COMMUNITY ACTIVISM IN OAK PARK: COMPETING AGENDAS ...

in the community. With the guidance of a CSUS Women’s Study professor, Linda
surveyed/interviewed about fifty women in the community about what resources they
thought were being provided and were lacking for women in the community. The
surveys/interviews and results of the study would then be video recorded to create a
documentary titled, Where I Live: Talking to Women in Oak Park. The documentary and
findings of the study would thereafter be presented at a CSUS Women’s Studies Forum,
titled, Women in Oak Park: Past, Present, and Future at a Baptist church in Oak Park.
The women’s group consisted of about twelve women who lived in Oak Park who
wanted to help improve the quality of life for women and children in their community by
creating projects that helped women and youth in the neighborhood. The group often
talked about how Oak Park was becoming gentrified and about the effects it had on
women and children. They agreed that gentrification presented good and bad outcomes
for them and tried to create projects that would help temper its negative effects.
The members of the women’s group believed social change could be facilitated
from the “ground up,” through grassroots efforts, by creating small projects, such as
reading bookmobiles for children and mentoring sessions for women. The women
believed that projects for poor women and children such as those were needed to assist
the poor while they tried to overcome poverty. Many of these women felt the poor could
not break out of poverty because they lacked cultural capital, family support, and the
other resources that provided them access to education, jobs, and resources necessary for
social mobility. They wanted to help provide resources to help them break out of
poverty.
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