.MzAwNA.MzAwNA

l GUIDELINES FOR LOCAL COALITIONS The Emergency Convocation of The Urban Coalition has issued an urgent appeal to all concerned American citizens to join with the Coalition in efforts to f ashion a new political , social, economic, a nd moral climate that will make possible the breaking of the vicious cycle of the ghetto. Action at the corrnnunity level must now follow. As leaders in your corrnnunity, your corrnnitment and ingenuity are now called upon to muste r the support and invol vement of your fellow citizens for a massive reordering of priorities and programs in the face of the urb a n emergency. The na t i ona l Steering Commi t t ee of The Ur ban Coa lition is a l r eady at work developing strategy and programs to a chieve t he goal s it has set for itself. But its focus is primarily on national decision makers and na ti onal priorit ie s a nd programs. This will not be enough. The r e must be compl ementary a cti on a t the loca l l ev e l whe r e ultimat e r e sp ons i b i l i t y res t s and wh ere ur ban probl ems are most c l earl y perceiv e d. The Ur ban Coa li t i on the refore looks to you t o initia te forma tion o f a local coal ition in your city or me t r opol itan area to work in concer t with the national Steering Corrnni ttee in pursu it of c ommon ob jectives. OBJECTIVES At the c onc l usion of t he August Emergency Conv oca t ion, The Urban Coalition adopted a comprehensiv e Statement o f Principles, Goal s and Corrnnitments. It is this document which charts the course for our mutual efforts. (A copy of the Statement is encl osed) . You will note from the Statemen t that the Coalition h a s identified seven specific areas of urban affairs calling for consideration and �-2action by the Coalition and the country. Emergency Task Forces have been created reflecting these problem areas through which the substantive efforts of the Coalition will be channeled. They are: 1. Emergency Task Force on Public Service Employment 2. Emergency Task Force on Private Employment 3. Emergency Task Force on Educational Disparities 4. Emergency Task Force on Reconstruction Investment & Urban Development 5. Emergency Task Force on Equal Housing Opportunities 6. Emergency Task Force on Connnunications 7. Emergency Task Force on Local Coalitions The designated urban concern of each Task Force demands immediate attention and action. But while such a division of tasks is essential for efficient organization of the Coalition's endeavors, the very real functional inter-relationships between the major urban problems must not be overlooked. It is the position of The Coalition that given current urban American conditions, the key to resolving these inter-related problems is a massive emergency work program of at least one million new public service-type jobs, developed and financed by the Federal Government, including new training opportunities for the unemployed and underemployed. The elements of such an emergency work p r ogram are described in the Statement . Such a program is a prerequisite to the restoration of economic health to our cities and hope to the lives of millions of urban Americans. Equally important is the fact that in the absence of such a governmentally-generated emergency work program even the most enlightened and massive efforts to improve public education, housing, an -' heal th and welfare services will meet with failure . The pervasive social and economic costs of continued high levels of unemployment and underemploy- �-3ment in our cities can spell sure disaster to our society. The alter- native is to implement a crash national employment program of the character The Urban Coalition proposes. The business of The Urban Coalition is to induce a complete revision in the allocation of talent, time, money and resources to meeting the basic needs of .America's . cities. While special emphasis has been given in The Coalition's Statement to the basic need for full employment, this is not to minimize the urgent needs for new capital investment, revitali zed public education, substantial increases in the housing supply, more and better urban services and facilities, and enhanced equal opportunity in housing. The Statement states that the "nex t order of business ... shall be the development of a broad program of urban reconstruction ... including the goal of rehabilitation and construction of a t l eas t one million housing units f or lowe r-income families annually." All sectors of .American society have a rol e to play in accomplishing the goa ls The Urban Coa lition has propos e d. Awakening those sectors to the emergency at hand and mobilizing them for appropriate action is the innnediate task. Essen_tial to The Urban Coalition's perform- ing that task is t he formation of local coa litions which, we hope, wi ll first, pl e dge the ir support of the Sta tement of Pr i ncipl e s, Goa l s and Connnitment s, and se cond, wor k in conce rt with the n a tiona l Steering Connnittee , with all resources available to them, to accomplish these goa l s. STRATEGY AND AGENDA FOR LOCAL COALITIONS As an initial target, t he Steering Committee of The Urban Coalition is res ponding to the reques ts o f connnunit i es in a t l east fif ty ma jor urban areas for assistance in the f ormat ion of l ocal coal itions by November 15 , 1967. In e ach of t h