The Attainments of the Association of Community Organizations - Research Paper Example

The Association of Community Organization of Reform Now (ACORN Introduction and Background 1 About ACORN Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now, ACORN, is the largest community organization in the United States of low- and moderate-income families that are working together for social justice and stronger communities. From the time since 1970, this organization has developed to more than 350, 000 members who are regulated in around 850 areas in over 100 cities across the United States as well as in cities such as Argentina, Mexico, Peru, the Dominican Republic and Canada (Official Website, 2009). The attainments of ACORN are inclusive of prosperous crusades and operations for better housing, schools, neighborhood security, job provisions, health care, etc. The members of ACORN take part in local meets and diligently work upon the stipulations and functions, thereby, electing leadership from the neighborhood level up, and paying the organization's foundation expenses by means of membership dues as well as grassroots fundraisers (Official Website, 2009). This organization has faced up to the conventional concepts of what a community organization actually is, along with its family of organizations which is inclusive of two radio stations, a housing corporation, a voter registration set of connections, and various publications. Today, ACORN has become America's most eminent left-wing community organization. Until now, there is little that is known, however, ACORN has played a significant role in the sub-prime mortgage issue which has degraded the support of Americans with regards to the free market problem-solving, thereby, setting off a widespread chain of financial catastrophes. Moreover, ACORN is also inferred in vote scams from coast to coast. The ultimate aim of ACORN is to provide America with the change and transformation which is believed in by the socialists, be it by any means. It is intentionally organized to steer clear of any kind of inspections (Vadum, 2008). The longevity, size and scope of ACORN make it distinct amongst the masses, however, two features actually distinguish it from others, and they are an absolute commitment to organizing the poor and the under-privileged and the powerless, along with a continuous willingness and ability to break new ground (Official Website, 2009). 1.2 History of ACORN The sixth decade of the twentieth century was a significant epoch in the history of American politics for the reason that the American decade observed struggles and efforts for freedom of the people with low-income and the minorities across the nation along with a war that intensely disseminated all Americans (Official Website, 2009). In the midst of all the hassle and conflicts, some significant lessons were taken care of by the ones who profoundly cared about America and her residents. Those lessons could be anything about endurance by making a lasting influence on the nation. One of the social welfare communities which took into account all the perils investigated various concepts and ideologies, thereby, developing a distinct formula for a government of justice in America. It was the National Welfare Rights Organization or NWRO, which was piloted by George Wiley (Official Website, 2009). Wiley established this organization in the mid-sixties in order to establish a national drive for the requirements and rights of the low-income residents of America. By the year 1966, the NWRO was in charge of 170 groups in around 60 cities across the country (Official Website, 2009). Regardless of the very actual requirements of its associates, NWRO was meant to stay as a small minority with restrained authority in American governmental affairs unless and until it was capable of building a set of communication of friends and allies. As a result, when this actuality became lucid, Wiley started experimenting with the likeliness of a larger electorate for economic justice. Hence, he introduced Wade Rathke, his capable organizer, into the implications of his creativity to the difficulties. Rathke was supposed to give rise to a campaign which would NWRO organizing to communities which should provide with assistance and support, and at the same time, would have little compassion for its cause which was comprised of conservative, low- and moderate-income Southern Americans (Official Website, 2009). Moreover, he had to perform in a situation which was profoundly divided in racial terms, essentially conservative and functioned by a wealthy politically privileged. Nevertheless, for the reason that Wiley, Rathke and the NWRO took hold of the economic justice in an all the more serious way and assessed the conventions and customs of social justice movements in the American chronology, and as a result, they witnessed possibilities as well as opportunities where others failed. They introduced a movement which had the capability of uniting races, uniting neighborhoods, and joining the common interests and accomplishments of the low as well as moderate-income people wherever they resided or worked. In 1970, Rathke initiated a campaign to aid welfare beneficiaries with their fundamental needs and requirements, clothing as well as fixtures. This drive commenced the effort to create and maintain a social justice movement which would develop to embellish into the Community Organizations for Reform Now- ACORN (Official Website, 2009). It ultimate aim was to bring together the welfare beneficiaries with the working classes in need around matter of free school lunches for school kids, the jobless workers' concerns as well as hospitality urgency room concerns. This was a notion that was brought up to develop and adapt, thrive and burgeon to become an influential movement overseas. 