integrational activities
Everybody work together across diversity
Seats and benches for elders
Take care of each other
Block parties
Intergenerational interaction
Bike paths
Encourage participation
Community meetings to inform the community
Everyone has a role
Foster grandparent program
Celebration of victories
Organized youth program
Highlight what we have
Monthly contributions to the emergency fund
Neighborly feelings
Build neighborhood associations
Encourage the "successful" to stay and come back
Local nursing homes
Communication among residents
Local medical clinic
Interfaith cooperation
Rehabilitation center for addicts
Resident-centered service delivery system
Swimming
"We lived here in the 70's, but we moved out. Now, we're back because the children want to be close to our family. It's so exciting to be here and see all the wonderful things that are happening." --Cape Verdean Creole vision group
Community Economic Power
We don't just want more jobs and businesses; we want ones that build the economic power of community residents. Our future village is a place where we can shop, eat, play, bank - right here. Our unique multicultural richness also attracts visitors.
Standards
Actions
Support local businesses
Technology to set up job bank
Businesses giving back to the community
Friendly banking and ATM
Resident priority in local jobs
Multicultural food court
Jobs for residents - people going to work
Ice cream parlor
Resident-owned business
Open air market
Convenient local shopping
Movie theater
Tourist attraction
Pharmacy
Chain stores, only if they give back to the community
Dry cleaners
Laundromat
No liquor stores
Bookstore/international magazines
Cultural clothing stores
Bakery
Outdoor cafe
"Once we all get together and stay together, we can do anything." --Jessie Farrier
Physical and Visual Quality of Life
Dudley Village is a planned physical community - one that is high quality, affordable, resource efficient and well-cared for.
Standards
Actions
Residents plan for a total physical environment
Store, residents, city sweep streets
Our fair share of city resources and services
Build and renovate more affordable housing
Environmentally sound housing (resource efficient)
Reception (function) hall
More affordable housing
Parks for kids
Fix up sand box at Mary Hannon Park
Nice bus stops
Mail boxes
Lights
Only NYNEX pay phones
Better looking St. Patrick's Church
Streets plowed in winter
Spray pools (fountains)
More public trash cans
Street improvements
Parking lots
"I looked out my window last night and said, 'Oh what a beautiful light' and realized that it was the Dudley town common. It used to be so dark." --Jessie Farrier
Harmony with Nature
Our community is clean and green, and reflects our respect for our surroundings.
Standards
Actions
Seeing ourselves as extensions of the earth
Clean streets
Enforce laws that apply to a clean community
Signs to keep community clean
Able to sit anywhere and feel comfortable
Rubbish receptacles emptied
No more graffiti
Energy efficient housing
Plan and maintain open space
Adopt a tree
Botanical gardens maintained by city
Plants (not fences)
Fruit trees
Tree-lined streets
Statues of M.L. King, Cabral and Mariana Bracetti
Water fountains
Apple trees
"This is OUR place! That's why we all take care of it." -- the original play "A Village Grows in Dudley"
Community Security
A truly safe and secure community will be an outgrowth of successful realization of out entire vision. Two of the foundations are, a village spirit of watching out for each other, and the establishment of this as a neighborhood where negative activity will not be tolerated. Villager and police must each do our part.
Standards
Actions
Safe community
Foot patrols
Rapid police response time
More involvement in reporting crime
Respect, communications between community and police
No drugs
Police do their job
Resident committee to watch over parks and public spaces
Able to leave car doors/ windows open
Seat belts on school buses
Positive activity replace negative activity
Supervision on school buses
Signs that appeal to people's conscience
Lights
"There's no better place to live. We don't need to be ashamed of living here. Our friends, family, children and older people all are here" --Jose Barros
Community Friendly Transportation
Dudley village is children and pedestrian friendly. Residents can move safely and conveniently within the neighborhood, as well as to other areas of the city.
