Grants Awarded to Community Action Organizations
Diocesan Press Service. December 16, 1968 [72-7]
GREENWICH, Conn. -- Twenty-seven grants totaling $440,520 which will go to community action organizations throughout the country and to Costa Rica and the Virgin Islands were approved by the Executive Council of the Episcopal Church in its quarterly December meeting here at Seabury House.
The grants will be made under the Episcopal Church's General Convention Special Program authorized by the Church in 1967, which earmarked nearly nine million dollars over a three-year period to be spent in combating the problems of race and poverty in the United States.
Fifteen other special grants coming to $68,600, the Executive Council was told, also have been made under the authority of the Presiding Bishop to make emergency allocations to community action organizations.
The Council was told by Leon E. Modeste, director of the General Convention Special Program, that the grants were made only after a severe screening and review process and that around 90 per cent of grant applications are turned down "for one reason or another," many because they do not meet the criteria of the Special Program.
Since the beginning of the "special program" last year more than one million dollars has been allocated to community organizations all over the United States. Many of these are Negro organizations. Other grants have gone to white, Indian, Puerto Rican, Mexican and other organizations, including some which are coalitions of minority groups and individuals. Most of the organizations seek to achieve economic and political benefits for minorities through self-help programs.
Grants approved were as follows:
Coalition of American Indian Citizens, of Denver, Colo., and Berkeley, Calif., $15, 000. Funds will be used for the training of leaders of the organization, which is to be national. Other funds up to $10, 000 have been pledged on a matching basis.
Night Call, New York City (national), $15,000. Grant will fund a national program network of radio stations providing "phone-in" participation by listeners and a means of communication between white and Black participants.
Afro American Players Theatre Group, Yakima, Wash., $25,000. This is a theater group presenting plays, but it also serves as a base for community organization for the entire Columbia Basin area.
Hyde Park Improvement Association, Augusta, Ga., $14,190. The association is seeking to acquire adequate sewer and water supply systems in their own community and in adjoining Black areas.
National Black Theatre, New York City, $45, 000. The theater is developing a program with emphasis on depicting the "Black life style. "
Northcott Neighborhood House, Milwaukee, Wis., $21,500. Funds will be used for training in community organization and participation in Model Cities program.
Drum and Spear Book Store, Washington, D. C., $30,000. Book store serves as a center for discussion and the initiation of betterment programs for the Black community.
South End Tenants Council, Boston, Mass., $18,000. The program seeks to up-grade sub-standard rental housing.
Organization for Citizens' Representation (OCR), Topeka, Kans., $20, 000. Program of this community organization seeks to provide research services, training, seminars, workshops, union organization and protection of health and legal rights for the Black community.
Orville Farmers Cooperative, Selma, Ala., $17,900. (Subject to approval by Bishop of Alabama.) Operation of a day care center by the cooperative makes it possible for Blacks of Selma to take advantage of many new job opportunities resulting from the industrial growth of Selma. Another day care center also may participate in the grant if the Bishop agrees.
Appalachia Project, Roanoke, Va., $10,360. White residents have joined together to establish a community organization to research the problems of Appalachia and to disseminate the information for the purpose of setting up community betterment programs through organization and common action.
Bainbridge Cooperative Ministry, Richmond, Va., $15,000. The Ministry proposes to hire a community organizer who will serve the common needs of a varied community comprised of resident whites, as well as Blacks and white newcomers from rural and mountain areas.
Black Youth Movement (Operation Breakthrough), Waterbury, Conn., $25, 000. The Black Youth Movement owns and manages a general contracting business called "Operation Breakthrough. " It provides jobs and standard wages for the unemployed and underemployed through renovation work. Its office also acts as a community service center providing welfare, housing and job assistance.
Hickman Transport Club, Inc., Hickman, Ken., $2,050 (50 per cent is a loan.) Cooperative has been formed to assist poor people to buy coal at wholesale prices.
Clinton Community Cooperative, Clinton, Ken., $1, 800 (50 per cent is a loan.) Another coal cooperative. Both organizations also will serve as potential bases for community organization to achieve other community goals.
Asociacion de Desarrollo Especifico Para Adiestramiento de Lideres, San Jose, Costa Rica, $670. Preliminary grant will assist in establishing a community organization with broad participation by members of the community.
Liberty City Community Council, Miami, Fla., $20, 000 (matching grant up to $10,000 also authorized). The council is a coalition of community organizers who are joined together for common action on such issues as welfare, housing, Model Cities program, community control of schools and the development of economic and political power.
Community Organization Members Build Absolute Teamwork (COMBAT), Steubenville, Ohio, $8,000. Well-established in the community, COMBAT, an organization under Black control, centers its community action programs on such issues as school control, police brutality, etc. and is now developing a cultural program.
Fulton Advisory Council Ad Hoc Committee, Richmond, Va., $7,500. The council is seeking to develop plans to serve as an alternative to proposals for urban renewal in the Fulton area which would allow encroachment of industry and destroy it as a place of residence except in public housing developments.
Afro-American Black People's Federation of Peoria, Peoria, Ill., $20,000. (Matching funds also authorized.) Organization of young Black people is seeking to combat racism through the development of a Black union, economic programs, housing rehabilitation, voter registration and the publication of a newspaper.
Human Organizational Political Economic Development (H. O. P. E.), Houston, Tex., $32, 500. Militant organization has a program of organizing the Black community for the achievement of political and economic power. Organizational efforts center around job training, combating economic exploitation by merchants, seeking financial support from Black businesses, fund raising campaigns, political education and electioneering.
Community Operated Opportunity Project (COOP), Galveston, Tex., $25,000. (Matching grant also authorized.) It seeks to make a "concentrated attack" on the causes of deprivation, with emphasis on employment, housing, schools and the achievement of political influence.
New Civic Group, Inc., Passaic, N.J., $20,000. (Matching grant authorized.) The primary thrust of the organization is toward organizing tenants' councils and tenant unions, although it also has engaged in other community action projects.
Midwest Regional Conference and Northeast Regional Training (national), $5,050. Funds will make possible regional coalition of groups funded under the Episcopal Church's "special program, " for the purpose of developing overall strategy and providing training, communication and technical assistance.
Jersey City Youth Action Program (STAND), Jersey City, N. J., $15,000. (Matching funds also authorized.) STAND is a youth group active in organizing parents and the general community around the issue of local control of schools.
Missionary District of the Virgin Islands, St. Thomas, V. I., $4,000. (Consultation.) Funds will provide consultation to the Bishop of the Virgin Islands for the development of a program to meet the needs of communities on the islands of St. Croix and St. Thomas.
American Documentary Films, Inc., New York City, $7,000. Funds will be used to assist in the distribution of a documentary film "Huey." Produced in cooperation with the Black Panthers, the film is on the Huey Newton case and the Black Panther Party.