1.3 Preliminary development The widespread visualization of ACORN as an association to unify the helpless in the hunt for economic justice was not contributed by all the associates. The incorporation of many associates and communities in a single alliance was not easy and somewhat pricey. These prices, nevertheless, proved to be an essential segment of the struggle to develop into a force for social welfare in America. Meticulously, many welfare regulatory members looked for a strict welfare rights commune and hence, pulled out themselves from the organization, in a fear that they would lose all the regulations. Post the segregation the organization broadened its horizons with the supplementation of the Vietnam Veterans Organizing Committee or VVOC as well as the Unemployed Workers Organizing Committee or UWOC (Official Website, 2009). Followed by the above mentioned Committees, ACORN organized a 'Save the City' campaign which addressed the blue-collar home-owners' concerns, in particular, traffic problems in the Centennial section, and the real estate communes who incorporated in block-busting in the OAK FOREST section (Official Website, 2009). With time passing by, ACORN developed its horizons geologically, as well. It established six regional work-places in the state itself and campaigns were developed around concern to small town as well as the rural classes. Hence, foundations were laid for state-wide campaigns. In the year 1975, ACORN developed into a multi-state organization with novel branches in Texas and South Dakota. Each year, thenceforth, ACORN witnessed the unifying of three or more states, with an attainment of 20 states by the year 1980 (Official Website, 2009). This widespread expansion of the organization resulted in multi-state campaigns with considerable number of members in respective meets. 1.4 The Reagan Epoch (1980-1985) This period, also known as the Reagan Era in American history, saw drastic transformations in the American politics as well as social life. For ACORN, this period is considered to be one of adjustments, maintenance, intrinsic consolidation and, astoundingly, growth and development. With the conclusion of many successful campaigns, the staff of ACORN was elongated thin by the stipulations of meeting the goals of expanding to twenty states by 1980. Much of its reserves as well as energy had been offered to take part in the presidential primaries and national conventions of the Republican and Democratic Parties (Official Website, 2009). The 8th decade of the twentieth century proved to be an era when the political elite in America was not much concerned with the requirements of the low as well as moderate-income people than ever. The ultimate target of the Reagan Administration was to reallocate wealth in the upward direction, which construed to move away from the ones with little and towards the ones with lots. It laid stress on looking out for Number One, thereby, shoving away the concerns of the needy or the long-term usual welfare for the American masses. The instantaneous influence of the presidency of Reagan was a crucial recession with augmented unemployment, a swift increment in the prices of essentials and critical economic hardships for the lower end of the economic scale (Official Website, 2009). ACORN introduced a campaign to acquire affordable housing and keeping in mind that the economic turmoil had provoked many people to evasion on the mortgages, it sought to place the needy in the resulting vacant homes. However, this called for the forceful as well as illegal seizure of the properties. This campaign, known as the squatting campaign, was inclusive of personal, community as well as political parameters. The personal requirements of people with homes allured many people to advertisements placed by ACORN. It called for a commitment on personal level in order to move into vacant and underprivileged houses and renovate it for a comfy dwelling. It was also inclusive of the menace of arrest in case the local authorities denied them the legal vocation of the home. As a matter of fact, the response was all the more appreciable. By means of such campaigns, ACORN received national exposure on the housing concerns and strengthened its stand as the leading authority on low-income community development (Official Website, 2009). 1.5 Development and Future Post various campaigns, ACORN matured with time in preparation for the conclusion for the twentieth century. The people as well as the organization they consist of happened to grow in size, numbers and development. The preliminary version of the movement heading towards victory and attain power to regulate the significant decisions in the American life for the majority was continuous in guiding the associates of ACORN as well as the supporters across the nation. The crests and troughs in struggle for over two decades made them realize the worth of the struggle as well as the significance of winning. Also, the process of struggle made way to the development of a source to attain their goal. 2. SWOT Analysis ACORN, being the nation's largest grassroots community organization of low -and moderate-income