Standards
Actions
Community voice on transportation issues
Better driver training
More affordable transportation
One fare/bus transfers
Reduce/restrict traffic
No potholes/smooth running traffic
Pedestrian friendly
Free shuttle bus to South Bay (from Uphams Corner & Dudley Station)
Reliable public transportation (buses and trains)
Dudley owned private transportation system
Good air quality
More school bus stops
Environmentally friendly vehicles
Train and bus shelters
Trash cans at all bus stops
Electric cars and buses
"We won't get all the things we want if we (e.g. Blue Hill Avenue) become just a thoroughfare for commuters" --Mt. Pleasant vision group
Self and Group Expression
The nourishing of the human spirit - on an individual, ethnic group and on a community level - is a critical part of a wholesome neighborhood.
Standards
Actions
Create a unique sense of place
Arts
More opportunities for public expression
Murals
Unity through diversity - promote community cultural pride
Dancing/Music
Concerts on the Dudley Town Common
Street Theater
Live music in restaurants
Cultural opportunities for youth
Museum
"Everybody is dreaming for a better community" --Cape Verdean Creole vision group
Political Power
In order for our voice to be heard, we need to register to vote, vote, be informed and advocate for ourselves.
Standards
Actions
Be able to determine our own destiny - Vote!
Educate people about why Register to vote
Resident power!
Advocate for resources
Inform people about elections
Community phone to inform policy makers
Groom local people to run for office
"We've never been shy to dream and never so faithless as to not take risks." --Clayton Turnbull
Mutually Supportive Relationships
We can't do it alone. It is through cooperation that we come to understand that anything is possible.
Standards
Actions
Cooperation with other communities
Government and residents working together
Leverage for neighborhood groups
Institutional support
$ (money)
Use media - get message out; fight stereotypes
"You know what's best? We ALL had a chance to help plan this village. That's why it works.That's why people of all ages and ethnic backgrounds feel like this is really OUR place!" --the original play, "A Village Grows in Dudley"
Next Steps
Building on our tremendous accomplishments, we have updated our shared community vision. We have dared to dream, and to believe that we can define our village, and have power over out destiny. We will continually lift the ceiling on our sense of possibility
This vision will provide the framework for the DSNI staff and committee work. We will now work to translate vision into reality. We will look for the resources, work with partners and implement a strategic plan to achieve our goals.
Along the way, there will continue to be many remarkable things - big and small - happening in Dudley Village. Some will be very visible, like new businesses, gardens, lights, new families moving in, tot lots, and, who knows, maybe even a greenhouse.
Others will be less visible, but no less striking - like a safer neighborhood with a positive community spirit, even greater participation in our community decision making process, and every eligible Dudley resident will be registered to vote!
If we all stand and work together, we will achieve our vision!
More Information
Gertrudes Fidalgo or May LouieDSNI617-442-9670
Case Study: Holding Ground: The Rebirth of Dudley Street
The award winning documentary about community vision, struggle, and change.Produced by Leah Mahan and Mark Lipman.
Holding Ground is at once a cautionary tale of urban policies gone wrong and a message of hope for all American cities. Through the voices of committed residents, activists and city officials, this one-hour documentary shows how a Boston neighborhood was able to create and carry out its own agenda for change.
SynopsisIntroductionThis section traces the decline of the Dudley Street neighborhood in the 1960s and 1970s due to disinvestment and arson. Some 1,300 vacant lots in the area become Boston's dumping ground.
From the AshesIn 1985, angered by a neighborhood revitalization effort initiated without their participation, residents take charge of a community meeting. They create the Dudley Street Neighborhood Initiative.
Don't Dump on UsTo create a sense of community power, DSNI's first campaign forces the city to clear vacant lots of appliances, rotting food, and abandoned cars and to close two illegal dumps.
Turning the TablesMore than 200 residents create a comprehensive plan to revitalize their neighborhood. The city adopts the plan as its official plan for the area.
Take a Stand, Own the LandFor development purposes, DSNI asks the city for eminent domain authority over privately held vacant land in its area. In 1988, it becomes the first grassroots group in the country to have this power.
Not Just Bricks and MortarThis segment depicts the broader social aspects of DSNI. The Young Architects Program provides youth with basic architectural skills that they use in building models for two planned community centers. DSNI also takes on a serious drug problem at the only park in the neighborhood.
