Appendix B

WHO CONDUCTED THE PROJECT: NCNW AS PRIME CONTRACTOR

The Women and Housing Project was a "joint venture" of many persons and organizations working as teams (see Appendix C) or "Panels" or "Commissions" to carry out specific functions.

The staff of the National Council of Negro Women, Inc. (NCNW), however, was responsible as prime contractor for overall Project Design and coordination. Dr. Dorothy I. Height, President of NCNW, chaired the five hearings, and Ms. Dorothy Duke served as overall Project Coordinator.

The following pages summarize the background, goals and purposes of NCNW.

THE NATIONAL COUNCIL
OF NEGRO WOMEN INC.

"... the great need for uniting the effort of our women kept weighing upon my mind.
I could not free myself from the sense of loss-of wasted strength-sustained by the
national community through failure to harness the great power of women into a
force for constructive action. I could not rest until our women had met this
challenge of the times."

Mary McLeod Bethune

The uniqueness of the National Council of Negro Women is
in its combined strength and its communication of ideas
and plans to women of diverse interests and backgrounds.
Members of NCNW include many races, but we are essentially
an organization of Black women. They come from urban and
rural communities. They are college and non-college women,
business and professional women, church women, fraternal
women, homemakers, students.

Since its founding by Mary McLeod Bethune in 1935, the
National Council of Negro Women has worked to advance
opportunities and the quality of life for and through
Black women in every walk of life. Today, NCNW is a
coalition of 27 national organizations and over 150
local sections with an outreach to some four million
Black women throughout the United States. Specifically
stated, it is an organization of organizations.
leaders range from the sharecropper in Mississippi to
the PH.D. in a Washington, D.C. government bureau; from
the welfare-parent head of a day-care center, to the
young community activist in college. Over the decades,
NCNW's programs have developed out of sensitive, informed
appraisals of the needs of the nation's Black communities.
NCNW maintains an official observer at the United Nations.
The National Council of Negro Women was one of the few
national organizations that moved into the South during
the Civil Rights movement and stayed. From its program,
Wednesdays in Mississippi, NCNW was able to identify
pressing community problems and establish a priority
listing for problem solution based upon ability to
effectuate change in the areas identified.

As a result of this involvement NCNW:

Established the Okolona Day Care & Child Development
Center on the site of the Okolona Junior College,
Chickasaw County, Mississippi.

Established Food Production Centers in Sunflower
and Bolivar Counties, Mississippi. In Sunflower
County alone there are over 2000 pigs resulting
from the original pig bank of 50 Yorkshire gilts
and 5 Jersey Boars. Community gardens and coopera-
tive canning and freezing programs have been estab-
lished.

Established the Fannie Lou Hamer Day Care Center,
Ruleville, Mississippi.

a

Assumed partial support for "Liberty House"
marketing and purchasing cooperative owned by 13
handicraft producing cooperatives located in four
counties in rural Mississippi.

It is interesting to note that Mississippians employed
by the National Council of Negro Women equals one fourth
of the total paid personnel.

com

The underlying concepts inspire NCNW's many-faceted action programs for Black people in the decade of the 70's: mitment...unity...self-reliance. National affiliate organizations are mounting a new thrust for unity by urging direct involvement of individuals within their memberships. The goal: to mobilize and synchronize the collective strength of Black women in the struggle for justice, equality and opportunity.

NCNW implements its purposes through various projects:

OPERATION COPE A special demonstration project to serve mothers who are heads of households, who are economically and educationally disadvantaged. Women who lack a high school diploma or equivalency certificate and because of education which is not functional, generally have difficulty coping with life. They need extensive assistance with family living skills, basic education and effective parenthood and citizenship roles. A family learning center has been established at Stanton Dwellings, a public housing project in Southeast Washington, D. C.

Bethune Family Learning Center is being developed at Council House, 1318 Vermont Ave., N. W. This Center will house a program training volunteers, the work of the Advisory Committee, as well as a program with disadvantaged mothers.

Operation Cope is funded by the U. S. Office of Education under the Adult Education Act and should be replicated in cities throughout the United States.

This program was created

by the National Council of Negro Women to provide the judicial system with a rehabilitative detention alternative for juvenile female offenders. The methods utilized are varied and are tailored to fit each individual girl, however, the major focus is on the use of a one-to-one volunteer relationship. The volunteers are recruited largely from the ranks of NCNW and represent a variety of backgrounds, interests, talents and personalities. The volunteers receive intensive training covering all aspects of the program, including guidance in establishing and maintaining helping relationships with the girls in the target group.

The pilot project, initiated in the District of Columbia in December, 1972, has served over 60 girls and their families. This program is currently being expanded to serve an additional 180 girls in three cities, Greenville, Mississippi; St. Thomas, Virgin Islands and Dayton, Ohio.

This project is funded by the Law Enforcement Assistance
Administration (LEAA) of the United States Department
of Justice.

CENTER FOR CAREER ADVANCEMENT - An experimental after-school program providing career ladders in business and communication skills. Launched in 1970 under a grant from the U. S. Office of Education, the Center is an innovative contribution to the field of continuing education for adults.

In 1974, the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation approved an appropriation to the National Council of Negro Women for the planning of a Center for Educational and Career Advancement for minority women in downtown Manhattan, New York. The overall goal of the Center is to help minority women keep pace with the general advancement of women in jobs and education, through a program that reaches them where they work.

PROJECT HOMES TURNKEY III - Homeownership for Low Income Families. This program as sponsored by the National Council of Negro Women provided an affirmative and practicable method for a public housing project to be sold to the occupants. It made operational the concept that the homeownership opportunity programs are designed to serve management tool to provide incentives for families to maintain their own home and neighborhoods and thereby reduce Federal Subsidies.

HUD records show that as of June 30, 1972, Housing Authorities in 85 municipalities were managing 6,637 Turnkey III homes, had 6,439 homes under construction, and 5,685 units in preconstruction or application stage. These 18,761

units have an estimated cost of $407 million.

The impact of the National Council of Negro Women's efforts to launch and support the Turnkey III homeownership program and concepts has been that Congress has acted to continue the public homeownership opportunity programs including mutual help and Turnkey III housing on Indian Reservations (Section 5 (c) of the United States Housing Act of 1937, as amended by Section 201 (a) of the Housing and Community Development Act of 1974). The statute provides that the Federal Debt service subsidy can be continued even though title is transferred to the occupant (Section 5 (h) of the revised USH Act).

The organization received a grant from the Office of Economic Opportunity for the initial work on the project which was later funded by the Ford Foundation.

WOMEN AND HOUSING - In 1974-1975, five hearings were held in Atlanta, Georgia; St. Louis, Missouri; San Antonio, Texas; San Francisco, California and New York City to research, investigate and document the discrimination practiced against women in their attempts to secure adequate dwellings for their families. The data collected in these hearings will be used by HUD's Equal Opportunity staff, the courts, legislative bodies, institutions and others involved in expanding fair housing for women and educating the public on the effects of discrimination.

The Office of Equal Opportunity of the Department of Housing and Urban Development provided the funds for the operation of this project.