Sacha Pfeiffer of WBUR reported on a women’s fitness center, run by the nonprofit Healthworks Foundation, in a working class neighborhood (Boston’s Codman Square).  Membership fees (up to $30 a month) are on a sliding scale, based on income; one woman featured in the report pays only $10.

The story (”Nonprofit Gym Helps Low-Income Community Get Fit,” June 17, 2010), which began by noting an epidemic of obesity and diabetes in many low-income neighborhoods, featured a quote by Bill Walczak, who helped raise the money to build the gym.

“In middle-income communities, there’s somehow an expectation that you’re going to have access to gyms,” he said. “When you’re in a low-income community, that stuff doesn’t exist.”

Perhaps this inequity isn’t what immediately comes to mind when we think about issues of social justice – but good health bestows such a wealth of benefits that providing access to an affordable gym for 700 women, and after-school programs for children, is an eminently worthwhile endeavor for a nonprofit organization.

Near the end of our interview I asked Amy Schur what her biggest challenges were – and what was in store for ACCE going forward.  Here is what I learned:

The organization is taking great pains to focus on organizational development, putting into place strong financial management and governance structures, human resources staff systems, and staff and board training programs.

Early in our interview she offered a summary of ACORN’s mistakes, which began with the failure, as the organization grew and acquired a measure of power, to invest in the quality infrastructure both to support its work and to adequately defend itself against attacks.

The steps ACCE is taking are designed to remedy this failure.  (Note that her critique matches the assessment of the Harshbarger report, while her focus for ACCE in the coming months overlaps with the roadmap the Harshbarger report lays out for ACORN.)

“Beyond that, we’re focused on what we do,” she told me, explaining that the organization’s leadership believed that it had freed itself in some measure from the ACORN controversies.  So, at this stage, it could draw on what had been California ACORN’s strengths, while leaving behind the encumbrances.

“People are hopeful,” she told me.  “It’s thrilling to be on the ground floor” creating a new organization.  She expressed confidence that they would succeed.

I asked her about whether there had been disputes with national ACORN.  (I believe that Illinois ACORN’s break from the national organization had not been amicable.)  She said that the national organization had been supportive.

“They wish us luck.”  ACORN has passed a resolution that they will not compete with ACCE in California.

I noted that the ACCE office in Los Angeles had been the ACORN office before the split, and asked about conflicts over assets.

ACORN terminated the lease – which is now held by ACCE – after the state board decided to break away.  ACCE will purchase computers, office furniture and other assets from ACORN at fair market prices – being negotiated by attorneys.  (As our interview began a few minutes late, Amy Schur remarked that she had been spending quite a bit of time on the phone with attorneys.)

Did she expect other states to follow California’s lead and break away?  Had she had calls from ACORN leaders of other chapters?

She acknowledged that other states might be exploring their options.  (New York ACORN, of course, has subsequently split off from the national group to form Communities for Change.)

When we spoke there was an interim board of directors in place – ‘interim’ because of plans to establish a deliberately bottom-up structure for ACCE.  The board of directors will be composed of elected officers of ACCE’s chapters throughout the state.  ACCE members were meeting the first weekend in February to draft by-laws.  A range of decisions had to be made.  (For instance, should city boards consisting of grassroots leaders – dues paying officers – have one delegate each on the state board, or should there be proportional representation?)

ACCE has also established an advisory council – consisting of nonprofit and civic leaders with experience in management, oversight, and training issues – to guide ACCE in developing a viable organization with the strengths that ACORN lacked.

Amy Schur was heartened by the help the organization has received.  She meets with a transition oversight committee every week – setting up operations.  The group has been highly engaged and helpful.

“I’ve been amazed,” she said, noting that in a time of crisis, you have to reach out to your friends and supporters.  Many people shared “a desire to help ACCE succeed.”

In a previous post I offered a long list of doubts about whether ACORN was likely to succeed.  Subsequent events – related to New York ACORN’s split – have reinforced those doubts.

I have few doubts about ACCE’s prospects for success.  I have been impressed by what I’ve learned about this grassroots group.  The bottom-up structure, commitment to democratic principles, and focus on local neighborhoods are great strengths.  The leadership is committed to developing more robust tools for financial management, governance, and training for staff and boards.

I believe ACCE will prove its effectiveness as an independent organization giving voice to low- and middle-income Californians.

ACCE is a 501(c)(4) organization: a nonprofit public benefit corporation incorporated in California on December 8, 2009.  A separate affiliated organization, a 501(c)(3), the Community Empowerment Education Fund, was incorporated on the same day.

(The image is a photograph of the building that houses ACCE’s Los Angeles headquarters.)

Previous posts in this series:

• Fourth post: California ACORN Was Unified in Deciding to Break Away
• Third post: California ACORN’s Choice: Stay with ACORN or Go It Alone
• Second post: Simmering Dissent Within ACORN Preceded Break Up
• First post: The Birth of ACCE: First Post in a New Series

I heard this at the presentation by the California Participation Project (and a number of its partners), which I mentioned earlier this week.

This initiative of the California Participation Project is elegant in its simplicity: to harness the reach and influence of nonprofits to advance a significant social good (increasing civic participation – chiefly voting, but also taking part in the U.S. Census) – with only a slight downside for the nonprofit taking on this expanded role (because activating civic participation could be seamlessly integrated into the nonprofit’s operations).

Think of handing out a booklet and voter registration form, or advising employees of the registration deadline, or sponsoring a candidate forum.  The upside – empowering people (whom the nonprofit serves) and their communities – would be considerable.

What an great idea – and the quotation is spot-on.

(The photo is by hytone on Flickr.)

“It’s a wonderful feeling when you can actually help people in need,” Leslie Gonda is quoted as saying. “I feel a moral obligation to do it.”

The story notes that the financial crisis has undermined their ability to continue to give at the same level as before.

The photo is of the Gonda (Goldschmied) Neuroscience & Genetics Research Center at UCLA.  The Times article explains that Leslie Gonda, born Lazlo Goldschmied in Hungary in 1919, changed his name while fleeing from the Nazis during World War II.

Among the winners: Judith Broder, who founded The Soldiers Project, a Studio City-based nonprofit that provides “free counseling and support to military service members who have served or who expect to serve in the Iraq and/or Afghanistan conflicts and to veterans of those conflicts.”

The group, Integrated Recovery Network, launched a year ago under the auspices of Community Partners, finds housing for people who would otherwise be homeless – while providing comprehensive services, as needed.  Essentially, if I understand correctly, the group has created a network of providers (of housing, medical care, mental health treatment, and addiction management) to assure that people in need receive seamless, comprehensive support.

• to promote and restore California landscapes and habitats,
• to propagate and make available California native plants and wildflowers, and
• to educate and acquire knowledge about California flora and natural history.

The foundation has a beautiful selection of native plants and wildflowers for sale.  Since they require little water and no fertilizers or pesticides, a yard with California natives  conserves a valuable resource, contributes to cleaner water at the beach, and reduces global warming.

For two consecutive weekends the foundation’s native plant nursery is having its biggest sale of the year.  On Friday, October 9 – Saturday, October 10 the sale is for members of the foundation.  Nonmembers may purchase plants and seeds for at regular prices; memberships are available at the door.  On Friday, October 17 – Saturday, October 18 all shoppers will receive a 10% discount.  (The foundation is closed on Sundays.)

The Theodore Payne Foundation website is a great resource; check it out.