Breaking GroundDespite a lack of local bank and developer investment, DSNI breaks ground on new housing in 1993. Later, a ribbon-cutting ceremony celebrates the completion of the first 6 of 300 homes. Homebuyer classes prepare residents to get mortgages, which usually have been denied in the past.
New VoicesShortly after the completion of the first new homes, drug dealers move back into the park. At a winter vigil in the park, a teenager encourages all teens to become involved with DSNI. Young people take leadership in the multicultural festivals and together create a mural. The program ends as the community elects new DSNI board members, including neighborhood youth.
Holding Ground on Public Television Holding Ground is coming to public television in May 1997!
Holding Ground offers compelling viewing to people of all ages who are interested in the revitalization of America's cities. It will be of particular interest to:
Architects and urban planners
Bankers
Community development organizations
Environmental Organizations
Foundations
Government officials
Human service providers
Labor organizations
Police and corrections officials
Public health officials
Religious organizations
Youth organizations It will be a welcome addition to high school, college, and university courses in:
Anthropology
Architecture
Community Organizing
Criminal Justice
Environment
Film Studies
Government
Multiculturalism
Political Science
Public Health
Race Relations
Social Change
Social Policy
Social Work
Sociology
Urban Planning and Urban Studies
Tuesday, July 14, 2009
Why the Poor Stay Poor
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/03/08/books/review/Ford-t.html?scp=92&sq=&st=nyt
By RICHARD THOMPSON FORD
Published: March 6, 2009
When the nation’s first black president took the oath of office, surrounded by the grandeur of the National Mall, it was easy to forget that one of the country’s most isolated and impoverished black ghettos was a few short blocks away. The poverty, violence and hopelessness in America’s inner cities have become increasingly dire in the four decades since the height of the civil rights movement. But as Barack Obama’s victory suggests, racial prejudice is less severe today than ever before. Why haven’t the problems of the ghettos improved along with race relations generally?
MORE THAN JUST RACE
Being Black and Poor in the Inner City
By William Julius Wilson
190 pp. W. W. Norton & Company. $24.95
Conservatives have a ready answer. Racism is not the problem; instead, a pervasive culture of instant gratification, violence and loose morals — think gangsta rap — keeps poor blacks from enjoying the American dream, not white racists. Liberals have a more charitable, but unfortunately more obscure, rejoinder. Poor blacks today suffer from covert racism, unconscious racism, institutional racism, environmental racism and a host of other theoretically abstruse “racisms” that don’t involve cross-burning white supremacists or crude Archie Bunker-style bigots — and may not even involve racial animus or discrimination. Each side has little patience for the claims of the other. Conservatives reject the idea of structural and institutional racism as an intellectual’s way of playing the race card. Liberals attack any emphasis on the dysfunctional culture of the poor as “blaming the victim.”
In “More Than Just Race,” the Harvard sociologist William Julius Wilson recaps his own important research over the past 20 years as well as some of the best urban sociology of his peers to make a convincing case that both institutional and systemic impediments and cultural deficiencies keep poor blacks from escaping poverty and the ghetto.
The systemic impediments include both the legacy of racism and dramatic economic changes that have fallen with disproportionate severity on poor blacks. State-enforced racial discrimination created the ghetto: in the early 20th century local governments separated the races into segregated neighborhoods by force of law, and later, whites used private agreements and violent intimidation to keep blacks out of white neighborhoods. Worst, and most surprising of all, the federal government played a major role in encouraging the racism of private actors and state governments. Until the 1960s, federal housing agencies engaged in racial redlining, refusing to guarantee mortgages in inner-city neighborhoods; private lenders quickly followed suit.
Meanwhile, economic and demographic changes that had nothing to do with race aggravated the problems of the ghetto. Encouraged by recently built highways and inexpensive real estate, middle-class residents and industry left the inner city to relocate to roomier and less costly digs in the suburbs during the ’60s and ’70s. Those jobs that remained available to urban blacks further dwindled as companies replaced well-paid and unionized American workers with automation and cheaper overseas labor. The new economy produced most of its jobs at the two poles of the wage scale: high-paying jobs for the well educated and acculturated (lawyers, bankers, management consultants) and low-paying jobs for those with little education or skills (fast food, telemarketing, janitorial services).
