COMMUNITY ACTIVISM IN OAK PARK: COMPETING AGENDAS ...

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