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Box 10, Folder 11, Document 74
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PROGRAM PROPOSAL FOR
EXPANDED, IN DEPTH, URBAN LEAGUE COMMUNITY ORGANIZATION SERVICES
IN AREAS OF ATLANTA SIMILAR TO THE ONES OF THE
CURRENTLY MANIFESTED RACIAL UNREST
(SUMMERHILL REGION)
The Urban League movement, against a background of national experience and
expert knowledge in community assessment and practical program planning is sensi-
tive to the signs and symbols of community vulnerability to the kinds of outbreaks
that Atlanta has witnessed in the Summerhill area during the past few days. Again
the Urban League warns against the embarrassment of hurried and stop-gap measures,
Such mistakes of countless urban communities facing these specific kinds of probe
lems serve as a guide for the Atlanta Urban League to do effective planning for
the prevention and removal of the known glaring problems persisting and untouched
by programs of purely passing and opiating impact in Metropolitan Atlanta.
We continue to insist that the problems focused by the Summerhill outbreak
are of a nature addressing themselves with unquestioning clarion call for a total
mobilization of community resources to reach the basic problems to effectuate
substantive solutions.
Quick and momentarily soothing programs, however appropriate to get such
communities back to a level of receptivity for participation in organized, disci-
plined and democratically based procedures for community leadership involvement
in self-help programs are, of necessity, limited to just such yield.
The mistakes of Watts (Los Angeles, California) as follow-up studies have
demonstrated, are in two important categories: (1) That the efforts of public-
based (governmental) agencies, limited as they are in the permissive breadth of
involvement and depth of programming and organization, cannot alone satisfy the
hard-core needs of such a situation. (2) That because of the existence of the
very network of public agencies, despite their limitations, the strengthening of
the operational bases of private agencies of experience has been greatly neglected.
We, The Atlanta Urban League, Inc., therefore, are calling immediately upon
the National Urban League, the City of Atlanta, the Metropolitan Atlanta Community
Services, and other available resources, to join forces in veering away from the
\
yo \» futile course of other cities of the nation in attacking the Summerhill problems
»
Tey
yr
ax
ww
by supplementing the currently evolving emergency programs with more basically
seaktsnadetewted programs, so characteristically lacking in the approaches of
similarly situated cities of the nation.
Admittedly, what the Urban League proposes in the following recommendation
is not a program of overenight returns. Indeed, we warn that the basic problems
of Summerhill and other known communities in Atlanta of similar vulnerability do
not lend themselves to Seeuind et solutions.
Human attitudes, changeable only by the skillful techniques of indoctrination
in a faith and methodology of grievance -pleading within the framework of existing
political and social welfare channels are developed through the knowledge of and
guidance into effective processing of such grievances.
However, the rewards in the instilling of self-help possibilities, and the
working experience of leadership of such communities with the complex of broad
community agencies of responsibilities fixes the lines of communication and faith
in total community concern with the problems of troubled areas, and serves, through
inevitable achievements, to stabilize such pocket communities in the face of
onslaught from exploitative purposed influences.
PROJECTED PROGRAM
The Atlanta Urban League, Inc., therefore, proposes the following demonstra-=
tion program for consideration in the Summerhill area to later expand to all
similar areas in Atlanta establishing field unit offices.
The expansion of the services of The Atlanta Urban League, Inc., through the
establishment of a staffed Unit Field office(s) to:
Ls
3.
De
Take immediate action in the formulation of Urban League = method =
oriented neighborhood organizations.
A. Through these neighborhood units, serviced on a continuing
basis by trained Urban League personnel, broader leadership
can be trained to:
(1) Serve as an on=going source of knowledge on both
positive and negative developments in the comnu-
nity.
(2) More importantly, to serve as the continuing
channel for the implementing of programs geared
to the needs of the people.
Engage in periodic research, both relating to changing census tract
data and attitudinal information for effective programming.
To bring to the community practical knowledge of services available
for meeting personal and group needs.
To develop on-going inter-agency communication on accomplishments
and emergency needs.
To utilize the experiences and broad skills in program planning and
innovating gained by the National Urban League program development
staff for consultative involvement in effectiveness of experimental
programs of seventy-five (75) urban communities throughout the
nation, in stabilizing efforts of such communities.
All of these recommendations, are, of course, based upon the findings of
researched needs, and the adaptabilities of selective programs to the community.
Needless, to point out, the program emphases will fall within the four basic
program areas in which the Urban League operates: Housing, Economic Development
& Employment, Health & Welfare, and Education & Youth Incentives - = on an inten=
sive and on-going basis. A very special effort will be made to identify and
counsel new residents of Atlanta in these areas.
The services offered will be different than, but offered in cooperation with,
other services available to the community. The services will be problem oriented
and will include leadership development; employment opportunities in the Atlanta
Urban League's "Skills Bank"; training opportunities througn the Atlanta Urban
League's Manpower Development and Training Act (On-The-Job Training Project);
vocational and educational counseling through the Atlanta Urban League's "See
Industry In Action" Program; improved living condition and relocation through
the Atlanta Urban League's housing program, and parental health and welfare
assistance through the Atlanta Urban League's ENABLE (Education and Neighborhood
Action For A Better Living Environment) Program.
Emphasis will be placed on the residents becoming knowledgeable and motivated
to identify their needs and to take positive cooperative action, without anger
and violence, to satisfy these needs.
The Urban League's motto "American Teamwork Works" will always be manifested,
This will mean active and visible participation, at the "grass root" level by
responsible white and Negro citizens .. . an important factor in developing faith
between the races. An example of this would be "top" employer representatives
working in the communities through the Atlanta Urban League's field unit office
as a part of our "Skills Bank" operation, and employers welcoming prospective
employees in their plants, as a part of our "See Industry In Action" Program.
