mimnaugh | Community Organizer Genealogy Project

Jack Mimnaugh

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	HART

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Work History

Start Year	End Year	Organization	Position
1971	1973	People Acting in Community Effort	Volunteer Leader
1973	1974	South East Community Organization	Organizer
1974	1980	Hartford Areas Rally Together	Founder
1978	2009	United Connecticut Action for Neighborhoods	Organizer

Organizer Profile

What brought you into the work?:

I was heavily influenced in my studies in the seminary by social justice theory and history, e.g. Liberation Theology and the history of the church's involvement and support for the Labor Movement and the Civil Rights Movement. After ordination, I tried to put this into practice through involvement in PACE, a neighborhood community organizing group in my home parish where I was assigned. After volunteering for a few years, I decided to work full time as a community organizer.

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

1. There is no limit to what people can achieve when they are organized.
2. Systems that are unjust only change when they forced.
3. It is amzing still how organizing brings out the best in so many leaders.

Who has inspired you in your organizing?:

The low-income leaders in PACE

Stan Holt

Alta Lash

What movements or political moments have most influenced your organizing career?:

Civil Rights
Disability Rights
Welfare Rights

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

United Seniors in Action, staffed by UCAN, won several health care issues including: 1) Establishment of a state funded prescription drug program that saves low income seniors over $40 million per year;2) "Mandatory Assignment" through which all physicians must accept as payment in full what ever Medicare determines to be reasonable fee (saved Connecticut seniors over $40 million per year); 3) mandatory "community rating" for all Medigap policies sold in Connecticut which meant that insurers could not use medical underwriting or age based underwriting, i.e. charge seniors more because they are older or sicker. It also prevented insurers from denying coverage because of pre-existing conditions.

The number of community organizing groups that UCAN founded or supported over the years has made "community organizing" an accepted activity that is respected in town halls, corporate board rooms and the State Legislature.

What are the barriers to successful community organizing in this country? How can we overcome these barriers?:

Staff retention: We continue to lose so many talented and successful community organizers who move on to other careers. In my old age I am running out of strategies to correct this.

Are you still in organizing? If not, in what other fields have you worked? What are you doing now?:

I am still working at UCAN.

Genealogy

Visualize Jack Mimnaugh's organizational relations

Jack Mimnaugh's Trainers

Who developed and/or trained you as an organizer?

Person	Organization
Holt, Stan	PACE/SECO

Jack Mimnaugh's Coaches

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

Person	Organization
Beckwith, Dave	New England Center for Community Organizing

Jack Mimnaugh's Peers

Which of your peers influenced your development as an organizer?

Person	Organization
Lash, Alta	United Connecticut Action for Neighborhoods (UCAN)

Jack Mimnaugh'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.)

Person	Organization
Cato-Calloway, Karen	UCAN
Gorzoch, Mike	HART/CANB/AHOP
Hadlock, Jennifer	UCAN
Jones, Lorenzo	UCAN
Kelly, Kevin	CANB/AHOP
Lash, Alta	HART/UCAN
Norwitz, Len	HART
Ryan, Ellen	HART
Teed-Wargo, Shelly	CUDAG

Jack Mimnaugh'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.)