RECIPIENT PROFILE

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EIN: 52-1217891

Center for Neighborhood Enterprise

Washington, DC 20006

The National Center for Neighborhood Enterprise dropped the "National" from its name in 2005.

The following is from The Feeding Trough, a report written by Phil Wilayto

The National Center for Neighborhood Enterprise is a non-profit “...research and demonstration organization dedicated to assisting low-income Americans in developing and implementing solutions to the problems affecting their communities. Its mission is to help low-income people achieve economic empowerment through the application of self-help, market-oriented strategies.”

- From an NCNE brochure

Founded in 1981, the first year of the Reagan Administration, the National Center for Neighborhood Enterprise claims to work with hundreds of community-based programs in networks throughout 38 states. In Indianapolis (home to the Hudson Institute and the Philanthropy Roundtable), it helped to develop programs allowing government contracting with community organizations to provide public services. In Milwaukee, it helped develop a small business incubator.

Also:

"NCNE helped Pennsylvania form a permanent task force of grassroots leaders who meet monthly advising the legislature and cabinet on ways to remove barriers such as licensing, certification, and prevailing wage laws, that have an adverse effect on low income people's ability to participate in the social and economic marketplace."

[From the NCNE brochure.]

Remove the "adverse effect" of licensing, certification and prevailing wage laws?

And where does it get its money to carry out all these good deeds?

"NCNE dispenses funds from large organizations that have difficulty processing small grants, making minigrants from $500 to $ 10,000 to neighborhood-based organizations...”

Specifically, NCNE received $225,000 in both 1994 and 1995 from the Bradley Foundation for "general operations." [Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, 9/21/95 and the Bradley 1995 annual report.]

[EDITOR'S NOTE: As of Feb 2001, this website has the NCNE receiving $5.9 million from the conservative foundations.]

Robert Woodson It also received a $100,000 (two year grant) in 1996 from Milwaukee's Helen Bader Foundation for "additional training in personal leadership skills, organizational development and factors which promote effective community development for grassroots community leaders in Milwaukee." Plus another $25,000 from Bader "to support the planning efforts to increase economic self-sufficiency in Milwaukee's African American community." Plus another $5,000 from Bader "in support of work processes of a task force to study the effectiveness of a local nonprofit organization."

The Center's founder, president and spokesperson is Robert L. Woodson, Sr., an increasingly frequent visitor to Milwaukee. Woodson, who is African American, is the former director of the National Urban League's Administration of Justice division. According to the NCNE, he's frequently quoted by national news media on issues regarding low-income people and people of color. He has appeared on "This Week with David Brinkley"; the "MacNeil/Lehrer NewsHour"; "NBC Nightly News"; and "Nightline." He has been quoted in The New York Times, The Chicago Tribune, Fortune, Forbes, Newsweek and many other publications.

From 1977 to 1995, Woodson was a Resident Fellow at the American Enterprise Institute, which means that for 18 years he got his paycheck from the same right-wing foundations that spend their resources attacking affirmative action and proportional representation, sabotaging presidential nominees like Lani Guinier and promoting the views of people like William Bennett, Jeane Kirkpatrick and Charles Murray. (Woodson resigned his fellowship at AEI in September of 1995, ostensibly to protest the publication of The End of Racism by Dinesh D'Souza. D'Souza is an Olin Fellow at AEI. But Woodson continues to take Bradley money for the NCNE and Bradley continues to fund the AEI.)

Woodson earns his money. His published articles include:

"Blacks Who Use 'Racism' as Their Excuse," The Wall Street Journal, Sept. 23, 1992

"Why I'm Proud to be a Black Conservative,' The Orlando Sentinel, Dec. 21, 1991

"Civil Rights Leaders Ignore True Needs of Black Poor," Atlanta Journal Constitution, March 4,1990

"Saving the Poor from Their Saviors," Brigham Young University Today, February, 1986

He is also a board member of the American Association of Enterprise Zones, among other organizations.

Woodson has some interesting company at the NCNE:

Dr. Stuart M. Butler is listed as an Adjunct Fellow at NCNE. Dr. Butler is also the director of the domestic and economic studies research team at the Heritage Foundation.

Among the 17 members of the organization's Board of Directors are:

Michael Baroody, National Association of Manufacturers - a notoriously anti-union employers' coalition that takes the lead in supporting so-called "right-to-work" laws.

Robert Beavers, McDonald's Corp. - the national symbol of low-wage, dead-end jobs and the country's largest employer of Black youth - at minimum wage.

Jack Kemp, Empower America - the former HUD secretary and Republican vice presidential candidate. Early promoter of supply-side economics, the theory that public policy should favor the rich, thereby allowing benefits to "trickle down" to the rest of us.

