jeffrey | Community Organizer Genealogy Project

Jeffrey Doman

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Work History

Start Year	End Year	Organization	Position
1978	1983	South Austin Coalition Community Council	other Organizer

Organizer Profile

What brought you into the work?:

When I was very young, about 11 years old, in seventh grade, probably around 1962,
my little league baseball team from the middle class, at that time, all-white neighborhood of Chicago's South Shore played in a tournament requiring us to travel and play against another neighborhood's team in a different part of the city which, at that time, was all-black. I have never forgotten the images I saw as our bus approached the Little League Field in the Kenwood-Oakland
neighborhood that day. It was the worst conditions I had ever seen.
All of the stores, schools and apartment buildings were either dilapidated, deteriorated and damaged or abandoned. Garbage, glass and bottles were strewn everywhere on streets covered with gaping potholes and loose chunks of asphalt.
And there was a stench in the air from broken sewer pipes that smelled so bad
even with the windows closed on our bus.
I couldn't believe that people from this all-black neighborhood were forced to live under such horrible conditions. From that awful experience, I dedicated myself to improving
living conditions in distressed and neglected minority neighborhoods such as Kenwood-Oakland,
which for many years was the poorest and most economically depressed area in Chicago.

Share 3 lessons you have learned through your work in organizing.:

I came into organizing initially influenced by my middle class background
and my middle class filter on issues and problems in minority neighborhoods.
I quickly learned that I was wrong about my assumptions as to who was at fault creating and sustaining these problems. The community residents were making
every effort to solve the problems and those in power in the government and
private sectors were preventing the residents from improving their communities.

Share an accomplishment or list accomplishments from your career in organizing.:

In 1982, during the height of the Reagan Administration's massive cutbacks in federally-funded programs for the poor, I was assigned to coordinate, along with
several other coalition organizations, a national campaign to not only save the
Community Development Block Grant program from elimination, but also to
win a substantial increase in funding for this program whose intent was to help
revitalize and improve conditions in deteriorating lower income communities.
After many months of intense local organizing and collaboration with the
Congressional Black Caucus, NTIC/NPA was granted a Congressional Hearing in
Washington D.C. on September 13, 1982, titled: "The Effects of Budget Cuts And
Deregulation On Low And Moderate-Income Groups In Cities." This hearing was before
the Subcommittee On Housing And Community Development of the Committee On Banking, Finance And Urban Affairs from the House Of Representatives. The hearing was also
one of the first programs televised by C-SPAN, the Congressional Satellite Public Affairs Network, and was replayed several times having received strong public support. Other news media covered this hearing including American Broadcasting Company (ABC) and Associated Press (AP.) With dramatic testimony submitted by 25 leaders from NTIC/NPA-affiliated community groups from 17 cities and towns across the country, this hearing overwhelmingly demonstrated the vast unmet need for increased funding in
federal housing and community development programs in lower income neighborhoods. This hearing, and further follow up organizing, ultimately proved to be the catalyst for Congressional approval of the Omnibus Reconciliation Budget Act Of 1983, which
not only saved the Community Development Block Grant program but also provided a
substantial $5.5 billion increase in funding for housing and community development,
one of the only federal funding increases approved during the Reagan Administration.

Genealogy

Visualize Jeffrey Doman's organizational relations

Jeffrey Doman's Trainers

Who developed and/or trained you as an organizer?

Person	Organization
Trapp, Shel	South Austin Coalition Community Council, NTIC- National Training and Information Center/National People's Action

Jeffrey Doman's Coaches

Who has mentored, coached, or consulted with you in your organizing career?

Person	Organization
Schachter, Rob	South Austin Coalition Community Council, NTIC- National Training and Information Center/National People's Action

Jeffrey Doman's Peers

Which of your peers influenced your development as an organizer?

Person	Organization
Fox, Tom	South Austin Coalition Community Council, NTIC- National Training and Information Center/National People's Action

Jeffrey Doman's Trainees

Whom have you developed or trained as an organizer? (Please list people who have stayed in the field or a related field for at least three years.)

Jeffrey Doman's Coachees

Who did you mentor, coach, or consult with you in your organizing career? (Please list people who have stayed in the field or a related field for at least 3 years.)