masses with over 400,000 associate families organized into a number of neighborhood chapters across the country, has been building community organizations which are committed to social as well as economic justice, and as a result, has won victories of thousands of concerns to its members by means of direct action, negotiation, voter participation, and a proper legislative advocacy. This section would do an in-depth analysis of the organization's Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats. 2.1 Strengths The only reason for a strong backdrop for this organization is its multiple issue campaigns. ACORN associates across the country work to raise the minimum salary or endorse wage policies, thereby, eliminating the predatory financial practices by the mortgage lenders, payday lenders as well as tax preparation firms. Hence, they win the development of the affordable housing and community advantages agreements, thereby, improvising the quality of and funding for urban public schools. Also, they've rebuilt New Orleans by passing a federal as well as state ACORN Working Families Agenda which is inclusive of paid sick leave for all the full-time labor (Official Website, 2009). All the above quoted factors add to the strengths of ACORN. A current analysis of the organization demonstrates that its issue campaign victories have delivered roughly $15 billion in the straight financial benefits to their membership as well as constituency over the past decade (Official Website, 2009). The greatest strength of ACORN is that its associates retain their roots in the local community and are very much driven from the bottom. With a number of accomplishments in housing, schools, jobs, voter participation, health and environmental justice, and most importantly, neighborhood safety, ACORN has made a place at the top and has a wonderful sampling of things it has accomplished so far. 2. Weaknesses Within all the strengths the organization is in possession of, ACORN requires to improve and enhance relations between the international as well as national masses as such weakness of the national masses as compared to the others may lead to the consideration of the international forces as inefficacious. Hence, this may result in national communities establish segregated programs in parallel with the international system. Moreover, ACORN requires mending the difficulties of extending memberships to geographically distant developing countries. The members may, too often, need stimulation as well as financial support, which is not always likely to supply from constrained budgets the organization has. Moreover, since, ACORN has a winsome internationally recognized legal status, it might face difficulties in working in tandem with its fellow organization because of its heavily recognized halo. Also, the controversial background of ACORN may tend to come its way and refrain it from the worldly accomplishments, at some instances. 3. Opportunities and Threats The conclusion of the twentieth century follows the building and consolidation of the previous work. With rigorous working at all levels of politics and in every corner of the country, ACORN has parlayed its building attempts into significant victories and accomplishments. Its victories are inclusive of health, public safety, education, representation, work as well as workers' right and communication issues (Official Website, 2009). With a democratic President and Congress, the national government has become more receptive to the reforms that are indulged in promoting the political authority of low as well as moderate income masses. ACORN has played a significant role in the passage as well as application of the 1993 National Voter Registration Act after which, the members of ACORN were the attendants of President Clinton's singing ceremony (Official Website, 2009). The last five years of the twentieth century witnessed key innovations in ACORN, thereby, making it a stronger organization with rigorous preparation to function in a hostile political climate and win. New techniques in the organization have incremented the dues-paying and meeting attendance, chiefly in large towns. This has given rise to wonderful opportunities by introducing new chapters to regions of Seattle, San Jose, and Baltimore. However, the resurgence of the Republican Party in Congress somewhat drastically changed the political picture of ACORN. It had posed new threats to the long-surviving ACORN campaigns, thereby, meaning a loss of assistance and support for the ACORN initiatives. Nonetheless, from its commencement, ACORN has fought against political parties who have resisted their ideologies and their work in order to build power for the underprivileged. The history of ACORN represents that it is stronger than ever and is always all-set for the sustained struggle. 