Lots of people seem to think highly of Woodson and the NCNE. For example, there's Scott Jensen, the Republican state representative from Brookfield, Wisconsin. He's now Majority leader and co-chairman of the Legislature's Joint Finance Committee, the top budget job in the House. He was also the author, seven years ago, of Gov. Tommy Thompson's Central City Initiative.

Jensen also played a leading role in the attack on Wisconsin's largest anti-poverty agency, the Social Development Commission - not just on some bad policies and mistakes on the part of some of its officials, but on the agency as a whole, which could have provided some buffer to W-2. On another front, Jensen recently proposed selling off some of the 30 state-owned power plants and 18 sewage treatment plants, valued at nearly $193 million, "...so we can afford more important things, like prisons."

On November 29, 1995, Scott Jensen and Wisconsin Assembly Speaker David Prosser wrote to Woodson, saying:

“We have intently followed your work in Pennsylvania to bring local community leaders and organizations together to develop strategies for helping community based groups solve social challenges like crime, education, economic development and alcohol and drug abuse... We would like to formally request that the National Center for Neighborhood Enterprise organize and chair a Grassroots Alternatives for Public Police (GAPP) Task Force for Wisconsin, along the lines as your work in Pennsylvania. We would like to hear from community and neighborhood leaders on how we can better deliver services to those who need them most in Wisconsin. We would like to know how barriers to their work can be removed..." [Our emphasis]

Woodson did form a Wisconsin Grassroots Alternative for Public Policy (GAPP) Task Force, headed up by William H. Lock of Community Enterprises of Greater Milwaukee. CEGM is a "small business incubator" founded in 1987 by the Community Baptist Church of Greater Milwaukee. In 1995 it was authorized to receive a Bradley grant of $75,000 for "general program activities" and a $10,000 Bradley grant for a "job placement program." Lock is also a member of the Bradley-sponsored National Commission on Philanthropy and Civic Renewal.

The group met a number of times in early 1996. During one such meeting, which took place Feb. 9 at Milwaukee's prestigious (and expensive) Mader restaurant, Rep. Jensen addressed the group of "grassroots leaders" for 25 minutes on the merits of W-2. The task force made a presentation at the State Capitol on the following May 13.

Woodson was also the chairman of the NCNE's National Leadership Task Force on Grassroots Alternatives for Public Policy (GAPP). The national task force included leaders of some 25 neighborhood programs, many of them religious, or "faith-based," from Hartford; Washington, D.C.; Pittsburgh; Detroit; Indianapolis, Denver; Norfolk and Ivanhoe, Va; Tampa and Delray Beach, Fla; Atlanta; Dallas; San Antonio; Albuquerque and Pine Hill, New Mexico; Los Angeles and Oakland, Calif.; and Milwaukee.

The Milwaukee members of the national task force members included William Lock, whose Community Enterprises of Greater Milwaukee, Ltd. was also authorized in 1995 to receive a $205,000 grant from Bradley "to support a conference and general operations."

That must have been some conference. The Bader Foundation also kicked in $20,000 for it, describing it as a "three-day conference highlighting the concepts and strategies for promoting economic and social vitality in low income communities."

This conference was apparently the occasion for unveiling the NCNE's National GAPP Report, the purpose of which was to help Newt Gingrich further develop his wholesale attacks on the poor.

According to the NCNE, "Because of the National Center for Neighborhood Enterprise's position as advocate for low-income groups, NCNE President Robert L. Woodson, Sr. was asked by House Speaker Newt Gingrich to form a task force to make specific policy recommendations to the 104th Congress." [From the introduction to the GAPP Report.]

And who provided the money for this noble endeavor?

"This project [the Task Force] is made possible in part by grants provided by The Lynde and Harry Bradley Foundation, Scaife Family Foundation, The Chevron Companies, McDonald's Corporation, and the Sun-Del Services, Inc. (Sunoco)."

So now we're back to Bradley, Scaife, McDonald's and the oil companies. The Sun family fortune, remember, provides the financial base for the Pew Charitable Trusts, which is funding William Bennett's National Commission on Civic Renewal and which was the main funder of the April 27 Presidents Summit on America's Future in Philadelphia.

The oil companies in particular seem to like the NCNE. While Chevron and Sunoco funded the national GAPP Report, Amoco gave NCNE a $1.9 million grant for "public housing project renovation." With Jack "Privatize-the-Projects" Kemp on the NCNE board, it's not hard to figure out what that means.

So the Task Force rolled up its foundation-and-oil-company-funded sleeves and went to work.

