COMMUNITY ACTIVISM IN OAK PARK: COMPETING AGENDAS ...

Members of the Women’s Group consisted of a dozen women who lived in the
Oak Park neighborhood. Some members were newly arrived at the neighborhood, were
mothers, and wanted to help the poor after observing how they struggled to survive
without adequate resources. Other members had been involved in various community
projects for a long time and wanted to join a Women’s Group to help the poor through
direct service involvement. The members who participated in the Women’s Group felt
they could more effectively help improve the community through grass-roots projects,
instead of directly supporting revitalization projects. In sum, these women observed the
struggles of children in the neighborhood and wanted to carry out positive change for
children through the formation of a women’s group. These women met regularly to
discuss the challenges that women and children faced in the community.
The Women’s Group was formed in 2006 by a twenty-something year-old Asian
woman named Linda, who had resided in the neighborhood for a few years. She was an
active member of a church group and wanted to eventually secure a job that involved
helping the poor. I met Linda at a Neighborhood Association meeting and we quickly
became acquaintances. Linda invited me to participate in a Women’s Needs Assessment
Study she was conducting and invited me to attend a meeting of her Women’s Group.
She also informed me that women in her Women’s Group wanted to create projects to
help women and children in the neighborhood. As the creator of the Women’s Group,
Linda provided the meeting spot, facilitated the meetings, encouraged dialogue about
potential neighborhood projects that benefited women and children, and created focus
groups to undertake her Women’s Needs Assessment Study. The women in this group
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