Title: United Neighborhood Centers of Dane County, Inc. Records
Inclusive Dates: 1935-1994

Creator:

• United Neighborhood Centers of Dane County, Inc.

Call Number: Mss 970

Quantity: 3.6 cubic feet (8 archives boxes and 1 flat box)

Repository:

Wisconsin Historical Society, Division of Library, Archives, and Museum Collections

Archival Locations:

Wisconsin Historical Society (Map)

COLLECTION MAY BE STORED OFF-SITE: see catalog entry to request materials and for additional information.

Abstract:

Records of a social welfare agency founded in 1949 to coordinate neighborhood community center efforts in Madison, Wisconsin. Originally named Madison Neighborhood Centers, Inc. (MNC), the organization changed its name in 1973 to United Neighborhood Centers of Dane County, Inc. (UNC) to reflect the organization's growth and wider community focus. The UNC dissolved in 1997 due to escalating administrative difficulties between the UNC and its member community centers. Included in the collection are: annual, board of directors, committee, and center directors' meeting minutes; organizational studies; planning documents; policy procedures; newspaper clippings; scrapbooks; and special project and program files. Also included are subject files (1935-1993) on the UNC's member centers which included Atwood Community Center, East Madison Community Center, Neighborhood House, UNC-North, South Madison Community Center, Wil-Mar Neighborhood Center, Broadway/Simpson/Waunona Neighborhood Center and the Deerfield Community Center. Records for the UNC's Vera Court Neighborhood Center and the Wexford Ridge Neighborhood Association are not included in this collection although the centers are mentioned in the Atwood Community Center files.

Language: English

URL to cite for this finding aid: http://digital.library.wisc.edu/1711.dl/wiarchives.uw-whs-mss00970

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United Neighborhood Centers of Dane County, Inc. had its beginnings in post-World War II Madison under the name Madison Neighborhood Centers, Inc. In 1948, Madison Vocational and Adult School withdrew financial support from the naturalization program at Neighborhood House, a social settlement house on Madison's near west side that had served a large Italian immigrant population since 1916. The loss of funding prompted Neighborhood House to request that Madison Community Welfare Council conduct a study to determine the House's future role in the community. The study, completed in 1949 by the Executive Secretary of the National Federation of Settlements, John McDowell, indicated a need for Neighborhood House as well as the establishment of a new neighborhood center in south Madison. The study went on to suggest that Neighborhood House and the East Side Youth Activities Council join forces to form Madison Neighborhood Centers, Inc. (MNC). The newly created MNC provided services for neighborhood and individual improvement and worked to strengthen family relations.

As MNC outlined and strengthened its governance structure, it worked with community members in south Madison to establish the South Madison Neighborhood Center in January 1950. A third center, Atwood Community House (later Atwood Community Center), serving the east side of Madison was established in 1954. The governance structure of MNC included a board of directors with twenty members. Five members came from each of the three centers and they, in turn, elected four at-large members with Madison's Director of the Recreation Division of the Board of Education as the fifth member-at-large. The twenty members elected officers of the board including president, vice-president, secretary, and treasurer. An executive director, Chester Zmudzinski, was hired in 1949 and continued in the position until 1972.

Through the 1950s and 1960s, the member centers worked to provide community programs such as day camps and after-school activities for children, women's groups and support groups especially for low-income and minority groups. One special program was created between MNC and Madison Rotary Club. In 1964, Madison Rotary Club purchased a hundred-acre farm near Dalton, Wisconsin as a campsite for MNC. Until the early 1970s it was used by MNC and its member centers as a residential camp in the summer and for weekend camping the rest of the year. In 1969, Wil-Mar Community Center was established in the Williamson-Marquette Neighborhood and the East Madison Community Center was developed to serve the Truax-Hawthorne area of Madison. During the next two years, MNC underwent an organizational structure study and change.

Each center had its own board of directors and the restructuring helped to define the roles each board played. MNC saw its role as coordinating and mediating conflicts between the centers as well as functioning as a central administration and representing the interests of the centers as a whole. In 1973, Madison Neighborhood Centers, Inc. changed its name to United Neighborhood Centers of Dane, County, Inc. (UNC) to reflect the organization's growth and wider community influence. This wider growth can be seen with the 1973 establishment of UNC-North, or the Northside Teen Center, and the 1977 establishment of the Deerfield Community Center in Deerfield, Wisconsin. UNC-North only operated for a few years before closing.

The UNC continued to expand its services in the 1970s and 1980s with a Latino Outreach Center and Teen Rap Alternative Counseling (TRAC) for teenage alcohol and drug intervention. The member centers developed more programs such as adult and senior education programs, employment counseling, and work with food pantries and emergency food collection for families. Funding for the UNC was not always enough to cover the programs or the cost of operating the centers and central organization. A variety of sources have provided money to the UNC and the centers since their inception, including the United Way of Dane County, the Community Welfare Council's Community Chest, the Rennebohm Foundation, the Community Development Block Grant, and other grants and private donations. However, a pervasive lack of money plagued the UNC during this time period and continued into the 1990s.

