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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especially vulnerable to the negative effects of poverty. They argued that children, in<br />
their formative years, needed special attention to gain a solid foundation to allow for<br />
social growth.<br />
Abrahams (1996:769) explains that women’s community activism provides<br />
resources and promotes values regarding the meaning of ‘community’ and is a form of<br />
solidarity to develop a social arena of discourse in which the community’s ‘private’ needs<br />
are exposed and debated as a responsibility of the state. The women in the women’s<br />
group often spoke of their work as a way to “give back to the community,” gain personal<br />
rewards, and produce social change. Their efforts for social change are very different<br />
from that of the Neighborhood Association and the labor association. And they believed<br />
revitalization has both positive and negative impacts on the poor and strived to create<br />
projects to temper its negative effects. While depending on grants from the government<br />
to fulfill their agenda of working with women and children, they take a different<br />
approach than the Neighborhood Association and the labor association. Social change,<br />
from their perspective, can be conducted by helping women and children build social<br />
capital, the key to sustainability and social mobility. The women’s focus on local<br />
community politics and their style of working behind the scenes rendered them at times<br />
invisible, but important voices in community resource allocation.<br />
Conflict among Middle-class and Lower-income Residents<br />
The gentrification which had been occurring in Oak Park and overwhelmingly<br />
sparking conflict between middle-class and lower-income residents was exacerbated by<br />
middle-class efforts to clean up the neighborhood. In January 2006, the home of a CSUS<br />
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