Community Organization, Theory, Principles, And Practice

Author: Murray G. Ross, (New York: Harper & Row, 1967)
Community Organization, Theory, Principles, and  Practices

A Class Assignment (Book Review) Prepared for Survey of Community Organization 13-042-61
Graduate Department of Community Planning
University of Cincinnati
Instructor: Mr. Bailey Turner, Assistant Professor of Community Planning
Prepared by: Gladys Turner Finney
Autumn Quarter, 1975

At the time the book was written, Murray G. Ross was a social work
educator, researcher, and consultant in community organization at the
University of Toronto School of Social Work.

Community Organization, Theory, Principles, and Practices deals
with community organization, theories, guiding principles, and role
of the professional community organizer. Emphasis is placed on community
organization as a "process," conscious or unconscious, voluntary or
involuntary whereby a community identifies, ranks its needs or objectives,
finds resources (internal or external) and takes action to solve the
problem or obtain the objective.

Planning and community integration are seen as the two essential
tasks in community organization, both being an integral part of the
process but community integration considered the most important objective.
Planning is conceived by the author to "represent the whole act, from the
stirring of consciousness about a problem to the action taken to resolve
the problem." It involves four steps: (1) definition of the problem;
(2) study of the nature, meaning, and implications of the problem'
(3) decision regarding ultimate solutions; and (4) action on the
solution agreed upon.

The hypothesis of the book is that cooperative planning-problem
solving and consensus will lead to community integration (e.g. identifi-
cation, interest, and participation in the common life of the community).
However, cooperation and attainment of consensus are stressed almost to
the point where one might get the impression that cooperative-collabo-
rative planning and consensus are valued objectives within themselves.
Herein lies a grave danger that the community organization process is
more important than the outcome without any accountability for group
decisions. There is a fallacy to assume that group decisions are in
effect sound or rational decisions even though democratic methods have
been applied. For example there are innumerable situations where the
rights of minorities have been violated through the democratic process.
Another fallacy for the author to assume is that a skilled community
organizer will enable a community to achieve consensus on any issue or
problem and that the community will emerge better integrated from the
experience.

Ross' professional community organizer is a versatile, perplexing
man with many contradictions. He is a skilled community analyst,
diagnostician, and therapist; a facilitator, guide, enabler of the
community organization process, but via discipline and taboo cannot assume the leader-
ship role. He supports democratic values and processes, (e.g., right
to self-determination, freedom, equality, community participation, etc.)
but cannot take a stand on behalf of any group, solution or project. He
must "identify with the community as a whole" (which might be difficult
if he is an ethnic or racial minority). He is objective, non-judgmental
despite the fact that all planning and solutions involve value judgments
and preferences. He accepts symptoms for what they are. He does not
criticize, blame, praise or make comparisons. "His special expertness
is in bringing diverse groups together, in clarifying issues, enlarging
the area of common concern in the community, in establishing processes
and procedures by which a community can make a collective decision."

The conceptual model upon which the author predicates his
community organization approach is based on a natural systems
change model whereby citizen participation, decision making, and
change at the local level can be instituted in a manner that will integrate the community.

The book has merits as an introductory textbook on community
organization and presents a good overview of community organization
as a profession and process for affecting social change.

There was a deliberate attempt to integrate and/or apply princi-
ples to practice through case presentation as a way of giving the
reader a clear understanding of what community organization is and
the role of the community organizer.

The Second Continental Congress

A paper prepared for
American Government Class
Gladys T. Turner
AM&N College
Circa 1950s

The news that fighting had begun at Lexington and Concord
between American patriots and British troops in April of 1775 so-
lidified the spirit of revolt and convinced many that separation
from Great Britian necessary.

The Second Continental Congress convened at Philadelphia on
May 19, 1775 with all thirteen colonies represented. "Its powers,
if it had any, were extremely vague; it represented, said Bancroft,
"nothing more than the informed opinion of an unformed people." 1

As the delegates assembled they knew that some kind of collec-
tive action had to be taken because war was actually in existence.
The first act on the agenda was the creation of a continental army
of which George Washington was selected commander in-chief. Although
war was in existence, independence, was far from the minds of the del-
egates and those who wished to sever our claims from Great Britiain.
were considered radicals. As late as the autumn of 1775, five state
legislatures were against independence. "Even now a tolerant attitude
on the part of England could have restored calm to the troubled
colonies, for few dared to speak independence. Instead, an obsti-
nate Parliament and a stupid king went blindly ahead with plans to
chastise the rebels. The result was a shift in American sentiment. 2

The king refused to receive the petition of the Congress. Instead,
he issued a proclamation declaring the colonies in a state of
rebellion, and hired troops to end the rebellion.