And, as Wilson argued in an earlier book, “The Declining Significance of Race,”the success of the civil rights movement inadvertently made things worse for the most disadvantaged. After federal law prohibited housing discrimination, successful blacks began to leave the inner city for many of the same reasons whites did: in search of better schools, less crime, lower taxes and a leafier landscape. This left the least well off behind in ghettos that were both more socially isolated and more economically depressed than ever.
Today many ghetto residents have almost no contact with mainstream American society or the normal job market. As a result, they have developed distinctive and often dysfunctional social norms. The work ethic, investment in the future and deferred gratification make no sense in an environment in which legitimate employment at a living wage is impossible to find and crime is an everyday hazard (and temptation). Men, unable to support their families, abandon them; women become resigned to single motherhood; children suffer from broken homes and from the bad examples set by both peers and adults. And this dysfunctional behavior reinforces negative racial stereotypes, making it all the harder for poor blacks to find decent jobs.
Wilson criticizes the liberals and black power activists who attacked as racist Daniel Patrick Moynihan’s prescient report “The Negro Family: The Case for National Action” (1965). According to Wilson, the vitriolic condemnation of the Moynihan Report effectively closed off a serious academic focus on the culture of poverty for decades, robbing policy makers of a complete and nuanced account of the causes of ghetto poverty. But he argues that the legacy of racism and changes in the economy matter more than the dysfunctional culture of the ghetto. And he rejects the argument that the black poor are responsible for their predicament, insisting that an aggressive public policy response is necessary to break the cycle of poverty.
“More Than Just Race” is somewhat ponderous and academic in style; too often the book details an important and fascinating question only to end inconclusively, with a call for “further research.” But this is more than made up for by its considerable substantive virtues: it is straightforward, accessible and sensible, free of the ideological cant and posturing that often mar even serious academic studies of racial issues.
At heart, Wilson is a Great Society liberal, so it’s easy to understand why conservatives might resist his analysis. But his suggestion that racism is less to blame for black poverty than are race-neutral changes in the labor market and his attempt to rehabilitate the study of the culture of poverty have made him a controversial figure in liberal academic and civil rights circles. As Wilson notes, some on the left reject any cultural explanation of black poverty — even one as sympathetic as that in the Moynihan Report or Wilson’s own — as blaming the victim. And the accusation of racism turns heads and grabs headlines, whereas Wilson’s complex and multifaceted investigation requires a book-length exposition.
Moreover, racism, unlike a complicated web of economic, demographic and cultural forces, triggers a legal response: instead of persuading recalcitrant legislators and voters to support policy reform, liberals can simply insist that the black poor, as victims of race discrimination, have a right to redress that courts must enforce, regardless of popular opposition. But the law’s arm is not long enough to reach bigotry that occurred in the past, nor can it get a grip on the economic and demographic changes that have hollowed out America’s inner cities. The urban poor need remedies that judges cannot order: public and private investment to create jobs that pay a living wage, training to help them learn new skills and understand the job market, and most of all a chance to move into racially and economically integrated neighborhoods where there are better opportunities and healthier cultural norms. Wilson’s levelheaded, thorough and unemotional analysis should help such badly needed policies prevail in the court of public opinion.
Wilson says the legacy of racism and changes in the economy matter more than the culture of the ghetto.
Richard Thompson Ford is a professor of law at Stanford University. His book “The Race Card: How Bluffing About Bias Makes Race Relations Worse” is being published in paperback this month.
By RICHARD THOMPSON FORD
Published: March 6, 2009
When the nation’s first black president took the oath of office, surrounded by the grandeur of the National Mall, it was easy to forget that one of the country’s most isolated and impoverished black ghettos was a few short blocks away. The poverty, violence and hopelessness in America’s inner cities have become increasingly dire in the four decades since the height of the civil rights movement. But as Barack Obama’s victory suggests, racial prejudice is less severe today than ever before. Why haven’t the problems of the ghettos improved along with race relations generally?
