Local Programs Need Greater Support

To the Editor:

Our experience promoting the work of a handful of outstanding community organizations in New York City confirms Robert L. Woodson, Sr.’s assertion that “The most effective strategies [for alleviating conditions in America’s inner cities] are forged by people in the very neighborhoods that are the most troubled” (“How Foundations Could Solve Social Problems,” My View, August 13).

Over the last four years, the Catalog for Giving has worked to identify dynamic grassroots programs serving at-risk youths and to assist them with the time-consuming tasks of fund raising and outreach, which reduce the resources they have to respond creatively and effectively to change young people’s lives.

Whether it’s enabling children to create their own solutions to urban problems, such as making sleeping bags for the homeless; teaching at-risk youths to view the law as a positive tool rather than one of oppression; or giving high-school students the opportunity to write for a national student newspaper, community programs like those profiled in the Catalog for Giving are at the forefront of efforts to revitalize inner cities.

The American public intuitively understands this and wants to support such programs. And as this support is essential for social change to succeed, the public must be educated about what is happening in its communities and how it can lend financial and in-kind assistance to these kinds of community programs.

Sally W. Berg
Barbara Kronman
Co-Directors
The Catalog for Giving
New York

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To the Editor:

Robert Woodson, Sr.’s insightful opinion must be emphasized and re-emphasized again and again.

For 70 years, Happy Workers, in St. Petersburg, Fla., has been serving one of the poorest and most isolated communities in this nation. Currently, we care for and teach 180 children ages 2 months to 5 years. We also have a backlog of nearly 800 calls from people wanting to get their children into our infant- and toddler-care and early-childhood-education programs.

Peace education and peaceful resolution are at the core of our educational efforts. There are a number of foundations that massively fund intervention strategies concerning youth violence, but who funds grassroots efforts to prevent violence? Our goal at Happy Workers is to encourage peaceful community life at a time when children need encouragement more than ever before.

We pray that Mr. Woodson’s valuable insights will serve as a guiding light for foundations to reconsider and reprioritize their funding initiatives.

Virginia Irving
Executive Director
Richard Bowers
Development Officer
Friends of Happy Workers
St. Petersburg, Fla.