"During February, 1995, NCNE convened roundtable discussions with these grassroots leaders and policy analysts who translated their firsthand experience into specific policy recommendations."

The National GAPP Report

And what recommendations they were. The Task Force produced a report entitled: Grass-roots Alternatives for Public Policy (GAPP) Report. Bridging the Gap: Strategies to Prompt Self-Sufficiency Among Low-Income Americans.

The report might be dismissed as just another effort by a non-profit group to justify its grant money, except that the NCNE's grant money comes from the Bradley Foundation, which funded the development of W-2. In reality, the GAPP Report is a blueprint for creating community structures to implement welfare-to-work programs like W-2.

The report recommends an all-encompassing network of agencies and organizations, the function of which is to funnel low-income people to companies that agree to locate in government-sponsored Economic Zones, free from "burdensome regulations." It's an attempt at massive social engineering. Its underlying philosophy is that poor people are "deficient" and have to be forced into situations where they can be made socially useful.

In other words, its philosophy, like that of W-2, flows directly from the concepts laid out in The Bell Curve. In that regard, it's useful to recall that NCNE president Woodson was associated with the American Enterprise Institute all the time that Charles Murray was working there on "The Bell Curve." They must have had some interesting conversations in the cafeteria.

A major GAPP recommendation is that federal government money intended to help poor people should by-pass both state and local (elected) government and go directly to hand-picked "community-based organizations," or CBOS. These organizations need not have "professionals" with any particular training. They shouldn't be "shackled" with burdensome regulations, certifications or inspections. And they can be religious groups, ignoring the traditional (and Constitutional) separation between church and state. The underlying goal, GAPP claims, is to help people get into the workforce, start saving money and better themselves. And if folks assigned to participate in these programs can't cut the mustard? Too bad. They're just to be abandoned.

(In this context, it would be good to take a long, careful look at Milwaukee Mayor Norquist's new program of Neighborhood Strategic Planning Areas, the function of which is to channel federal grant money to community-based organizations to "deliver services" to local residents. This is a major change in local funding and takes in all the neighborhoods with high concentrations of W-2 workers.)

Many of GAPP's recommendations have to do with Removing Regulations that were originally passed in an effort to protect the poor from exploitation. And there's a curious preference for religious groups being chosen to administer the services: *

"Public policy must support their [community-based organizations'] efforts by removing barriers of certification, licensing, and regulation; by removing restrictions on faith-based organizations; and by allowing them to receive tax-empowered donations and compete for block grants and voucher funds."

And what type of regulations are they talking about eliminating? Well, here's how they feel about Housing Regulations:

"Massive deregulation should be pursued in all federally assisted housing programs. As programs are devolved to state and local levels, excessive HOME regulation standards should be eliminated, including costly federal housing quality standards, narrow targeting requirements, excessive compliance paper work, and consolidated plan mandates."

Of course, helping the poor doesn't mean that the government money goes to the poor. It actually goes to certain "providers" who are handpicked by the government:

"Removing the barriers that hamper the work of grassroots organizations, devolving funding and authority to them, and giving individuals a means of exercising choice through vouchers or personal support services accounts, will strengthen the providers that the people themselves prefer - families neighborhood associations, and faith-based institutions."

The Task Force had some other interesting recommendations, such as abolishing the Davis-Bacon Act:

"The Davis-Bacon Act requires that all companies with contracts for government-funded construction must pay prevailing (union) wages.... The Davis Bacon Act should be repealed to open the existing job market and to allow the residents of low-income neighborhoods to participate in the construction and rehabilitation that the government may be funding in their neighborhoods."

Actually, Davis-Bacon doesn't close any job markets. It doesn't even mandate that only union members be hired for federally funded construction. What it does mandate is that union-level wages be paid on these types of jobs. The Task Force is demanding the right of construction companies to hire workers at less-than-union wages. What they should be demanding is that all construction companies that work on federally-financed jobs be required to hire a certain percentage of their workers from the communities where the work is being done. In other words, affirmative action. But you wouldn't get Bradley funding for advocating that.

Here's a recommendation for eliminating Social Security credits:

"Community-based treatment programs that require some assumption of responsibility and service on the part of their clients should not be subjected to filing FICA or payroll deductions for those reciprocal services."

How about a proposal for Indentured Servitude for Young People?

“Youth benefiting from a subsidized training or education program would be required, upon completion of that training, to return to the community to work for a specified period of time.”

Here's one that Bradley must especially like:

"Choice in education should be promoted through vouchers."

Here are three recommendations on Child Care:

"Programs should be linked so that low-income people can be providers of services, and child care services can be provided locally."

