Page 2 RAIN November 1976 RAIN access (!NFORMATION) One of my images of a vital, exciting way to live in a city is the old Italian city, where layer upon layer of homes crowded on a hillside connected by bridges and alleyways- greenspaces and courtyards popping out at you in unexpected places. And the people-mama mia!- they hang out over the balconies carrying on three-way exchanges with the street below or sit in groups in the square; children run up and down the street. Hectic and noisy, but people enjoying each other and knowing who could help them when they need itto repair their sink, sew a graduation dress or teach geometry. Our culture and the structure of our cities and lives have conspired to deaden this sharing and caring aspect of living closely together. We rarely have contact with other people in our building, much less down the street. A movement is afoot to try to change this. One example is the many community and service groups building tot lots, starting food co-ops and doing gardens. Another example is community resource centers and community information exchanges. They are springing up all over the place. Steve]ohnson here at RAIN has been involved in setting up one in our own neighborhood of Portland-APPLE (A People-to-People Living Exchange). He'll cover more of this whole subject in future issues. In the meantime, here are a few examples of some of the more successful information exchange projects in other parts. The Learning Exchange P.O. Box 920 Evanston, IL 60204 312/273-3 383 (LdeM) Chicago area residents can find teachers, tutors, discussion groups, students, speakers and action projects to share their information and talents through The Learning Exchange. There are more than 2,500 listings in topics ranging from applique to Virginia Woolf, and in four years more than 20,000 people of all ages and skill levels have been connected up. About half the people charge for their service, others barter or volunteer. Listing and inquiries are free, but a $15 membership means a helpful catalogue, a special phone line and a newsletter. It sounds almost too good to be true, but it seems to be working and, I'm sure, filling a huge gap in many people's lives. Concilio Campesino Del Sudoeste P.O. Box 62 San Miguel, NM 88058 505/23 3-3153 The 2,000 mostly Mexican-American residents of this 5-town area in the Lower Mesilla Valley speak little English, have no phones or cars and are not reached by a local newspaper. The Concilio, a broadly-based membership organization, engineered $50,000 worth of volunteer labor to build a community center, got a resident elected to the County Commission, and are now setting up a skills bank and a sellertrade directory for the community. Their tack is to use the organic communication network already in the area-priests, bartenders, beauticians, shopkeepers. Everything for Everybody 406 West 13th New York, NY 10014 Here's a newspaper that has a couple of branch community centers and does it for New York City. Memberships cost $1 for a month, $15 for 6 months, $25 for a year, and $1,000 for a lifetime. This entitles one to a copy of the newspaper every two weeks and free listings which, from what I saw, cover the depth and breadth of people's needs and imaginations. There are also display ads sold. It's a nice eclectic collection of things to barter, sell or do, as well as philosophy and fun. Nicely laid out-it even has a page in Spanish. Community Information Centre (CIC) 1946 West Broadway Vancouver, BC, Canada 604/736-3661 CIC is the central hub of a network of very fine neighborhood information centers scattered throughout the city of Vancouver. They provide info on services and events by telephone referral, displaying of public notices and reference materials; they provide free meeting space, phones, office equipment and clerical assistance for community projects; and they help people wend their way through the maze of agencies by helping them fill out forms and giving practical or moral support in making legitimate claims for services. A visit to CIC is a marvel-volunteers busily answering phones, file drawers and card catalogues clicking, and bulletin boards crammed with interesting notices. These people know an amazing amount about their city and have worked out an effective and efficient means of making that information available to people who need it. The Information Place (TIP) Detroit Public Library 5201 Woodward Ave. Detroit, MI 48202 313/833-1000 The Detroit Public Library system decided to use its considerable resources and librarian genius for locating, indexing and arranging information to take on a community information center function. It is conceived of as a live directory to all the services available (governmental and private) in the city or the state to the citizens of Detroit. TIP is available at the Main Library and at each of its branches, although the degree of referral or follow-up and advo- .cacy varies from branch to branch. Some even do house-to-house canvassing in disadvantaged neighborhoods to make new services and programs known. It feels good to have a city library that is · much more than an ivory tower that only the comfortably literate can brave.
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