2000 Dorothy Day Award |
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Jim is one of the founders of Eastside Neighbors in Partnership (ENIP), a land trust for low income families. He grew up outside of Chicago and through his faith, he said, he was exposed to the idea of justice. "As I was growing up with a minimal, really, amount of Jewish education, a key piece of it was about justice. There was one rabbi and one teacher in particular that talked about justice and what is really meaningful in life, Dessauer said. "Then I had personal experience, like everyone does, of things that have power over us -- arrogance, non-decent ways of treating one another." A conglomeration of experience has brought Dessauer to his present views on organizing communities to empower the people who live there. The answer to declining neighborhoods, he said, is to bring the people who live there together so they can work toward creating better and more affordable housing with additions like community parks and green spaces. "To get started, people in the community need to organize. We sit down one on one and ask what the self interest is of each person in the group. Most people don't think of 'self-interest' and that the word 'inter' in interest means between or among people. We talk about your needs for your life here in the context with community life," Dessauer explained.
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In 1987, he began ENIP in his own home. Today, there is an
ENIP office on Cherry Street off East Fayette and another office within walking
distance where most of the community organizing takes place. ENIP began
with a handful of neighbors getting together to discuss ways to improve the
quality of life in the neighborhood, and now there are 20 employees that make up
the organization. ENIP has grown to include a farm stand project
facilitated by young people, a renovation organization that has rehabilitated 25
buildings, a land trust for low income families and the catalyst of ENACT, an
eastside neighborhood arts and culture endeavor housed in a building on Genesee
Street that will open in the fall of 2001. ENACT will be a multiuse arts
and technology center for all ages in the community. Architecture students
from Syracuse University and landscape architect students from SUNY-Environmental
Science and Forestry College have combined talents to design the new center,
another example of organizations working together for the betterment of the
community. Dessauer has also worked on media projects that expose and
inform others about justice issues such as the working poor and earning a living
wage.
"I grew up understanding the results of arrogance. Those results are very concrete. I grew up in an upper-middle class environment with a lot of physical comforts," Dessauer said. "But, I witnessed racism, maltreatment in many different ways. I think everybody does. You either blind yourself to it, if nothing else by witnessing it, or you do something about it. For instance, it is an obscene fact that you can work full time and make less money than it takes to support a family. What we call minimum wage is not enough to live on." Through his work and his attitude, Dessauer has been able to make a tremendous impact on the Syracuse community. And, although he is Jewish, Dessauer is well aware of Dorothy Day's legacy and the fact that it knows no bounds. "I can't think of an award I'd rather have," Dessauer said, smiling. "She did serious justice work and had a serious commitment to justice which is something to emulate as much as you can." - from an article by Connie Cassell in the Catholic Sun, May 4, 2000
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