Sunny Side /South Park Super Neighborhood

Professional Development - TQM for Grassroots Leadership

Oct 05, 2002

The New Grassroots Move, Movement and Movers
Power Sharing, Preparing and Transfer
July 12, 2002

This is the fifth article of a series on grassroots leadership. I want to make clear that this series is not a blame game or finger pointing series. The condition of African Americans and other so-called minorities has a beginning and the factors that produce this state of perpetual decay or slow growth.

If the reader cannot leave the blame game frame of mind ?– there is enough blame to go around to make us all equal partners in the continuance of this condition. Therefore, we must be equal partners in the solution.

Looking at lessons from several grassroots movements from 1955 to 1975 in particular but not limited to that period, clearly we can see until and unless the underserved stands up and out, the people controlling resource deposits will not respond properly. We have a history of making people respond to short-term issues but the larger question remains, how do we maintain and grow once we start to move?

If someone offers a theory or example please show me how moving from teaching students content (Iowa method) to teaching them to pass a specific test state examination (TAAS teaching to the test) has reduced dropout rates or improved graduation rates and character development in minority youth.

This series will also be included in a larger work looking at how we can improve service delivery to the underserved communities in the 21st century. The next one hundred years must produce a system that develops and connects grassroots leadership to all other categories of leadership and resources to improve life styles in so-called minority communities. Underserved communities from the 1990?’s have become prime real estate for financial reasons for some and prime residential opportunity for many of incoming wannabe Americans.

Since the early 1900?’s until today minorities have figured high in the awarding of research dollars and dollars to improve various social, education and health related issues. However, after billions of dollars and thousands of programs aimed at reducing or improving problems that affect so-called minorities over one hundred years little has changed. We must look at leadership or the lack of leadership as a major factor in not producing the values and safe guards that would insure the quality leadership growth and total quality management development cycles.

In our previous four articles we tried to raise questions hopefully inspiring the readers to help produce solutions that will answer questions related to improving the rate of growth, economic development, social services, education, capitol improvements, health care and service delivery in our communities. Quality leadership is directly related to the quality of life within our communities.

Leadership first from the non-political arena and political leadership must work as equal partners with common objectives. Our basic observation with political leadership is short-changing the community for political gains and monetary gains by using a celebrity/divine right status to help maintain influence over constituents.

Constituents buy into concept by relying on their elected official to operate at the communities?’ best interest. This idea is not without validation when we look at housing and capitol improvement issues directly related to legislation and funding in minority communities across America for the past fifty years.

From this writers view there will be no change until change starts from the bottom up, which means better grassroots leadership, which means better grassroots development of leadership, which means methods to transfer power and training on how to share power.