Congress advised the colonies to set up state governments
based upon the consent of the people. On June 7, Richard Henry
Lee, a Virginia delegate, submitted the following resolutions:

"That these united colonies are, and of right ought to be free,
and independent States; that they are absolved from all allegiance
to the British crown; and that all political connection between
them and the State of Great Britain, is and ought to be totally
dissolved.

That it is expedient forthwith to take the most effective
measures for forming foreign alliances.

That a plan of confederation be prepared and transmitted to
the respective colonies for their consideration. 3

For a whole month Congress debated Lee's resolutions while
a committee worked over the declaration that would be called for.
Finally, on July 2, the resolution was adopted; two days later the
immortal Declaration of Independence was accepted by Congress

"The Declaration of Independence, almost entirely the work
of Jefferson, divides itself into three parts. The first is a
statement of the radical philosophy of the seventeenth century"
that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their
creator with certain unalienable rights, that among these are life,
liberty and the pursuit of happiness- That to secure these rights
Government are instituted among men, deriving their just powers
from the consent of the governed, -That whenever any form of govern-
ment becomes destructive to these ends, it is the right of the people
to alter or abolish it, and to institute new government  4

The significance of the Second Continental Congress lies in
the fact that it was the first central government in the United
States. It exercised both legislature and executive powers. It also
exercised the rights to wage war, raise loans, issue  currency,
establish a postal system, make treaties, and receive ambassadors.
The Second Continental Congress brought the greatest minds of the
country together to plan action and take charge of the existing
situation.

The Declaration of Independence directed the colonists toward
their objective of freedom; it made them increasingly aware of the
problem of assuring their own liberties, establishing the kind of
government which would insure them of their unalienable rights
which, they believed that England had threatened.

1. Harold Faulkner, American Political And Social History, Appleton & Co.,
New York, 1948, pp-99-100.

2. Ray Billington, The Making of American Democracy, Rinehart & Co.,
 New York, 1950, p. 81.

3. Billington, op.cit., p. 82.

4. Faulkner, op. cit., pp. 101-102.

Comments: My professor gave a grade of B+ with the following notation "Almost too brief but shows an awareness of the subject matter."

Community Action Against Poverty: Readings from the Mobilization Experience

A Class Assignment:  Survey of Community Organization -13-042-61
Graduate Department of Community Planning, University of Cincinnati
Gladys Turner Finney
Instructor: Mr. Bailey Turner, Assistant Professor of Community Planning

Community Action Against Poverty:
Readings from the Mobilization Experience

This book is an anthology of articles describing largely the operation and experiences of Mobilization for Youth (MFY,) a community demonstration project developed and funded under the sponsorship of the President's Committee on Juvenile Delinquency and Youth Crime. Among the seventeen contributors of the twenty articles, twelve including the editors held key positions in the project. George A. Brager was formerly Co-Director of Mobilization for Youth and Associate Professor of Social Work at Columbia University. Francis P. Purcell was formerly chief of training for Mobilization for Youth and professor of Social Work at Rutgers University.

Throughout the articles there is an emphasis on social advocacy as a strategy for affecting institutional changes and expanding opportunity structures for the poor.

Major contributions made by the Mobilization project were its espousal of systematic inclusion of social-class variables in program planning and the concept of social worker as an advocate. Poverty is viewed as the problem, and power, through organized social action by the poor, as the solution.

Experiences of the project revealed that a local demonstration, with no jurisdiction over public institutions, could alter in a comprehensive way employment conditions or the school system.
Consequently, the project focused on such approaches as work training for out-of-school youth and adult employment programs which could be generated out of its own resources.

Institutional change was pursued by the alternate strategy of criticism and protest, each of which strained the other.  Criticism and protest damaged informal relations through which negotiation was facilitated, whereas a concern with persuasive efforts weakened the force of protests.

Some conclusions:

The project failed to carry out the federal mandate to scientifically evaluate social action approaches to juvenile delinquency.

- that a demonstration operating in a limited area, under protected auspices, does provide a justifiable federal entry into local affairs for reform.

- that the problems of the poor require political action and political action requires power.

-that the poor must be enabled, encouraged, persuaded and enticed to use organized social
action to affect institutional changes.

- that strategies for increasing the participation of the poor include social brokerage, integrative mechanisms, and social protests to support movements.

