By DAVE RANNEY
Gov. Sam Brownback’s administration has awarded a one-year, $314,000 grant to a Washington, D.C.-based organization, the Center for Neighborhood Enterprise, to help low-income communities find ways to combat poverty, violence, substance abuse and absent fathers. “I’m excited to see this nationally recognized, successful initiative come to Kansas,” Brownback said in a recent Kansas Department for Children and Families news release of the national organization led by Robert L. Woodson Sr.
“Government doesn’t have the answers, our citizens know the problems plaguing their communities,” Brownback said, “and I look forward to working with Mr. Woodson to help our towns and neighborhoods grow at a grassroots level.” The Center for Neighborhood Enterprise is known for helping often-unrecognized leaders find ways to improve their communities without being overly dependent on government programs.
According to the grant, DCF and Center for Neighborhood Enterprise officials will recruit, train and assist 240 leaders from 17 cities: Dodge City, Fort Scott, Great Bend, Garden City, Hays, Hutchinson, Independence, Kansas City, Lawrence, Leavenworth, Liberal, Manhattan, Olathe, Pittsburg, Salina, Topeka and Wichita. Leaders in each community will be encouraged to “draft ideas” for addressing local needs.
Afterward, their proposals may be eligible for additional funding through public or private grant programs. The groups are expected to include people involved in law enforcement, child welfare, health care, mental health, social services, city government, credit counseling and the local faith community.
The initial meetings are expected to start in March. Theresa Freed, a DCF spokesperson, said the grant is underwritten with State General Fund monies in the department’s budget for the current fiscal year. The grant, awarded in November, was not subject to legislative approval.
The Center for Neighborhood Enterprise was founded in 1981 by Woodson, a former National Urban League administrator. According to the Center for Neighborhood Enterprise website, Woodson, now 77, “is the only person ever to have received both the liberal and conservative world’s most prestigious awards — the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur ‘Genius’ Fellowship and the Lynde and Harry Bradley Foundation Prize, as well as the Presidential Citizens Medal.”
Woodson has agreed to spend up to 208 hours on the Kansas project. A Wall Street Journal article last year described Woodson as a “no-nonsense black conservative” who’s known for taking a market-driven — rather than government-dependent — approach to fighting poverty. In an interview Wednesday with KHI News Service, Woodson said most anti-poverty programs go into troubled communities “looking for deficiencies — families with kids who’ve dropped out of school, are in jail or on drugs.” The Center for Neighborhood Enterprise, he said, takes a different approach.
“When we go in, we look at the 30 percent of the homes without those deficiencies,” he said. “We identify their strengths, and then we look for what can be done to build on those strengths.” Oftentimes, he said, the strengths can be developed by using resources within the private sector rather than relying on government-funded support.
“The reason the word ‘enterprise’ is in our name is because we believe the principles that apply in a market economy also should apply in a social economy,” Woodson said. Barry Feaker, executive director at the Topeka Rescue Mission, said he’s not familiar with the Center for Neighborhood Enterprise. “What they’re wanting to do sounds like what we’re doing with Hi-Crest here in Topeka,”
Feaker said, referring to one of the most poverty-stricken neighborhoods in the nation. “It’s all about empowering people within their own neighborhoods.” Feaker said he’s been “more than encouraged” by the rescue mission’s successes in reaching out to Hi-Crest residents. “Crime is down,” he said.
“There’s a renewed interest in the community; residents have latched on to some hope in what they can do. City government is more involved, the private sector is more involved. There’s housing rehabilitation going on that wasn’t going on before. There’s a lot more interaction between the mental health and substance abuse programs. There’s been an explosion in interest from church groups. There’s significant momentum going forward.”
Feaker said he would welcome the Center for Neighborhood Enterprise effort in Topeka. “We don’t have all the answers,” he said. “If they can come in and generate some substantive ideas on where to go from here, I’m all for that. Time will tell, I guess.”
Dave Ranney is a reporter for Heartland Health Monitor, a news collaboration focusing on health issues and their impact in Missouri and Kansas.