e fifty communities, a small organi z- ing connnittee of local l eaders is being cal l ed together. As is the cas e with t he Steering Connnittee, t h e local organi z ing committee will �-4be made up of representatives from the community's business, organized labor, religious, civil rights, educational, local government, and communications le a de rship. It is important that the sectors repre- sented correspond wi th those represented on the national Steering Committee so as t o be broadly representative of the life of the community. In some cases, it may be that coalitions have already been forme d around such is sues as jobs, schools or housing. These groups may wish to identify with and work with The Urban Coalition. The local organizing committee and other existing coalition groups are being invited to de s i gna te representatives to attend a one-day Local Urban Coalition Planning Session to be held on Tuesday, October 17 1967 in Chicago, Illinois. The pla1ID11ing session, convened by the na tional Steering Committee, will deal exclusively with organization and programming of local coalitions. Further information will be furnished to you shortly on the subject of the planning session. In no event, howev e r, should the organization of local coalitions be deferred pending the Chicago planning session. Time is of the es sence. Where a general , a s contrasted to a single issue, coalition is being formed the first order of business for the organizing committee is to round out representative participation on a local Steering Committee. Secondly, the Steering Committee should develop a draft Statement of Principles, Goals, and Commitments which endorses the national Statement and broadens it to include major loca l concerns . Next, convening of an emergency convocation of the local coalition to review and adopt a Statement of Goa ls and develop plans for implementation mi ght be undertaken. This convocation, patterned after the national Emergency Convoca ti on held in August , should be called as soon as possible, hopefu ll y, no later than mid-November. In those cities where several single issue coalitions already ex ist, they may wi sh to jointly convene such a convocation . �-5It is strongly recommended that, both in the initial organi za tional phase as well as the post-convocation phase,where new coalitions are being formed,the local organizing committee arrange for at least one staff person to work full time on the local coalition. It is expected that this staff person could be borrowed from the staff of one of the participating leaders. THE LOCAL EMERGENCY CONVOCATION The local convocation will serve to bring together the significant community leadership and will serve both as an organizing device as well as a vehicle for arousing and educating the community to the urban emergency. The convening of the convocation and the endorsement of a Statement of Principles will hav e local and national significance to the extent t h a t the convocation enjoys the participation of the community's lea de rship representing the same constituencies represented in the organizing committ ee . This is an enterprise requiring as much citizen support as possible so that community leadership involvement must be broad and numerically substantial. The convocation can be focused on the problems of a single city or on th e probl ems of the metropolitan area in which it is located, whiche ' er is feasible and appropriat e . It is fully expected that the local co a l ition and the convocation will invo lve representatives of major emp loyers and un i ons whe ther th e ir constituents and/or func ti ons are in the city or the suburbs . While the national Urban Coalition is not able to offer an j financial ass i s tance to loca l organizing committees, it will provide , che c. a ssis tance in p rep aring and convening the local convocation. In this regar d, the October 17th planning conference in Chicago will offer orieLtation and counse l on a range of factors pertinent to successful �-6loc a l coalitions. In addition, the Steering Connnittee has accepted an offer by the National Institute of Public Affairs to furnish, where des i r e d , te chnical assistance to local organizing cormnittees in programm i ng of the local convocation and subsequent siminars and workshops. The national Steering Committee will also provide speakers, where needed and requested , in any or all of the substantive areas under consideration by The Ur ban Coalition Task Forces mentioned earlier. A necessary outcome of the convocation is endorsement of a ml nimal organizational structure to pursue the goals and commitment s adopted. With respect to newly-formed local coalitions, the local structure should include a steering cormnittee and a minimum of thr e e t ask forces to deal with l eg islation, expansion of private employment, an d public information , respectively. Beyond the substance of these three tas k fo r ce s, local groups ma y set up other work groups. The nat i on a l Urb an Coa lition, however , is presently going through program dev e lopment with i ts o ther task forces and will be prepared to coordinate other local tas k forc e action areas in the near future. Fina lly, it is contemplated that the local coalitions will pa r ti cipa t e in and help shape the programs of The Urban Coalition . �