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AI: But going back to that, to those years -- that would have been 1953 when you applied for that job as executive director -- what was Atlantic Street Center at that time as an organization?

TI: We were classed as a settlement house.

AI: What did that mean?

TI: Well, it meant people (who) lived around there, and related to the community with all its needs and trying to respond appropriately. I used to go to (Methodist) community center department's meetings. I (also) used to go to national Neighborhood House, Federation conferences. And they kept (adding) the (programs) we should be about. So we had preschool, senior citizens, troubled youth, (decentralized) program in a housing project, (urban renewal approaches, summer day camp programs with) a small staff. And just running after one program and another, and it was very exhausting. And I said to myself, "Why did I go to School of Social Work to do this?" There was no substance to it at all. There was no time for that. You were just skimming the surface. So I was fortunate that the board could approve, a radical idea I had was -- I'll use the analogy of a plate of water, water resources, thin, not much substance, and you pour the same content into a test tube. It (results in) tremendous depth to it. I felt we needed to do something more significant than just artificially helping people. So I thought (of a) radical idea (to think) that others could do as equal to what we were trying to do or better. So the housing project program we (successfully) demonstrated Rainier Vista Housing Project. (Was transferred to) Neighborhood House (whose) core (service) was in Yesler Terrace Housing Project. They were really the full-time (public housing program) specialists, not us. We were there at Rainier Vista for two years on a part-time basis. (With) a two-year demonstration from United Way. We believed Neighborhood House should, really should be doing it, so we transferred that program to them. Today they're in every housing project.

AI: The Neighborhood House is.

TI: Yeah. And then secondly, the "Creative Arts for Older Adults" program that we started at Atlantic Street Center. At that time, we were probably the only senior citizen program. (In) '59 the United Way at that time approved for the first time funding of senior services centers. We figured they were the experts in senior, not us, so we transferred (the crafts program to them). [Narr. note: Today, they have senior services and centers in Seattle neighborhoods and also in King County.] Our preschool program was downstairs at the center, and we found a facility only about three blocks away, Collins Play Field (which had) a field house, small one, that wasn't used during the school year when the preschool met. So we said, transfer them there. Take out all the happy noise out of the building. [Laughs] And then the urban renewal efforts, what little time I had, I used to visit the neighborhood and find out what was needed and that sort of thing, in the small business community. And we said south of Dearborn Street was our turf, north was (Jackson Street Community Council Federation). Jackson Street Community Council Federation was the community organization specialist. So we said, "You folks do that part for the whole neighborhood rather than just part of it." And they became later, the Central Area Community Council Federation, a city-wide federation. Our work with so-called average youths would be the one that would suffer. We had no services beyond what we were recommending to cut off. However, Washington Middle School was going to build a big gym and a play field (in two years). So there would be two-year lapse of service before that would be in operation. In the long haul, they could do a much more adequate job. So, what remained was a two-year demonstration project working with troubled youth.

AI: Working with troubled youth.

TI: Yeah. It's one of the earliest beginnings. We had a two-year study we used to call the Hard-to-Reach Youth Project. It became obvious to me that we were the "hard-to-reach agency project," not the youth. We didn't make ourselves available on the kids' terms. Anyway, I was able to get a supervisor from the School of Social Work, who was formerly, worked with the gangs in L.A. and a case worker from juvenile court, probation officer, and a caseworker from Children's Home Society. And then Ed Pratt -- who was later assassinated -- from the Urban League, head of Urban League. He was my, one of my part-time workers. He was group-work trained. So I had a mixed social work background of people. So we used to meet once a month for dinner for a staff meeting, because it was all evening work and weekend with this project. We had to (serve) the right group, young people that were messin' around at Meany Middle School, at that time a junior high school. When we offered our services to them, they were available under their terms. And we had a (specially funded) project for two years. We felt that's what we should be (focusing our total effort on serving youth in conflict, since) no one else is doing that.

<End Segment 25> - Copyright © 2000 Densho. All Rights Reserved.