The Broadway/Simpson/Waunona Neighborhood Center was developed by UNC around 1990 near Monona in southern Madison. The Vera Court Neighborhood Center opened in 1992 on the northeast side of Madison and the Wexford Ridge Neighborhood Association joined UNC in 1994 and established the Wexford Ridge Neighborhood Center and Advisory Board. However, even before the establishment of the Broadway/Simpson/Waunona Neighborhood Center, the UNC was struggling with finances and having relationship difficulties with some of the centers, such as the South Madison Neighborhood Center, which moved to disaffiliate itself from UNC in 1988.

In 1997 the UNC dissolved due to escalating administrative difficulties between the UNC and its member community centers, leaving the centers to operate on their own. During the dissolution process, the Broadway/Simpson/Waunona Neighborhood Center was forced to close due to time and resource restrictions. The South Madison Neighborhood Center became the Boys and Girls Club of Dane County but the other centers remained unchanged in name and focus.

The records are arranged in eight series: Administrative Records, Minutes, Reports and Studies, Special Projects and Programs, Legal Files, Community Center Subject Files, Clippings, and Scrapbooks. The records are incomplete for both the UNC and its member centers, especially between the years 1955 to 1968. There are also no records between 1995 and the organization's dissolution in 1997.

The Administrative Records are arranged chronologically and contain small files of information dating between 1968 and 1989. The Community Development Block Grant (CDBG) correspondence contains only one year of letters between the UNC and a funding organization. The file corresponds to the Board of Directors and Committee Meeting Minutes for 1988 and 1989 where another small amount of CDBG correspondence exists for that time period as well as in the 1987 minutes.

The Minutes are divided into three categories, Annual Meeting Minutes, Board of Directors and Committee Meeting Minutes, and Center Directors' Meeting Minutes, and are arranged chronologically therein. The Annual Meeting Minutes run from 1962-1968 and 1986-1993. Included with the minutes of these meetings are correspondence and annual reports. Governance decisions including modification of by-laws and elections of officers took place at the annual meetings. The Board of Directors and Committee Meeting Minutes comprise the bulk of the UNC material. Committees included are the budget, executive, funding, membership, personnel and planning committees but not every one appears every year. Incorporated in these files are agendas, center reports, financial materials, correspondence, and grant applications and date from 1949 to 1994 with the bulk being from 1988 to 1991. Materials from 1954-1968, 1974-1979, 1983, and 1995-1997 are not included. The Center Directors' Meeting Minutes, covering 1969 to 1971, are from the files of Jerry Glaeve, a director of Neighborhood House during the 1970s.

The Reports and Studies date from 1949 to 1991 and are arranged chronologically. The 1949 report is the original report requested by Neighborhood House in which the formation of the UNC was recommended. The files of the structure study committee document the process the UNC undertook to study and reorganize itself from 1970 to 1971. The subsequent critiques, studies and planning documents illustrate not only the constant organizational evaluation undertaken by the UNC to provide better service, but also show some of the problems, other than financial, that plagued the organization.

The Special Projects and Programs series is arranged chronologically. The reports of Camp Rotary from 1962 to 1973 contain camping studies that led to the organization of the camp in 1964 as well as yearly summaries of the youth camps. The reports contain social demographics and detailed information on the interaction of the children who attended the camp. Last names of juvenile attendees have been censored. The Camp Rotary correspondence is between Henry Behnke, the Madison Rotary Club contact, and the UNC and contains information on the use and physical condition of the camp. The Northeast Neighborhood Project contains proposals and surveys that cite a need for a community center in northeast Madison.

The Legal Files are arranged chronologically. The contract is with the city of Madison for a piece of land near Neighborhood House. The Dane County Mental Health lease and waiver also contains correspondence that documents the lease of office space by the UNC to this organization. The file on Henry Pitt (executive director of the UNC from 1972 until he was terminated in 1976 for misappropriation of funds) contains legal documents and correspondence pertaining to suits and counter suits filed by the UNC and Pitt over salary and defamation of character. Sally Schroeder's legal suit and the Madison Independent Workers Union file contain information on staff employment practices. The legal suit between South Madison and McKee, (a contractor who built a shed at the South Madison Neighborhood Center) documents the role the UNC played in the legal matters of a member community center.

