Industrial Areas Foundation

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The Industrial Areas Foundation is a Chicago-based community organization established in 1940 by Saul Alinsky. There are currently 57 IAF affiliates functioning in 21 states, Canada, the United Kingdom, and Germany.

Its first board of directors included Catholic bishop Bernard Sheil, Kathryn Lewis (daughter of coal miners union leader John L. Lewis), and philanthropist Marshall Field III. It does not explicitly promote any ideological agenda, but rather seeks to build a network of affiliates focused on specific social and political goals. It describes its chief purpose as power and its chief product as social change.

Alinsky's first organizing project was the Back of the Yards Neighborhood Council in Chicago. After World War II Alinsky met Fred Ross in California, and in 1949 agreed to back his plan to organize the Community Service Organization in Mexican-American communities. Ross introduced house-meetings as an organizing technique, and built a network of 30 CSOs in California with energetic young organizers Cesar Chavez and Dolores Huerta.

In Chicago, Alinsky developed a team of organizers including journalist Nicholas von Hoffman, ex-seminarian Edward T. Chambers, and Tom Gaudette, who developed such groups as the Organization for Southwest Community (1959), The Woodlawn Organization (1961), and the Northwest Community Organization (1962). In 1969 Alinsky was able to establish a formal IAF organizer training program, run by Chambers and Dick Harmon, with a grant from Gordon Sherman of Midas Muffler company. One of IAF's most successful projects is Texas Interfaith, a network of local groups in Texas led for many years by Ernesto Cortes.

The IAF, through its local affiliates, have been in part responsible for the success of living wage initiatives in several U.S. cities.

The foundation's current executive director is long-time IAF organizer, Edward T. Chambers.

The National IAF conducts 10-day intensive training sessions several times a year, and also has a 90-day internship program. More information, including information on how to become an IAF organizer and on IAF affiliates can be found at their website: http://www.industrialareasfoundation.org

[edit] See also

Communities Helping All Neighbors Gain Empowerment (CHANGE) - A local IAF affiliated based in Winston-Salem, North Carolina

[edit] References

Edward T. Chambers and Michael A. Cowan, Roots for Radicals: Organizing for Power, Action, and Justice (New York: Continuum, 2003). ISBN 0-826-41499-0
Saul Alinsky, Rules for Radicals (New York: Vintage Books, 1971). ISBN 0-394-71736-8
Marion K. Sanders, The Professional Radical: Conversations with Saul Alinsky (New York: Harper & Row, 1970).
Sanford D. Horwitt, Let Them Call Me Rebel: Saul Alinsky- His Life and Legacy (New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 1989). ISBN 0-394-57243-2
Industrial Areas Foundation, IAF: 50 Years Organizing for Change (Franklin Square, NY: Industrial Areas Foundation, 1990).
Michael Gecan, Going Public: An Organizer's Guide to Citizen Action (New York: Anchor Books, 2002). ISBN 1-4000-7649-8