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Brooklyn’s Make the Road by Walking Promotes Collective Action

Make the Road by Walking, based in Brooklyn, New York, was founded in the Spring of 1997 in the wake of "welfare reform" - an unprecedented legislative attack on America’s poor and immigrant communities, according to Make the Road by Walking board member, Andrew Friedman. Make the Road by Walking "strives to draw community residents into the collective struggle for dignity, justice, and opportunity in the Brooklyn neighborhood of Bushwick."

The organization was founded by two law students and a law graduate, all of whom had organizing experience and were committed to linking community organizing and popular education initiatives to emergency legal service provision. The founders believed that unless the Bushwick community was organized politically, Bushwick residents would continue to be victimized by public policy.

The staff of Make the Road by Walking is, in part, made up of residents of the community, according to Friedman. The majority of the Board of Directors are community residents as well, which enables the organization to have a strong connection to Bushwick. Organizing campaigns are led by community residents and the decision-making power lies with them. Make the Road by Walking works to promote collective action and increase opportunities for self-determination among the residents of Bushwick. In pursuit of this greater goal, Make the Road by Walking has sponsored various activities, including: welfare rights organizing, community leadership development, "Know Your Rights" training, a Community Action Learning Project for youth, and environmental justice organizing campaigns.

Collaborative Learning, which fosters leadership development and supports resident-driven activism, is part of the mission of Make the Road by Walking. Using this tool, Make the Road by Walking hopes to enable individuals in the Bushwick area to advocate successfully on behalf of themselves. Collaborative learning also allows individuals to share their ideas and experiences, thereby enabling them to analyze critically the root causes of their common problems. By doing this, these individuals are then able to strategize about what kind of collective action - that will value their own voices and perspective - they can take together to resolve their common problems.

Organizing and Activism, which aims to build a stronger community, is another element of Make the Road by Walking’s mission. Building a stronger community also means making governing institutions subject to community control as well as mobilizing resistance to oppression based upon race, class, gender, age, national origin, sexual orientation and ability. This aspect of Make the Road by Walking’s mission is embodied by the Committee for Equality for Our Community (Comite de Iqualdad Para El Comunidad) which fights discrimination against Spanish-speaking welfare recipients.

Last April, in its efforts to fight discrimination against Spanish-speaking welfare recipients, Make the Road by Walking issued System Failure, a report compiling the results of over 700 questionnaires answered by welfare recipients. Community residents and the staff of Make the Road by Walking conducted the survey and discovered rampant unlawful treatment of Spanish-speaking welfare recipients by New York City’s welfare bureaucracy. Make the Road by Walking did not just document the problem, but has recommended solutions and joined with other organizations to file a federal civil rights complaint. This complaint has forced a federal investigation. Recently, Spanish-Speaking welfare recipients met with representatives from the Federal Office of Civil Rights of the U.S. Health and Human Services Department to discuss the lack of translation services for Spanish-Speaking individuals who applied for welfare. Federal law requires such services. In August the group joined with others to file a federal class action challenging the City’s failure to provide access to Food Stamps to those with limited English proficiency.

Make the Road by Walking is also bringing the voice of welfare recipients to the local welfare agency administration. Community residents are doing this by working on Make the Road by Walking’s "Community Campaign for Respect" which advocates reform at Income Maintenance Center 62, the center that serves much of the Bushwick community. Through regular petitioning at Income Maintenance Center 62, members of the Campaign have already obtained the support of more than 900 recipients at Center 62. The Campaign has also developed a working relationship with Center administration and has brought about concrete reforms in Center operation. In its effort to improve welfare administration, Make the Road by Walking is demanding greater accountability from New York City’s welfare bureaucracy. The organization has led a movement that has already assisted almost two hundred welfare recipients in filing complaints against incompetent or abusive city employees. In response, the City’s Human Resources Administration has appointed a complaint liaison. This project works to correct serious HRA errors that have left families vulnerable to homelessness or without resources to purchase food and other basic necessities.

Helping the community does not end here for Make the Road by Walking. The group also offers basic community support by providing a variety of additional educational activities and organizing activities. Also, for over 1200 community residents, Make the Road by Walking has provided sustained case management, referrals, and legal representation on government benefits and other legal issues. Also, within the past five months their food pantry has provided emergency food to more than 800 community residents in need.

With assistance from the Welfare Law Center’s LINC Project, Make the Road by Walking has developed a web page (http://www.maketheroad.org) to expand outreach and public education. The website includes System Failure and the complaint form for documenting welfare agency abuses. It also invites advocates, public benefits claimants, and organizers to complete and return the complaint. Ongoing assistance from the LINC Project will include assistance in using scanning technology to process the complaint forms and training for staff and membership on web page design.

Make the Road by Walking can be reached at 301 Grove St., Brooklyn, NY 11937, tel. 718-418-7690; fax 718-418-9635; email: maketheroad@maketheroad.org; website: www.maketheroad.org.

Allison Villafane, a legal intern at the Center, prepared this report based on information received from Make The Road By Walking.