As new residents crowd into our cities and metropolitan areas, the problem of providing adequate educational opportunities for these migrants is a responsibility and challenge that commands the attention of the educational agencies at local, State, and national levels. In the next chapter various kinds of community adult education practices and programs involving migrants will be described. Most of the programs are being carried out in conjunction with major urban renewal efforts in several of our large metropolitan areas. These descriptions simply serve to illustrate how some cities are approaching the problems, and the success they have had involving citizens of their communities in educational programs designed to improve their community living.

CHAPTER III

Selected Urban Community Approaches to the Education of Migrants

DEMOCRACY CAN BE EXTENDED and perpetuated best

when education functions as a dynamic social activity. This is at the heart of the adult education process. If neighborhoods are to become areas for effective, social action, then all educational elements and resources must be used in a creative effort to secure improvement in the cultural, social, and physical development of the people in our cities.

The conditions existing in the blighted and slum areas of many of our urban cities suggest specific changes which our communities should make to improve city life and urban education for a larger number of our citizens. The Federal Government has recognized that the plight of these communities, though mainly local in nature, is of national concern, and that many of them cannot cope with the problems of blight elimination and prevention without help. Through the Housing Act of 1954, with later amendments, a series of facilities have been provided to extend certain types of Federal assistance to American communities.

The comprehensive objectives of the Federal urban renewal program have been stated by the Federal Housing Administrator as follows:

We... are helping salvage all that remains sound of the community's past, helping to redevelop its present form into something more serviceable for our time, and helping, through intelligent planning, to give purposeful shape to its future.1

During the past decade many educational efforts in our larger cities have been undertaken and financed as part of urban renewal programs.

Urban renewal activity is based upon a "workable program" which is the community's own long-range practical guide to

1 Aids to Your Community Programs of the Housing and Home Finance Agency. Washington: Housing and Home Finance Agency, March 1958. p. 3.

achieve "clinic face lifting, to rid itself of blighted neighborhoods, prevent recurrence of urban decay, improve building and housing standards, and prepare for orderly municipal growth." 2

This program is based upon the following seven objectives:

1. Adequate local housing, health, and safety codes and ordinances, effectively enforced.

2.

A comprehensive plan for community development.

3. Analysis of blighted neighborhoods to determine treatment needed.

4. Effective administrative organization to carry out the improvement

program.

5. Ability to meet financial requirements.

6. Rehousing families displaced by urban renewal and other Governmental activities.

7. Citizen participation and support for local renewal objectives. The urban renewal program recognizes that population growth and economic expansion have a massive impact on community facilities and public services. Many localities are hard-pressed to keep pace with the demand for sewers, schools, water systems, and other public works required for modern community life, and for facilities to provide diversified educational opportunities.

The Community Facilities Administration of the Federal Housing and Home Finance Agency organized in 1954 is able to assist in planning and financing community institutional facilities, and in giving loans, advances, and technical help to the communities and institutions it serves.

The program provides assistance to communities requiring physical reconstruction of facilities required for housing and servicing the needs of people in the urban areas of our cities. Many educational institutions and agencies take advantages of the services offered.

Citizen participation is a required part of urban renewal programs in order to assist city agencies in accomplishing the renewal and rehabilitation of blighted neighborhoods. Citizens become members of citizens advisory planning councils and neighborhood urban renewal committees in order to work with the city councils, city planning boards, school boards, boards of health, recreation and public works and with law enforcement agencies. Urban renewal is basically a community undertaking, and the program concerns old as well as new residents. It involves a process of

2 Ibid., p. 4.

community awakening, understanding, and participation. Adult education can help secure this kind of understanding.

Areas undergoing urban renewal and redevelopment in our cities generally have large proportions of new residents or newcomers. A majority of the new families settle in the most economically depressed neighborhoods. The new families many times change the ethnic composition of the neighborhood. This change, in turn, affects the churches, schools, clubs, service centers, hospitals, and other organizations in the areas. These institutions may require major changes if they are to be used by the newcomers. Very few public programs today involve the urban migrant more closely than urban renewal; and the housing of the migrant or new resident is involved in urban renewal programs in most local communities to a far greater extent than any other problem. This is true in city after city, whether the project is a "paint-up, fix-up” campaign or the complete redevelopment of an area.

Many local groups are engaged in improving their communities in urban areas throughout the United States. Although there are many patterns of organization, support, and programs, the basic common objective remains the same which is to provide a device for community self-improvement through intelligent participation by many individuals and to offer channels through which neighborhoods take a more active part in the life of the larger urban area. The particular methodology of these groups is generally based upon research, education, and action.

Increasingly, citizens are beginning to see that schools are not for children alone. In thousands of communities, citizens have developed visions of a better life not only for themselves but also for their peers. Sometimes, the schools have led in this program. Other times the leadership has come from other agencies. Leadership in American communities is diverse, changing and shifting from one group to another.

Among the many programs undertaken, a description of eight programs have been included in this bulletin. There are many more programs underway which are equally as significant as the ones included. The programs described represent activities currently underway which illustrate new concepts and methods in dealing with the problems of the newcomer.

A COMMUNITY EDUCATION PROJECT

In the District of Columbia, a demonstration project was conducted which focused attention upon the educational and other

services which must accompany decent, safe, and sanitary housing if the elimination of slums is to be lastingly effective.3

The urban renewal program began in 1953 with the displacement of 1,300 families from a 100-acre site known as Project Area B, just south of the Capitol. The families living in the area were predominantly Negroes with an average annual income of less than $2,000.

The Redevelopment Land Agency completed the relocation of more than 1,300 families from the area in November of 1955. Before the initiation of the relocation in 1954, the Land Agency called together representatives of many of the educational, social, and health agencies in the city to discuss ways and means of handling educational, social, and health problems expected during the relocation process. All agreed that representatives of the various agencies would sit as an advisory committee during the relocation process.

The Southwest Urban Renewal Demonstration Project was established on January 2, 1958, with the signing of the contract between the District of Columbia Redevelopment Land Agency and the Health and Welfare Council of the National Capital Area. Headquarters for the project were not occupied until March 16, 1958.

Prior to the establishment of this project, it was determined by a survey that one-fourth of the population of the District of Columbia lived in areas of the city which had been identified as requiring physical renewal. The first section of the city in which urban renewal projects were undertaken was Southwest Washington. From this area, about 4,000 families needed to be relocated into other parts of the District.

The experiences in relocating families from Area B showed that a new approach had to be found to the problem of persuading families to accept decent housing in good neighborhoods and to meet the higher standard of living in these areas. The experiences were also pointed up clearly: (1) The need for a comprehensive community-supported program to develop in the families to be displaced a desire to move to decent housing, and to develop new standards of living and behavior necessary to become community members in good standing; and (2) the need for a coordinated enlightened approach to the challenge afforded by mass population displacement.

Essential data for this section were furnished in reports provided by the Southwest Redevelopment Demonstration Project.