"Certification of child care providers should be based on experience and performance, not amount of education."

"Young people receiving public benefits should be required to take basic parenting, homemaking and life skills training. Neighborhood day care providers are a logical choice to provide this service."

So now they've got the children of W-2 workers being kept in unlicensed day care centers, staffed by untrained workers, with teenage mothers assigned to work there under the guise of developing "basic parenting" training. This is double-talk. Children are just seen here as a problem to be dealt with in the cheapest possible way so the mother is "free" to go to her assigned job.

Here are some recommendations on Child-Snatching, Foster Care and Adoption:

"Children who must be removed from their own homes for their protection should be placed in the situation of first choice - with other family members or with the oversight of institutions within their own communities. Because churches and other neighborhood institutions can provide a child with the greatest degree of security and moral guidance, they should be empowered to be preferred service providers. "

"Neighborhood organizations, such as churches and non-profits, should be empowered to make placement decisions since they, better than government, can make assessments of character and competence."

There's no hint about what criteria were used to come to that conclusion, but now they've got untrained churches and organizations making life-and-death decisions about where the kids go after being taken away from their parents.

On Busing:

"Busing children out of their own communities is not desirable."

So much for the right of the community to decide that question for itself.

On Addicts and SSI:

"Substance-addicted applicants for Supplemental Security Income (SSI) benefits should be required to participate in programs of treatment, job training and/or education, and benefits should be terminated if they fail to comply."

So if the addiction is so severe that the person can't work or train for work, they are abandoned entirely.

On HIV and AIDS:

“The testing of participants in substance abuse treatment programs for HIV/AIDS...should be mandatory…Confidentiality laws should be revised to allow community treatment programs access to information (e.g. HIV/AIDS or mental illness) needed to effectively serve and protect all participants."

So now medical confidentiality goes out the window. And what happens if someone is found HIV-positive? Is the state going to allocate millions of dollars in health care? Not likely.

On Homeless Youth:

"Unnecessary red tape and credentialing requirements should be eliminated to allow community-based organizations to establish facilities for homeless youth."

Sure, we wouldn't want to overburden the people entrusted with the lives of vulnerable, homeless youth.

Some of the Task Force recommendations aren't bad, such as providing health care benefits to all low-income children up to age 18 and up to age 22 for those who continue their education, or raising asset levels so people receiving public assistance can buy their own homes, etc. But these aren't the recommendations likely to be adopted by the government. For example, the above health care tip found no place in W-2.

Also, there's an assumption here that religious groups are inherently trustworthy when it comes to helping out poor people. Many are. But the truth is that there has been a long history of physical, mental and sexual abuse of vulnerable youths and others by religious workers as well as by non-religious employees of religious institutions, such as nursing homes, mental institutions, schools and orphanages. In recent years, Milwaukee has seen more than its share of such cases. There is some dangerous thinking going on here.

Some of the recommendations, such as mixing welfare grants and work, have been overtaken by last year’s national welfare reform bill. But many of them are already being put into effect. For example, as previously noted, W-2 creates a new category of childcare called "Provisional Care." Under this category, the state just runs a check on the childcare provider to see if they have a criminal record and that's about it. Moreover, "In-home day care centers with three or fewer children under age 7 are not regulated." [MJS, 3/14/97]

Under W-2, tens of thousands of day care slots will have to be created to care for the children of W-2 workers. This is a whole new cottage industry being created, with many of the "providers" being W-2 workers themselves.

Now, it's absolutely true that a lot of folks in the community could offer a child much better care than some of the institutional day care centers, but that's not the point. It's a question of resources.

For example, most homes in the central city were originally painted before the government forbade the use of lead-based paint. That's a real problem, made worse by former Gov. Thompson's efforts to cut the state money that funds Milwaukee's lead paint abatement program. Also, a lot of older houses have developed problems with electrical wiring. And the plumbing may be made of lead, resulting in unsafe drinking water. None of this is addressed under the "provisional care" category of childcare.

W-2 is resulting in a proliferation of "neighborhood child care centers" that in many cases are just individual W-2 workers trying to survive by taking in the children of other W-2 workers. Without proper resources, inspections and oversight, the state is setting up a network of ticking time bombs for our children.

The above recommendations are all couched in language of concern for poor people, who now will be freed from "dependency" on social welfare programs and helped to a new life of "self-sufficiency." The language is all a smokescreen.

The real purpose of the recommendations is to serve businesses by:

1) Removing all restraints and restrictions on business activity;

2) Providing a steady supply of low-wage laborers;

3) Creating a system to meet the basic needs of these workers, such as childcare - at the lowest possible funding level, regardless of the quality of the services - so that the workers will have no excuse but to report to work and perform as they are told.