EXPANDED, IN DEPTH, URBAN LEAGUE COMMUNITY ORGANIZATION SERVICES
IN AREAS OF ATLANTA SIMILAR TO THE ONES OF THE
CURRENTLY MANIFESTED RACIAL UNREST
(SUMMERHILL REGION)
The Urban League movement, against a background of national experience and
expert knowledge in community assessment and practical program planning is sensi-
tive to the signs and symbols of community vulnerability to the kinds of outbreaks
that Atlanta has witnessed in the Summerhill area during the past few days. Again
the Urban League warns against the embarrassment of hurried and stop-gap measures,
Such mistakes of countless urban communities facing these specific kinds of probe
lems serve as a guide for the Atlanta Urban League to do effective planning for
the prevention and removal of the known glaring problems persisting and untouched
by programs of purely passing and opiating impact in Metropolitan Atlanta.
We continue to insist that the problems focused by the Summerhill outbreak
are of a nature addressing themselves with unquestioning clarion call for a total
mobilization of community resources to reach the basic problems to effectuate
substantive solutions.
Quick and momentarily soothing programs, however appropriate to get such
communities back to a level of receptivity for participation in organized, disci-
plined and democratically based procedures for community leadership involvement
in self-help programs are, of necessity, limited to just such yield.
The mistakes of Watts (Los Angeles, California) as follow-up studies have
demonstrated, are in two important categories: (1) That the efforts of public-
based (governmental) agencies, limited as they are in the permissive breadth of
involvement and depth of programming and organization, cannot alone satisfy the
hard-core needs of such a situation. (2) That because of the existence of the
very network of public agencies, despite their limitations, the strengthening of
the operational bases of private agencies of experience has been greatly neglected.
We, The Atlanta Urban League, Inc., therefore, are calling immediately upon
the National Urban League, the City of Atlanta, the Metropolitan Atlanta Community
Services, and other available resources, to join forces in veering away from the
\
yo \» futile course of other cities of the nation in attacking the Summerhill problems
»
Tey
yr
ax
ww
by supplementing the currently evolving emergency programs with more basically
seaktsnadetewted programs, so characteristically lacking in the approaches of
similarly situated cities of the nation.
Admittedly, what the Urban League proposes in the following recommendation
is not a program of overenight returns. Indeed, we warn that the basic problems
of Summerhill and other known communities in Atlanta of similar vulnerability do
not lend themselves to Seeuind et solutions.
Human attitudes, changeable only by the skillful techniques of indoctrination
in a faith and methodology of grievance -pleading within the framework of existing
political and social welfare channels are developed through the knowledge of and
guidance into effective processing of such grievances.
However, the rewards in the instilling of self-help possibilities, and the
working experience of leadership of such communities with the complex of broad
community agencies of responsibilities fixes the lines of communication and faith
in total community concern with the problems of troubled areas, and serves, through
inevitable achievements, to stabilize such pocket communities in the face of
onslaught from exploitative purposed influences.
PROJECTED PROGRAM
The Atlanta Urban League, Inc., therefore, proposes the following demonstra-=
tion program for consideration in the Summerhill area to later expand to all
similar areas in Atlanta establishing field unit offices.
The expansion of the services of The Atlanta Urban League, Inc., through the
establishment of a staffed Unit Field office(s) to:
Ls
3.
De
Take immediate action in the formulation of Urban League = method =
oriented neighborhood organizations.
A. Through these neighborhood units, serviced on a continuing
basis by trained Urban League personnel, broader leadership
can be trained to:
(1) Serve as an on=going source of knowledge on both
positive and negative developments in the comnu-
nity.
(2) More importantly, to serve as the continuing
channel for the implementing of programs geared
to the needs of the people.
Engage in periodic research, both relating to changing census tract
data and attitudinal information for effective programming.
To bring to the community practical knowledge of services available
for meeting personal and group needs.
To develop on-going inter-agency communication on accomplishments
and emergency needs.
To utilize the experiences and broad skills in program planning and
innovating gained by the National Urban League program development
staff for consultative involvement in effectiveness of experimental
programs of seventy-five (75) urban communities throughout the
nation, in stabilizing efforts of such communities.
All of these recommendations, are, of course, based upon the findings of
researched needs, and the adaptabilities of selective programs to the community.
Needless, to point out, the program emphases will fall within the four basic
program areas in which the Urban League operates: Housing, Economic Development
& Employment, Health & Welfare, and Education & Youth Incentives - = on an inten=
sive and on-going basis. A very special effort will be made to identify and
counsel new residents of Atlanta in these areas.
The services offered will be different than, but offered in cooperation with,
other services available to the community. The services will be problem oriented
and will include leadership development; employment opportunities in the Atlanta
Urban League's "Skills Bank"; training opportunities througn the Atlanta Urban
League's Manpower Development and Training Act (On-The-Job Training Project);
vocational and educational counseling through the Atlanta Urban League's "See
Industry In Action" Program; improved living condition and relocation through
the Atlanta Urban League's housing program, and parental health and welfare
assistance through the Atlanta Urban League's ENABLE (Education and Neighborhood
Action For A Better Living Environment) Program.
Emphasis will be placed on the residents becoming knowledgeable and motivated
to identify their needs and to take positive cooperative action, without anger
and violence, to satisfy these needs.
The Urban League's motto "American Teamwork Works" will always be manifested,
This will mean active and visible participation, at the "grass root" level by
responsible white and Negro citizens .. . an important factor in developing faith
between the races. An example of this would be "top" employer representatives
working in the communities through the Atlanta Urban League's field unit office
as a part of our "Skills Bank" operation, and employers welcoming prospective
employees in their plants, as a part of our "See Industry In Action" Program.
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