Community Development.

For several years the Foundation has supported varied efforts to help disadvantaged minorities achieve parity in American society—from national programs to eliminate discrimination to local programs for housing and economic development. In the course of this work, the accomplishments of local multipurpose organizations, now known as community development corporations, or CDCs, have been impressive. Convinced that they are effective vehicles for the future distribution of large Federal and private resources, the Foundation decided this year to concentrate increased effort on helping to develop such agencies further or to start a few new ones. At the same time the Foundation will continue supporting organizations that provide CDCs with services or capital.

An effective community development corporation is characterized by broad community support; by the ability to finance and run successful programs of employment, housing, community development, health, and other services; and by leaders sensitive to community desires and skilled in marshaling funds from the larger society.

The Watts Labor Community Action Committee, a paradigm of such organizations, received continued support this year. Rising from the ashes of the 1965 Los Angeles riots, the Watts committee has evolved into an array of black-owned and managed corporations that operate supermarkets, a restaurant, a credit union, recreational facilities, manpower training projects, a housing program, and other enterprises.

Exemplifying a transition in many ghetto organizations from concern about a single pressing issue to concern about a range of needs is the Resident Advisory Board of Philadelphia. Organized to alleviate tenant-management problems in public housing, the agency now helps manage projects, trains managers, and has gained the Housing Authority's agreement to give tenants preference in project jobs. The board was granted $180,000 to expand its training and employment activities, and to undertake such new ventures as a tenant-run laundry.

In New York, the Bedford-Stuyvesant Restoration Corporation—which operates one of the country's best-known community development programs—received $843,308 to continue reconstruction and rehabilitation in a Brooklyn black ghetto, including development of a multipurpose civic center. Since it began in 1966, the project has improved forty-five blocks of housing, attracted $65 million in mortgage capital, placed 3,000 residents in jobs, generated over $3 million in business loans, and induced a national corporation to locate a branch plant in the area.

Rural minority community organizations receiving grants or loans included the Home Education Livelihood Program, which runs agricultural demonstration projects in once moribund Mexican American communities