The overall economic and geographical context for these recommendations is the "Enterprise Zone":

"Community revitalization must be approached from the bottom up with a comprehensive strategy that incorporates housing, business, and employment opportunities and economic development, while assuring that the basic needs of residents are met. Enterprise zones, micro-enterprise and business incubation, public-private partnerships, and reform of public housing policies are preferred initiatives."

And what's so good about Enterprise Zones?

"Businesses locating or investing in appropriate low-income areas designated as enterprise zones should receive incentives such as tax credits, tax abatements, and exemptions from impeding regulations (excepting those for health and safety)."

So there's the plan:

1) Establish an Enterprise Zone, bring in businesses and free them from "burdensome" government regulations.

2) Recruit a supply of free or subsidized workers who, because they are part of the W-2 program, have no choice except to report to work or else wind up on the street, minus their kids.

3) Establish a system of community-based "service providers" to meet the basic needs of workers. The providers need not be trained, educated, certified or inspected. And most of these “providers" will themselves be using unpaid W-2 workers assigned to work for them under the category of "community service" jobs.

No wonder the Heritage Foundation has such high praise for W-2.

From Planning to Training

But Woodson and the NCNE didn't stop with recommendations. They moved on to implementation.

This past January 31, the NCNE sponsored a "graduation ceremony" for 33 Milwaukee residents - "leaders of grass roots organizations successfully fighting the problems of poverty in their neighborhoods," according to an article in the Milwaukee Community Journal.

Woodson was to give the "commencement address," but he had to share the stage. Wisconsin's Department of Workforce Development Secretary Designate Linda Stewart, representing Gov. Thompson, was to give remarks. The Department of Workforce Development, created to replace the old Department of Human Services, was set up specifically to administer W-2.

NCNE admirer and state assemblyman Scott Jensen was also scheduled to participate, as was Division of Economic Support Administrator J. Jean Rogers. The event was held at the UWM Center for Continuing Education at 161 West Wisconsin Ave.

According to the Community Journal, "The grassroots leaders - all of whom lead neighborhood-based programs in Milwaukee - are completing a course in leadership training and management given by NCNE's Neighborhood Leadership Development Institute. The course was funded by the Helen Bader Foundation... Leaders of more than 600 organizations nationwide have received NCNE training."

Among the "1996-1997 graduates" were representatives of a range of groups, some of whom are well-known for improving the lives of low-income residents, some with more suspect agendas:

Community Enterprises of Greater Milwaukee - William Lock's small business incubator and a major Bradley/Bader recipient.

Neighborhood and Family Initiative - NFI had two representatives among the graduates. This is the outfit that offered MEC businesses unpaid workers under the guise of “community service jobs."

Mid-Town Neighborhood Association - A community organization that "...promotes new construction of affordable housing and businesses, as well as addressing social and economic issues impacting the community." Well, affordable for some people. The group is heavily involved in the CityHomes project at 20th & Walnut, where the average selling price is $80,000. The project is a linchpin in city development plans for the area, plans which include few if any of the current residents. The Association was a co-sponsor of a local March 4 conference that explained how businesspeople could take advantage of W-2 labor and how real estate entrepreneurs could acquire North Side property under the guise of "economic development."

Campaign Neighborhood, Inc. - Development of a "neighborhood strategic plan," an employment assistance program and technical assistance to businesses.

Sharhouse, Inc. - Business management consulting services, including strategic planning, sales and marketing, personal growth and development training.

Next Door Foundation - Head Start, Home Start, Books for Kids, Adult Basic Educa-tion GED, Healthy Family Project and an "alternative high school." Received $446,490 from the U.S. Dept. of Human Services to establish Milwaukee's first Early Head Start Program. Commented interim director David Wolfson, "This grant will enable us to provide an integrated, holistic approach to working with families as they become more productive and self-sufficient in our community." [MCJ, 9/11/96] This was also the organization that Hillary Rodman Clinton visited last year while on an election campaign fundraising trip. Received $75,000 from Bradley in 1995 for "capital improvements."

Also among the graduates was a former head of Gov. Thompson's Milwaukee office, the wife of an aide to a North Side city alderman and a "business owner seeking opportunities to use business development to revitalize low-income communities."

As noted above, the funding for this training of "community leaders" came from the Bader Foundation, another of Milwaukee's grant makers.

* All quotations in this section are from a summary of the GAPP Report published in the magazine of Milwaukee's Black Research Organization, Vol. 1, No. 1, Fall/Winter, I995. The BRO is heavily funded by the Bradley Foundation. All italics in this section are ours.

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From Planning to Training