3. Marketing Analysis ACORN has defined its marketing by the practice of mortgage lending in which usurious interest rates, too often, collaborated with exotic features and traps, are prone to cause a borrower to lose their home and equity. Such predatory loans have many attributes which include re-setting interest rates, pre-payment penalties for trapping the borrowers in loans, along with a lack of confirmation of the borrower's capability to repay the loan over the entire term. Such predatory practices gave rise to a voracious secondary market for subprime loans, which trailed higher interest rates, and therefore, higher yields to the investors who bought tranches of the subprime mortgage backed securities (Report, 2009). Over a ten year period of the functioning of ACORN, serious fashions emerged to demonstrate parties' engagement with the concern of predatory lending and warnings with regards to the likelihood of mass fore-closures, along with the comprehension of how an extensive failure in the housing market could undermine other sectors of the US economy. ACORN recognized early on that such dangerous lending practices would comprise of far-reaching influences on families, neighborhoods, as well as the broader economy. For the reason that the rating agencies as well as the controllers were not attentive, the risky security forces were rated as extremely safe investments, which liquidated the sub-prime market and encouraged the propagation of even riskier lending in a nasty race to the ground (Report, 2009). Sub-prime loans have been taking over too much of the mortgage market, thereby, replacing more and more affordable prime loans. Quite a lot of these sub-prime loans were predatory for the reason that the lenders lied to the borrowers about their loans, and did not offer them more and more affordable alternatives. As a result, they failed to disclose all the hidden fees which hiked the future interest rate. Moreover, the predatory sub-prime lenders were aiming at the African American, Latino and low-income communes, by selling them bad loans even when the applicants were in possession of good credit and could have easily made it to acquire better loan products. Some of these flaws and mistakes committed by the organization have resulted in a lower degree of market, thereby, degrading their reputation to heights (Report, 2009). 4. Competitive Analysis While various organizations have segregated themselves from organizing the low-income communities, ACORN has never dithered in its conviction that without large scale organizations of poor people, progressive transformation is not possible in a country like the United States (Official Website, 2009). ACORN now operates in more than 100 cities, and has never actually saturated its welfare-rights mentality. One is left baffled in finding the organization's many anti-poverty initiatives and programs that address social dysfunctions. However, as stated by Steven Kest, who is the Executive Producer of ACORN, the motive of this organization is to focus upon the irresponsible behavior in the corporate sector. He fails to relate social dysfunctions with any irresponsible behavior of people running the largest businesses in the country (Malanga, 2006). ACORN has been hit by various extrinsic parties where the attacks were originated with business groups which opposed the organizing work of ACORN around living wages, predatory lending and registration of low-income and minority voters (Foser, 2009). ACORN acts as a partner as well as front for union causes, including the attacks which range from those on the giants like Wal-Mart to non-profit hospitals. However, ACORN along with its founder, Wade Rathke, is looking forward to introduce multi-union campaign in order to attack Wal-Mart as well as its reputation in the market. Its ultimate goal has been to pressurize the company into incrementing its labor costs so that it is on par with its less-competitive, but highly unionized competitors (Employment Policies Institute, 2006). 5. Conclusion From the time since its founding in 1970, Association of Communities Organization of Reform Now, ACORN, has made significant contributions to the community organizing. Whilst, there have been considerable difficulties with ACORN, it has represented the caliber of local organizations unite together for a national influence. It has attained victories for low income communes on issues such as housing, community reinvestment, living wage standards etc. moreover, it has stood up for the interests of the poor, thereby, giving voice to the concerns of people who are quite often shunned from the masses. For all these reasons, ACORN is fully deserving of the opportunities to assess and reform its organizational systems and processes, thereby, reaching new heights in the near future. There is no argument regarding the painful mistakes committed by this organization, but unlike some other government contractors whose actions have had catastrophic consequences, ACORN willfully fought against all the problems. Moreover, it quickly fired the staffers in the infamous video-clips and instantaneously ordered retraining of its laborers (Official Website, 2009). ACORN is an organization with a worthy mission which has made some mistakes, however, is attempting to courageously rectify them. The support for ACORN's efforts to put its house in sequence is in abundance, and as a result, ACORN has all the public trust it seeks for. References Employment Policies Institute. (2006). Rotten ACORN: America's Bad Seed. Employment Policies Institute, Washington Foser, Jamison. (2009). ACORN: Like a Dog That's Been Beat Too Much. News Analysis, 25 September 2009. Media Matters for America. Official Website. (2009). What Is ACORN. < www.acorn.org>. Malanga, Steven. (2006). Acorn Squash. Article, August 26, 2006. The Wall Street Journal. Report. (2009). ACORN and John McCain: The Real Story of the Financial Crisis1999 to 2008. Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now, Louisiana. Pp. 1-13. Vadum, Matthew. (2008). ACORN: Who Funds the Weather Underground's Little Brother. Foundation Watch, Capital Research Center. Read More