Persons interested in social policy, planning and community organization will find this a useful book to read from the standpoint of planned change through social advocacy. A principal issue for me, raised by the book involve the credibility of the government's use of demonstration grants to increase the power of the poor during periods of high social unrest, such as the 1960s. These demonstration grants were temporary, palliative measures whose accomplishments could not be permanently assured without the continuing support of the federal government.

AACF Silver Anniversary Gala-November 11, 2017

Dayton Art Institute
Gladys Turner Finney

Good Evening:

I was inspired to be a "giver" by values inculcated in me by my parents and religious faith.

My parents were :givers." They were always giving to family, friends, and neighbors.

Giving to others is a core value of my religious faith. Giving is a symbolic and action-oriented way to say "I care," "I thank you," "I love you."

My giving is a symbol of love and thankfulness and represents a legacy of faith, a faith in the future, a faith in young people- A faith in aspiring social workers, and a faith in others' capacity to change regarding issues of peace and social justice.

There is a Danish Proverb that says "He who gives to me teaches me to give." "To whom much is given,  much is required" is a biblical injunction and was said often to me by my high school history teacher, Miss Willie B. Thomas. Having been given to by so many, I must give.

I am a social worker. Coming out of the Jim Crow South, I came to believe that people I knew needed an advocate to speak up for them, which is how I chose social work as a profession. It focuses on the dignity and worth of all people, and advocates on their behalf to help them change their conditions and their lives.

Social workers do not make a lot of money in comparison to a lot of other professions. No social worker enters the profession to make money. They are motivated by the desire to help others.

My career as a clinical social worker spanned nearly forty years. I have worked with children, veterans, the elderly, and those needing end of life services, I have learned as a social worker to respect the dignity of all people. I have learned that all behavior is a search for meaning and that everyone needs love and something meaningful to do to have a self-sense of integration and wholeness.

In 1998, a friend introduced me to the AACF. We set up our fund at the same time. Because I value education and believe in the power of social workers as change agents to change lives, I established the Gladys Turner Finney Social Work Scholarship for social work students at Wright State University. To date, 18 students have been assisted with tuition and have achieved their goal of a bachelor degree in social work, BSW.

Later in 2002, after the death of my parents, I established a second fund, the Willis & Mary Bluford Turner Memorial Fund to honor their memory as an expression of gratitude for their giving to my life, and as a way to support the values and ideals of peace and social justice. My parents would be totally surprised by the fund. They were peace-loving and longed to see more evidence of peace and social justice. This fund carries on their legacy by supporting agencies in the community dedicated to peace and social justice.

The AACF is important because it allows us to pool our funds to make a larger impact. The fund now has assets of 6.5 million. This is evidence of what we can accomplish when we work together to achieve a common purpose.

On this 25th anniversary of the AACF, I rejoice and celebrate with you. It's amazing!
Thanks for being there to help me help others.

Unveiling of Joseph Carter Corbin Ohio Historical Marker-Gladys Turner Finney Comments

June 28, 2017
Ohio University Branch Chillicothe

Mayor Feeny
Dr. Tuck
Representatives of the Ohio History Commission
Faculty
Other Distinguished Members of the Dias
Friends

How very, very happy and excited I am to share this historic moment with you.

First I'd like to thank Dr. Roderick McDavis for his magnanimous support in helping this vision become a reality.-a commemorative historical marker for Professor Joseph Carter Corbin, a native son of Chillicothe, a distinguished 19th century graduate of Ohio University at Athens.

It was July 13, 2013 when a member of College Hill Community Church (PCUSA) drove me to Athens for an audience with Dr. McDavis to share my vision for enhancing Professor's Corbin's image and legacy.

I'd like to thank Dr. Tuck and Mayor Feeny for their support and the planners for this wonderful ceremony and inviting me. I'd also like to thank all those known and unknown during the transition following Dr. McDavis who helped us over the finish line.

I'd like to take a few minutes to share with you why Joseph Carter Corbin was extraordinaire.

Joseph Carter Corbin was truly extraordinaire.  This prophet of education had the audacity of courage to establish Branch Normal College for the education of former slaves and their descendants as a Branch of the Arkansas Industrial College which we all now know as the University of Arkansas at Fayetteville. This was  during the Reconstruction Era in Arkansas, following the Civil War.

I am an heir to this legacy. I am an heir to Professor Corbin's legacy of education. I am the descendant of great great grand parents who were slaves. I graduated from J.C. Corbin High School in May 1953, the last graduating class and the salutatorian of that class. At this time J.C. Corbin Training School and J. C. Corbin High School were Laboratory Schools of AM&N College, located on the college campus. I graduated from AM&N College, then known as Agricultural, Mechanical & Normal College in May 1957. This is my 60th year of graduation.

