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