This chapter builds on the earlier discussion of the principles of community organising and the IAF model. We look at two of the classic Chicago-based community organisations from the early years of Alinsky and the IAF, that of the Back of the Yards Neighborhood Council (BYNC) and The Woodlawn Organization (TWO). In these two case studies we give a brief overview of the organisations, a summary of their current activity and an analysis of their development and contribution to the current community.

The nature of community organising is changing, partly as a reflection of different economic and social contexts, but also due to lessons learned from over 70 years of organising. In the final part of this chapter we explore where these revisions of the model have got to, and where they may be going.

Case study: Back of the Yards Neighborhood Council

Overview

The background to the development of BYNC begins with the building of the Union Stockyards in 1865. A consortium of railroad companies shipped cattle into the Stockyards, slaughtered and processed them, and then distributed the resulting meat products out across the US. By 1900 25,000 people were employed by the Stockyards, nine million animals a year were processed, which accounted for 82 per cent of US meat production. By 1925 employment had reached 40,000. From the 1950s, however, the Stockyards went into decline due to the development of the new interstate roads and the increasing movement of livestock by trucks. The Stockyards closed in 1971 having processed over one billion animals, to be replaced by a rather low-key industrial park. The Union Stockyards was an iconic place, the subject of Upton Sinclair's novel The jungle and Bertolt Brecht's play ‘Saint Joan of the Stockyards’.

The Back of the Yards neighbourhood provided the cheap local housing for Stockyard workers, mainly Eastern European immigrants. By 1900 clearly defined sub-neighbourhoods had been established by Polish, Czech, Slovak, Lithuanian and Irish immigrants. These communities tended to be self-sufficient with their own churches, schools, men's social clubs, women's leagues and sports clubs.