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October 20, 1967 NATIONAL COORDINATORS WEEKLY / TASK FORCE ON LOCAL COALITIONS The Coalition took a major step forward this week in its program of lending assistance to communities that want to set up local coalitions . In response to requests from numerous cities throughout the country, a one-day planning conference on "Mobilizing Urban Coalitions" was held in Chicago on October 17. Two hundred and fifty representatives of 52 cities attended. (LIST OF CITIES IS ATTAEJBED) Speaking at the Chicago meeting were Mayors Richard J. Daley of Chicago and Arthur Naftalin of Minneapolis. Both Mayors stressed two points : the need for acting swiftly and the importance of involving all key sectors in the community. May or Daley declared that "our common purpose is to improve the quality of urban life for all citizens and we are here today to plan a course of action to a::hieve that goal." Mayor Naftalin stressed the need to involve the various segments o f the community and to improve communication between them. He said : "Business leaders must hear first-hand about the frustrations and conditions o f despair that are the every day e x perience of many o f our citizens ... Government officials and voluntary agency directors mu st look honestl y at whether their programs are really reaching their targets ... The idea of the Coalition , as we view it in Minn eapolis , is to make an h onest effort to ident i fy our strengths a n d weaknesses , to wi n each other ' s conf i den ce for a new attack and th en to go out a n d vigo r ously impleme n t the program ," Th e p lanning s e ss i o n he a r d stateme nt s f r om His Emine n ce John Cardinal Co dy a nd t he Rt. Re v. J ames W. Mo n tgome ry a n d a message fr om I. W. Abel d e live r e d b y United Steelwo rk e r s ' Leg i s l at i ve Directo r, Jack Sheehan. Also speaking a t the me e ting was Dr. Keeneth Wright, vice-president and chief economist for the Li f e Insurance Association o f Ame rica. Wright told the Coalition audienc e that the nation's insurance companies , al r eady pledged to invest a billion dollars in inne r-city housing development, wer e also planning to move into job development by making money available to finance industrial facilities in the inner city. �This, and other specific proposals, were discussed at a series of workshop sessions. Here, representatives of business, labor, religion, civil rights and local government thrashed out their ideas on how to communicate with each other most effectively and what specific measures need to be taken in their communities to meet the compelling needs of our urban areas. Steering Committee members participating in the Chicago meeting, besides Mayors Daley and Naftalin, included John H. Johnson, Mayor Joseph M. Barr and Arnold Aronson who each presided at a general session and Milton Graham, who spoke at the lunceon session. Workshop chairmen were John Denman, Manager of the Department of Urban Affairs, Ford Motor Company; John Gunther, Executive Director of the U.S. Conference of Mayors; Mrs. Frank Williams, League of Women Voters Education Fund;and Larold Schulz, Coordinator of the Anti-Poverty Task Force of the National Council of Churches and Harold Fleming, President of the Potomac Institute. The Chicago program proved to be a useful one and similar meetings, on a regional basis, are planned for the east coast, the west coast, and the south. On October 19 and 20, in Minneapolis, leadership from 12 cities, meeting under the auspices of the U. S. Conference of Mayors, discussed the Coalition concept and how it could work in their cities. They were joined in these discussions by the leadership of the newly formed Minneapolis Coalition. National Coalition coordinator John Feild led the discussion. TASK FORCE ON PRIVATE EMPLOYMENT EXPANSION During the Chicago session, the Staff Coordinator met with individuals from Detroit, Atlanta and Baltimore to discuss plans for Task Force meetings to be held in those cities within the next two months. A meeting was held with Mr. John H. Murphy, of the National Industrial Conference Board to discuss the role of the Board in assisting the Task Force and a further meeting will be held in New York City on October 24. The Task Force has been invited to send representatives to a major community meeting on private employment under the newly formed Gary Coalition's Employment Task Force chaired by U. S . Steel's Gary Works Superintendent, George Gedenoff. A number of local communities have formed, or are forming private employment task forces , and have requested assistance from the national staff in obtaining information and speaker s. �TASK FORCE ON HOUSING, RECONSTRUCTION AND URBAN INVESTMENT A work group meeting was held on the evening of October 16th and all day on October 17th in Washington, D.C. at which time the outline for the first draft of the Definition of Needs and Goals and some program concepts for the Task Force were set forth. �