Resources

Web Sites

The David and Lucile Packard Foundation has re-vamped and re-launched its Future of Children Web site. The site houses the foundation's journal, which focuses on issues related to children's well-being, and includes the full text of the latest issue, "Caring for Infants and Toddlers." In the wake of the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, a new resource has been added to the site - a comprehensive rundown of the best Web sites for helping children cope with disaster. The address is: www.futureofchildren.org.

The Organizers' Collaborative has developed a list of Web site resources pertaining to nonprofits, technology, and social change activism. The resources have been organized into eleven categories and can be viewed at the Organizers' Collaborative Web site at: www.organizenow.net.

Publications

The New World of Welfare: An Agenda for Reauthorization and Beyond can be found at the Brookings Institute Web site at www.brookings.edu/wrb. The Welfare Reform and Beyond initiative announces a volume of papers by leading scholars and policy analysts on welfare reform. Editors of the volume are Rebecca Blank, dean of the Gerald R. Ford School of Public Policy at the University of Michigan and Ron Haskins, co-director of the Brookings Welfare Reform and Beyond initiative and former staff director for the Human Resources Subcommittee of the House Ways and Means Committee.

States of Change: Policies and Programs to Promote Low-Wage Workers' Steady Employment and Advancement is a new workforce development resource available from Public Private Ventures. The resource is a guide for job developers. For more information, go to www.ppv.org.

The Role of the Arts in Economic Development, an issue brief by Economic and Technology Policy Studies, can be obtained by calling Phil Psilos at 202-624-5330 or Kathleen Rapp at 202-624-7734. It examines the non-profit arts industry, which, with $36.8 billion in annual revenue, is a potent force in economic development nationwide.

The Center for Community Change (CCC) has released Home Sweet Home: Why America Needs a National Housing Trust Fund. The report concludes that a $5-billion investment in a National Housing Trust Fund would generate 1.8 million jobs and nearly $50 billion in wages. Besides producing sorely needed affordable housing, the fund would give the nation's economy a shot in the arm. The report can be ordered by calling CCC at 202-342-0567 or e-mailing glasgowm@commchange.org. Information about the National Housing Trust Fund can be found at www.nhtf.org.

The National Training and Information Center (NTIC) announces the publication of its first-ever press book, Organizing to Win. This publication documents the efforts of neighborhood groups across the country to strengthen the fabric of our neighborhoods and the nation through community organizing efforts. Organizing to Win, a compilation of press clippings dating back to January 2000, breaks down the main issues that NTIC, local organizing groups and their national network, National People's Action, work on every day to fortify the democratic process within America's neighborhoods. Organizing to Win is divided into ten sections, including: Employment and Income Support; Education Organizing; Predatory Lending and Community Reinvestment; Federal Housing Administration and Abandoned Buildings; Affordable Housing; Youth Organizing; Immigration Organizing; Neighborhood Safety; and Rural Organizing. To order the book, contact the National Training and Information Center at 312-243-3035 or email ntic@ntic-us.org.

Raise the Floor: Wages and Policies That Work For All of Us by Holly Sklar, Laryssa Mykyta, Susan Wefald. A new publication of the Ms. Foundation for Women that sets out the arguments for a higher minimum wage and other policy changes that are needed to lift people out of poverty. To order a copy with a credit card contact the Ms. Foundation for Women at 1-800-966-4486 x329 or send a check for $9.95 plus $4.00 shipping and handling to Ms. Foundation for Women; 120 Wall St, 33rd floor; New York City; New York 10005 or go to the Web site at www.raisethefloor.org.

Conferences

Reclaiming Economic Development, a national conference sponsored by Good Jobs First, will be held July 11-13, 2002 in Baltimore, Maryland. Join a broad range of groups working at many levels - community groups, labor unions, living wage campaigns, state tax and budget activists, citizen action coalitions, high-road and sectoral development groups, elected and development officials, environmentalists and smart growth advocates, grantmakers and educators. Meet the people behind some of the most important efforts reforming the use of state and local economic development subsidies. The conference will be a mix of celebration and education, with a broad variety of workshops and plenary sessions on specific issues, organizing models, and research. For more information contact goodjobs@ctj.org.

People

We mourn the passing of three individuals who dedicated their lives to fighting for social justice and the rights of the poor and powerless.

Jim Drake helped to conceive the grape boycott in the 1960s when he was the lead organizer for the United Farm Workers. He organized woodcutters in Mississippi and later worked with the Industrial Areas Foundation (IAF) in Texas, the South Bronx and Boston.

Gale Cincotta founded the National Training and Information Center and National People's Action in the early 1970s. Gale led the fight to win passage of the Home Mortgage Disclosure Act of 1975 and the Community Reinvestment Act of 1977.

Dr. Richard A. Cloward, a sociologist and social activist who was an architect of the welfare rights movement and author of several books on grass-roots organizing, including Regulating the Poor: The Functions of Public Welfare.

Congratulations to Luz Vega-Marquis who has accepted a new position as president of the Casey Family Grants Program in Seattle, Washington beginning January 1st.

Congratulations to Susan Jenkins who just accepted the position of executive director of the Cherokee Preservation Foundation in Cherokee, NC. The Cherokee Preservation Foundation will focus on preserving the natural resources, assisting the economic development within the tribal lands and surrounding areas, fostering employment opportunities on or near tribal lands and providing resources for preservation of the history and traditions of the Cherokee people.

Congratulations to Ron White and Cris Doby of the Charles Stewart Mott Foundation. They were both awarded the Jean Rudd Strategic Partner Award from the Gamaliel Foundation at their annual leadership meeting in Detroit, MI, on December 7, 2001.

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