The Community Center Subject Files are arranged alphabetically by community center name and chronologically therein. The files are not inclusive and there are no records for the Vera Court Neighborhood Center and Wexford Ridge Neighborhood Association though they are mentioned in the later files of the Atwood Community Center. Examples of materials included in the subject files are correspondence, advertisements for programs, minutes of center meetings, building leases, center histories and studies, newsletters, reports, and financial summaries. The files that exist for Neighborhood House and the South Madison Neighborhood Center during the 1960s may contain information about the UNC that does not exist in the Annual, Board of Directors and Committee, or the Center Directors' Meeting Minutes.

The Clippings are arranged chronologically and are taken from Madison-area newspapers. While the date span is quite long, only clippings from 1961-1967, 1971-1972, 1976-1977, 1979-1980, and 1989 are included. The clippings document the actions taken and programs sponsored by the UNC and its member community centers as well as provide information about the UNC from 1961-1967, a time period that is not covered in the series of minutes.

The Scrapbooks contain newspaper clippings, programs, and flyers for programs sponsored by the UNC and its member community centers. There are two volumes, the first dating from 1980-1982 and the second from 1983-1985. Similarly to the loose clippings, the scrapbooks document the activities of the UNC and its member community centers during a period of time that is not well documented in the series of minutes.

Neighborhood House Records (Mss 167)

Acquisition Information

Presented by Ben Di Salvo, Madison, Wisconsin, 1998. Accession Number: M2000-016

Processing Information

Processed by Keri Johnson, May 2001.

Mss 970	Administrative Records
Box   1 Folder   1	Histories of United Neighborhood Centers of Dane County, Inc., undated
Box   1 Folder   2	Handbooks and Personnel Codes, 1968, 1971
Box   1 Folder   3	Community Development Block Grant (CDBG) Correspondence, 1988- 1989
	Minutes
Box   1 Folder   4	Annual Meeting Minutes, 1962-1993
	Board of Directors and Committee Meeting Minutes
Box   1 Folder   5-9	1949-1973
Box   2 Folder   1-8	1980-1988 June
Box   3 Folder   1-6	1988 July-1994
Box   4 Folder   1	Center Directors' Meeting Minutes, 1969-1971
	Reports and Studies
Box   4 Folder   2	Report on Neighborhood House, 1949
Box   4 Folder   3	Madison Community Attitudes Pilot Study, 1961
Box   4 Folder   4-5	Structure Study Committee, 1970-1971
Box   4 Folder   6	Structure Study Report, 1971
Box   4 Folder   7	Critique of Structure Study Report, 1975
Box   4 Folder   8	UNC Study Group and Report, 1975-1976
Box   4 Folder   9	Priorities Questionnaire and Summary, 1976
Box   4 Folder   10	Request for Proposal for Management Study, 1979
Box   4 Folder   11	Evaluation Study by Project LINCS, 1980
Box   5 Folder   1	Community Center Planning Documents, 1985
Box   5 Folder   2	Planning Data, 1986
Box   5 Folder   3	Long Range Planning Process, 1990-1991
	Special Projects and Programs
Box   5 Folder   4	Camp Rotary Reports, 1962-1973
Box   5 Folder   5	Camp Rotary Correspondence, 1965-1972
Box   5 Folder   6	Proposal for Alcohol and Other Drug Abuse Prevention Program, 1975
Box   5 Folder   7	Teen Rap Alternative Counseling (TRAC), 1976-1977
Box   5 Folder   8	Northeast Neighborhood Project, 1978-1979
Box   5 Folder   9	Revised Proposal for County Revenue Sharing, undated
	Legal Files
Box   6 Folder   1	Contract for Sale of Land, circa 1965
Box   6 Folder   2	Dane County Mental Health Lease and Waiver, 1965-1972
Box   6 Folder   3	Henry Pitt Legal Suit, 1976-1978
Box   6 Folder   4	Sally Schroeder Legal Suit, 1976-1977
Box   6 Folder   5	Madison Independent Workers Union File, 1977-1978
Box   6 Folder   6	South Madison-McKee Legal Suit, 1984
	Community Center Subject Files
	Atwood Community Center
Box   7 Folder   1	1971-1979
Box   7 Folder   2	1991-1993
Box   7 Folder   3	Broadway/Simpson/Waunona Community Center, 1991-1993
Box   7 Folder   4	Deerfield Community Center, 1977-1979
	East Madison Community Center
Box   7 Folder   5	1970-1983
Box   7 Folder   6	1991-1993
	Neighborhood House
Box   8 Folder   1	1935-1969
Box   8 Folder   2	1971-1991
Box   8 Folder   3	UNC-North, 1973-1977
Box   8 Folder   4-8	South Madison Neighborhood Center, 1951-1993
Box   8 Folder   9	Wil-Mar Neighborhood Center, 1969-1993
Box   8 Folder   10	Clippings, 1961-1989
Box   9 Folder   1-2	Scrapbooks, 1980-1985
Box   9 Folder   3	“Ebony Expressions” musical poster, 1990