Mennonite Central Committee News Service
November 29, 1974
VOLUNTEER AIDS CITY COUNCILMAN
Atlanta, Ga.--A new position for
a volunteer as a city councilman's assistant in Atlanta, Ga.,
is an exploratory step toward Mennonite Central Committee involvement
in community development as it relates to local politics.
Dan Ebersole, MCCer from Palmyra,
Pa., began a two-year term this summer as assistant to Charles
Helms, member of the Atlanta City Council representing district
two, the core inner city area surrounding the central business
district.
"The housing structures are
the oldest and least kept up in the city. The housing pattern
is segregated and I detect these distinct groups: elderly, poor
white and black families. The white, Anglo- Saxon, Protestant,
two-children family is nonexistent," Ebersole reports.
MCC's Atlanta unit has been active
in Helms district for quite some time, having established a moving
company and helping the community with a credit union, a day
care center, a drug addiction center and various other social
service agencies.
Helms, a Presbyterian minister in
the community, has long been involved in helping MCC programs.
Providing an assistant for Helms is another way in which MCC
can reach out to help meet the needs of people in inner city
Atlanta.
Ebersole sees his job as helping
provide the necessary services for people who live in this community.
Helms has a responsibility to act promptly and decisively to
provide services for the community, but if he spent all his time
doing that he would have no time for important policy decisions
and new proposals, according to Ebersole. Ebersole becomes his
facilitator, helping to get a trash pile removed, the weeds in
a vacant lot cut or a stolen bus stop sign replaced.
People perk up their ears when Ebersole
says he's calling for Councilman Charles Helms. "Many residents
are so used to being ig- nored by both the bureaucracy and their
elected representatives that when they do find someone who will
listen, they give a backlog of 10 years of projects and complaints,"
Ebersole says.
Changing the bus route to pass a
high-rise for elderly people, pushing to get a crossing guard
for the local middle school and having to settle for a stop sign
and Crosswalk, organizing meetings between local citizens and
police officers and touring a public housing project with residents
and Atlanta Housing Authority people in an effort to get interior
lighting are all in a day's work for Ebersole.
But his job doesn't stop there. In order
to learn the ropes of city politics, Ebersole attends most city
council and committee sessions as well as other meetings of interest.
He also does research on various issues complementing those which
Helms has time to research so that one or the other of them will
be up-to-date on issues of importance.
Ebersole is also becoming initiated
to the ins and outs of policy- making. He has drawn up two policy
proposals so far, one to encourage car-pooling in the city and
the other to forbid the installation of sewer grates whose bars
run parallel to the length of the sidewalk or street, resulting
in accidents when the wheels of bicycles slide down between the
bars.
"To me, this is working at root
causes and not putting on band-aids," Ebersole says. "Instead
of driving the ambulance for those who have been injured in accidents
caused by parallel sewer grates, I'm working to alleviate the
cause, correct the problem."
Ebersole also sees himself as a community
advocate, since he is hired neither by the city council nor by
Helms and can speak his mind freely. "I am not a yes-man,
but a sounding board," he says. "I try to keep my ears
open to what the people are saying and relay these concerns to
Helms. He is always receptive. I also try to make a point of
following up on my inquiries and responses, and thus get a good
many results."
A part of his job which he really
enjoys is working with public housing tenants and other economically
poor people. "Their unpre- tentiousness, good spirit and
openness are inspiring," he says.
se29november1974