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The OTHER Economic Summit, TOES - 90, Houston, July 6 - 8, 1990
Houston as Microcosm: Community in Need
"Community in Need" will use the metropolis of Houston as the unit of analysis for exploring the global economic conditions that affect human need, building on the discussions and ideas presented during the third day of The Other Economic Summit.
Houston has been held up as an example of a vibrant cosmopolitan city where an unfettered economy allows equal opportunity for all. This workshop will examine the other side of this reality, investigating Houston's experience of global social problems such as poverty, homelessness, hunger, unequal distribution of wealth, violence, unemployment and underemployment. The workshop will attempt to link these social travesties in Houston to economic trends and practices that are local, national, or international in scope. The question must be asked of the G7 spokespersons: How will you address the urban poverty of cities like Houston? How can you espouse the economy of the industrialized West as an ideal when so much human suffering is in evidence in Western countries?
Speakers:
Bob Fisher, Graduate School of Social Work, University of Houston, Houston, TX. Will discuss the history of Houston as a community in need, and explore the aforementioned problems from the perspective of a social work educator.
Gladys House, Houston, TX., a.social activist, community organizer, and founder of the Freedmen's Town Association, who has a long history of organizing in Houston's historical Freedmen's Town/Fourth Ward neighborhood. This neighborhood is among Houston's poorest and most oppressed. Gladys will address "Community in Need" from a perspective borne of years of struggle for affordable housing, decent jobs, and responsible investment for the residents of her community. She will look at the struggles of the African American people of Houston from an historical perspective.
Gene Harrington, Houston, TX, a community activist who focuses on health care and AIDS issues, will address the economic costs of homophobia, and the idea of a community in need of decent health care.
Bob Randall, Coordinator, Community Gardening Program of the Interfaith Hunger Coalition, Houston, TX. A PhD in cultural ecology, Bob Randall has many years of experience working with the poor in America, Africa, and the Philippines, observing and participating in their struggles for adequate food. He will bring this knowledge and his perception of the global economic causes of hunger to bear on Houston as a community in need of a sustainable solution to the problem of hunger.
Maria Jimenez, American Friends Service Committee, Immigration Law Enforcement and Monitoring Project (ILEMP), Houston, Texas, an activist and organizer around the needs and struggles of the Latino and immigrant communities in Houston, and most recently an organizer for the Community Task Force on Immigration Affairs, will contribute her perspective on Houston as a community in need of a just solution to the poverty and strife faced by the Latino and immigrant communities.
Ellie Collier, Houston, TX, director of the Coalition for the Homeless, will discuss Houston as a community in need of affordable housing, alternate economic solutions to homelessness, and a humane ethic for responding to the homeless.
Go to TOES '90 Program
Go to TOES '97 Home Page