MORE THAN JUST RACE
Being Black and Poor in the Inner City
By William Julius Wilson
190 pp. W. W. Norton & Company. $24.95
Conservatives have a ready answer. Racism is not the problem; instead, a pervasive culture of instant gratification, violence and loose morals — think gangsta rap — keeps poor blacks from enjoying the American dream, not white racists. Liberals have a more charitable, but unfortunately more obscure, rejoinder. Poor blacks today suffer from covert racism, unconscious racism, institutional racism, environmental racism and a host of other theoretically abstruse “racisms” that don’t involve cross-burning white supremacists or crude Archie Bunker-style bigots — and may not even involve racial animus or discrimination. Each side has little patience for the claims of the other. Conservatives reject the idea of structural and institutional racism as an intellectual’s way of playing the race card. Liberals attack any emphasis on the dysfunctional culture of the poor as “blaming the victim.”
In “More Than Just Race,” the Harvard sociologist William Julius Wilson recaps his own important research over the past 20 years as well as some of the best urban sociology of his peers to make a convincing case that both institutional and systemic impediments and cultural deficiencies keep poor blacks from escaping poverty and the ghetto.
The systemic impediments include both the legacy of racism and dramatic economic changes that have fallen with disproportionate severity on poor blacks. State-enforced racial discrimination created the ghetto: in the early 20th century local governments separated the races into segregated neighborhoods by force of law, and later, whites used private agreements and violent intimidation to keep blacks out of white neighborhoods. Worst, and most surprising of all, the federal government played a major role in encouraging the racism of private actors and state governments. Until the 1960s, federal housing agencies engaged in racial redlining, refusing to guarantee mortgages in inner-city neighborhoods; private lenders quickly followed suit.
Meanwhile, economic and demographic changes that had nothing to do with race aggravated the problems of the ghetto. Encouraged by recently built highways and inexpensive real estate, middle-class residents and industry left the inner city to relocate to roomier and less costly digs in the suburbs during the ’60s and ’70s. Those jobs that remained available to urban blacks further dwindled as companies replaced well-paid and unionized American workers with automation and cheaper overseas labor. The new economy produced most of its jobs at the two poles of the wage scale: high-paying jobs for the well educated and acculturated (lawyers, bankers, management consultants) and low-paying jobs for those with little education or skills (fast food, telemarketing, janitorial services).
And, as Wilson argued in an earlier book, “The Declining Significance of Race,”the success of the civil rights movement inadvertently made things worse for the most disadvantaged. After federal law prohibited housing discrimination, successful blacks began to leave the inner city for many of the same reasons whites did: in search of better schools, less crime, lower taxes and a leafier landscape. This left the least well off behind in ghettos that were both more socially isolated and more economically depressed than ever.
Today many ghetto residents have almost no contact with mainstream American society or the normal job market. As a result, they have developed distinctive and often dysfunctional social norms. The work ethic, investment in the future and deferred gratification make no sense in an environment in which legitimate employment at a living wage is impossible to find and crime is an everyday hazard (and temptation). Men, unable to support their families, abandon them; women become resigned to single motherhood; children suffer from broken homes and from the bad examples set by both peers and adults. And this dysfunctional behavior reinforces negative racial stereotypes, making it all the harder for poor blacks to find decent jobs.
Wilson criticizes the liberals and black power activists who attacked as racist Daniel Patrick Moynihan’s prescient report “The Negro Family: The Case for National Action” (1965). According to Wilson, the vitriolic condemnation of the Moynihan Report effectively closed off a serious academic focus on the culture of poverty for decades, robbing policy makers of a complete and nuanced account of the causes of ghetto poverty. But he argues that the legacy of racism and changes in the economy matter more than the dysfunctional culture of the ghetto. And he rejects the argument that the black poor are responsible for their predicament, insisting that an aggressive public policy response is necessary to break the cycle of poverty.
“More Than Just Race” is somewhat ponderous and academic in style; too often the book details an important and fascinating question only to end inconclusively, with a call for “further research.” But this is more than made up for by its considerable substantive virtues: it is straightforward, accessible and sensible, free of the ideological cant and posturing that often mar even serious academic studies of racial issues.
