Community Organizing + Community Development = Community Transformation

red-lining by mortgage lenders and panic-peddling/blockbusting tactics by unscrupulous realtors. The real-estate agents also abused the newly opened FHA mortgage guarantee program, leading to record numbers of vacant, foreclosed homes. To confront these practices local residents organized a strong base of community power. While actively pursuing remediation of lending and real estate practices, the organizing efforts also focused on developing strategies to reverse the significant decline that had we had already experienced through the creation of a neighborhood development program. Accordingly, the Greater Southwest Development Corporation (GSDC) was formed in 1974 as a non-profit CDC to combat neighborhood decline. For 29 years, GSDC has operated in a fixed, three square-mile area of southwest Chicago, home to just under 100,000 ethnically and racially diverse people. The Southwest Organizing Project (SWOP) is a traditional ‘‘Alinsky umbrella style’ ’ community organiza-tion consisting of 28 member groups. These 28 organizations have a registered enroll-ment of 31,000 families. While GSDC and SWOP are separate organizations, they operate in a cooperative manner. They have overlapping directorates and bring different