I share Professor Corbin's legacy of education with countless others, like me, who would not have had the opportunity for a college education were it not for him and this HBCU.

Professor Corbin was truly extraordinaire.
When Professor Corbin opened Branch Normal College in Pine Bluff in 1875
he had no college eligible students. His original 7 students ranged in age from 9 to 15. They were elementary students.

At the end of the Civil War only 5 African-Americans had attended school in Arkansas.
In 1866, there were only 5 African-American teachers in the state.

 The first 7 years of Branch Normal College, Professor Corbin served as the principal, the only teacher, and the janitor.

Professor Corbin produced the first bachelor degree graduate in 1882.

This prophet of education is the Father of Higher Education for African-Americans in Arkansas.

Professor Corbin's unselfish devotion to the education of others remains and is immortal and magnifies his birthplace, his native state, his Alma Mater.

In the spirit of Professor Corbin and Ohio University-- let us all teach someone, help them to achieve their potential and make the world a better place.

Lucile Finney Pryor and Life of Georgia Policies

Who was Lucille Finney Pryor?

Lucile Finney Pryor was born June 10, 1909, in Columbus, Georgia, the granddaughter of slaves.

She was a poor, uneducated domestic worker who labored in the homes of southern white women in Troy, Alabama.

She extolled christian virtue, hard work, and education. She rummaged through garbage cans for books for her son to read and instilled in him a desire for education.

Mrs. Pryor purchased Life of Georgia policies for her family. After her death her son signed on to a class- action law suit regarding race-based policies sold by Life of Georgia six years prior to his death. The class action law- suit against Life Insurance of Georgia was filed in Florida  in December 1999.

Life Insurance of Georgia is a subsidiary of the ING Group. It writes policies in eleven southeastern states.

Poor African-Americans "paid as much as 33% more than white customers for policies intended to cover burial expenses". The "companies calculated African Americans would have shorter life spans than white customers.The "insurance industry now acknowledges that poverty rather than race led to shorter lives for many of those against whom the companies discriminated."

The class-action law suit came too late for Mrs. Pryor. She died in 1988. The settlement came too late for her son. He died in 2008.  Mrs. Pryor owned Life of Georgia policies on the following persons between 1939 and 1983: Lucile Finney, Julia Stewart, Maggie Felton, Susie Felton, Ruby Felton, John H, McNair, Moses Felton, Frederic Finney.

Mrs. Pryor would not have known the details of policies Life of Georgia sold her other than they were burial policies. She would have taken the agent's word at face value. She would not have evaluated or understood cost-ratio value. As a christian and responsible adult her primary concern was not to have a loved one, a member of her family, to die without some means of "putting them away at death. She did not expect to be shortchanged.

Part of the Life of Georgia settlement was used by the heir to memorialize Mrs. Pryor and a gift to an educational institution.

Sources: "Settlement Near for Insurer Accused of Overcharging Blacks, New York Times, January                      10, 2009.
                  Personal Records of Mrs. Lucile Pryor.

Gladys T. Turner Thoughts About Self

After my mother's death in 2002, I brought home a supply of notebooks I had used at AM&N College, Moton High School, Atlanta University, Fulton County Public Welfare Department, and Cook County Hospital Social Services.


" My intellectual interest arises from my desire to understand the basic problems of group life, a consciousness of how people meet their basic needs by controlling or altering their environment and a desire to render service to those unable to make transitions or meet their basic needs in a changing social order. In addition to giving service I want to participate with others in determining causes of social problems:
(1) to think deeply and help in community planning and projects in order to help alleviate conditions of physical, mental, emotional, economic, and social maladjustment.

(2) To help others understand social realities through planned realistic experiences. The presentation of knowledge, the developing of useful skills and attitudes that are consistent and harmoniously related brings a very important reward, the satisfaction of doing a job that is meaningful and important in helping tomorrow's good citizens in every walk of life. Walking with people from day to day makes each hour a challenging experience."   Gladys T. Turner----  Moton High School Note book, 1956

"To me he's a fabulous character.
  (and I love him so)
  He walks by my side and I dance on air.
  I find he's a kind of a special guy
  I kiss him and I know why.
  (my life is a song)
   He's so marvelous
   no one can compare
   Till now my life was a merry-go-round
   I never knew a carefree day."   Gladys T. Turner--- Moton High School Note book, 1956 re James
   Whitley, College boyfriend.