At heart, Wilson is a Great Society liberal, so it’s easy to understand why conservatives might resist his analysis. But his suggestion that racism is less to blame for black poverty than are race-neutral changes in the labor market and his attempt to rehabilitate the study of the culture of poverty have made him a controversial figure in liberal academic and civil rights circles. As Wilson notes, some on the left reject any cultural explanation of black poverty — even one as sympathetic as that in the Moynihan Report or Wilson’s own — as blaming the victim. And the accusation of racism turns heads and grabs headlines, whereas Wilson’s complex and multifaceted investigation requires a book-length exposition.
Moreover, racism, unlike a complicated web of economic, demographic and cultural forces, triggers a legal response: instead of persuading recalcitrant legislators and voters to support policy reform, liberals can simply insist that the black poor, as victims of race discrimination, have a right to redress that courts must enforce, regardless of popular opposition. But the law’s arm is not long enough to reach bigotry that occurred in the past, nor can it get a grip on the economic and demographic changes that have hollowed out America’s inner cities. The urban poor need remedies that judges cannot order: public and private investment to create jobs that pay a living wage, training to help them learn new skills and understand the job market, and most of all a chance to move into racially and economically integrated neighborhoods where there are better opportunities and healthier cultural norms. Wilson’s levelheaded, thorough and unemotional analysis should help such badly needed policies prevail in the court of public opinion.
Wilson says the legacy of racism and changes in the economy matter more than the culture of the ghetto.
Richard Thompson Ford is a professor of law at Stanford University. His book “The Race Card: How Bluffing About Bias Makes Race Relations Worse” is being published in paperback this month.
Monday, June 22, 2009
The Prisoners' Professor
http://buzz.yahoo.com/article/1:huffington_post:86...
Richard Shelton's first interest in a prisoner's poetry was born from curiosity rather than charity. In 1970, a convicted murderer named Charles Schmid--on death row at the Arizona State Prison in Florence--wrote Shelton and asked him to critique his work. Shelton, then a professor at the University of Arizona, accepted. He has since admitted that he did so "for all the wrong reasons...I was fascinated because he was a monster."
Shelton may not be proud of their first contact, but his relationship with Schmid led him to discover a life-changing project, when, four years into their relationship, the inmate convinced him to start a poetry workshop for prisoners. It's a workshop that Shelton has been teaching to this day.
A prison may seem like an odd place to find students of poetry, but in an environment where many are looking for a new sense of purpose, the art can have a remarkable impact. Last year, PBS's The News Hour With Jim Lehrer ran a feature on one of Shelton's workshops, and the prisoners spoke of the purpose that writing poetry had given their lives. Jaime Omar Meza, a thirty-year-old who has been in prison since age 17, related that "for the first time, I know what I want to do with myself." Another inmate, Andrew Jaiks, perhaps put it best:
"It's not a matter of giving something to the convicts. It's a matter of opening up people's lives so that they do have an avenue for understanding compassion, through the things that we read and hearing other people read, and learning how to take criticism, and have that be for some other reason than just to degrade you."
Shelton put it another way: "If you can learn to use language honestly, then you can apply it to yourself honestly, and I think you can see yourself in a different light." While it doesn't always work, poetry has helped many of Shelton's students find more meaning in life. Some, like Ken Lamberton and Jimmy Santiago Baca (both now out of prison), have even found success as writers.
Shelton recently published a memoir of his experiences called Crossing the Yard : Thirty Years as a Prison Volunteer. The book describes how, in addition to the successes, there have been some difficult, and even dangerous, times. As you can see in this excerpt, the danger didn't always originate from the prisoners:
When I crossed the main yard that night, it was deserted. Chow was long since over, and the men were either in their cells or in classrooms in the education yard. I got to the iron door and yelled "Guard!" as I always did. The little basket came down as it always did, and I reached into it to get the key. But there was no key. Instead there were many little transparent plastic bags filled with white powder. I froze, but my mind was racing. From above, all they could see was my cowboy hat. They couldn't see my face. Somebody had made a terrible mistake. I had been told by men in the workshop that the mainstream drug trade was carried on by guards to supplement their extremely low salaries, but I hadn't believed it. Now I had seen too much, far too much for an outsider.
Usually, of course, the danger did come from the prisoners. Shelton's students once had to bar the door while a riot took place outside the classroom, and many of his students have been beaten, or worse. Schmid, his original pupil, was killed by fellow inmates in 1975. Shelton told the University of Arizona News, "It has been bloody. But the successes are also big and dramatic, and very rewarding....Many of these men have become like sons to us."
Shelton is now in his 34th year volunteering in the prison system. I think that this excerpt from his poem "Desert Water" helps to get at the charity of the man, and helps to explain why he does it:
once a yearwhen infallible toadsbegin to singall the spiders who left mereturn and I make room for them
I am too proudto mention their long absence
...we wait for the promised rainfor the second comingof water
each time it arriveslike the flood and I knowI have not wasted my life
spiders still cometo my house for shelter
You can read poetry by Arizona State Prison students in the journal Walking Rain Review, which publishes work by current and former inmates.
Richard Shelton's first interest in a prisoner's poetry was born from curiosity rather than charity. In 1970, a convicted murderer named Charles Schmid--on death row at the Arizona State Prison in Florence--wrote Shelton and asked him to critique his work. Shelton, then a professor at the University of Arizona, accepted. He has since admitted that he did so "for all the wrong reasons...I was fascinated because he was a monster."
Shelton may not be proud of their first contact, but his relationship with Schmid led him to discover a life-changing project, when, four years into their relationship, the inmate convinced him to start a poetry workshop for prisoners. It's a workshop that Shelton has been teaching to this day.
A prison may seem like an odd place to find students of poetry, but in an environment where many are looking for a new sense of purpose, the art can have a remarkable impact. Last year, PBS's The News Hour With Jim Lehrer ran a feature on one of Shelton's workshops, and the prisoners spoke of the purpose that writing poetry had given their lives. Jaime Omar Meza, a thirty-year-old who has been in prison since age 17, related that "for the first time, I know what I want to do with myself." Another inmate, Andrew Jaiks, perhaps put it best:
"It's not a matter of giving something to the convicts. It's a matter of opening up people's lives so that they do have an avenue for understanding compassion, through the things that we read and hearing other people read, and learning how to take criticism, and have that be for some other reason than just to degrade you."
Shelton put it another way: "If you can learn to use language honestly, then you can apply it to yourself honestly, and I think you can see yourself in a different light." While it doesn't always work, poetry has helped many of Shelton's students find more meaning in life. Some, like Ken Lamberton and Jimmy Santiago Baca (both now out of prison), have even found success as writers.
Shelton recently published a memoir of his experiences called Crossing the Yard : Thirty Years as a Prison Volunteer. The book describes how, in addition to the successes, there have been some difficult, and even dangerous, times. As you can see in this excerpt, the danger didn't always originate from the prisoners:
When I crossed the main yard that night, it was deserted. Chow was long since over, and the men were either in their cells or in classrooms in the education yard. I got to the iron door and yelled "Guard!" as I always did. The little basket came down as it always did, and I reached into it to get the key. But there was no key. Instead there were many little transparent plastic bags filled with white powder. I froze, but my mind was racing. From above, all they could see was my cowboy hat. They couldn't see my face. Somebody had made a terrible mistake. I had been told by men in the workshop that the mainstream drug trade was carried on by guards to supplement their extremely low salaries, but I hadn't believed it. Now I had seen too much, far too much for an outsider.
Usually, of course, the danger did come from the prisoners. Shelton's students once had to bar the door while a riot took place outside the classroom, and many of his students have been beaten, or worse. Schmid, his original pupil, was killed by fellow inmates in 1975. Shelton told the University of Arizona News, "It has been bloody. But the successes are also big and dramatic, and very rewarding....Many of these men have become like sons to us."
Shelton is now in his 34th year volunteering in the prison system. I think that this excerpt from his poem "Desert Water" helps to get at the charity of the man, and helps to explain why he does it:
once a yearwhen infallible toadsbegin to singall the spiders who left mereturn and I make room for them
I am too proudto mention their long absence
...we wait for the promised rainfor the second comingof water
each time it arriveslike the flood and I knowI have not wasted my life
spiders still cometo my house for shelter
You can read poetry by Arizona State Prison students in the journal Walking Rain Review, which publishes work by current and former inmates.
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