Scope and arrangement
The Action for Community Empowerment Records, 1987-2006 contain information regarding ACE's efforts in the late 1980s to organize tenants of the Martinique and the Prince Georges hotels, two low-income housing developments. The bulk of the collection, however, deals with ACE's efforts to improve housing and organize tenants in Central Harlem from the early 1990s to the mid-2000s. In addition, there is information documenting a youth employment program; tenant rights "door knocking" campaign; HPD building condition surveys; and correspondence with City officials and local politicians. Copies of ACE's newsletter, the Catalyst, as well as grant applications and documents describing fundraising efforts, also are found in the collection. ACE's alpha-numeric filing system has been maintained in boxes 1-3, however a chronological system was imposed on the files in box 4 and 5. The files in box 7 are restricted because they contain personal information on former ACE clients and employees.
The Action for Community Empowerment records are arranged in seven series:
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1994-2001
This series includes files related to ACE's youth employment and outreach programs; tenant organizing campaign materials; and documentation of ACE's partnerships with various New York City community development organizations such as ACORN, Harlem Tenants' Council, and the Fifth Avenue Committee.
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1990-1998
This series consists of files documenting ACE's tenant rights "Door Knocking" campaign; negotiations and correspondence with New York City Department of Housing Preservation and Development officials and tenants; community empowerment workshops; and information pertaining to ACE's annual membership retreats.
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1989-1998
This series contains files relating to ACE membership retreats, city and state legislative hearings, tenant and youth surveys, and information pertaining to ACE grant writing and fundraising efforts during the early 1990s.
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1988-2001
The contents of this box are arranged chronologically from 1988 to 2001 and include a wide variety of ACE documents such as press releases, annual reports, monthly program reports, workshop curriculum, and membership attendance sheets.
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ca. 1987
The files in the first third of this box contain various ACE documents arranged chronologically from 1993 to 2001. The remaining files include documents relating to ACE's formative years when it was known as the Hotel Tenants Rights Project, information regarding anti-homelessness campaigns, information pertaining to ACE's involvement with properties owned by the Department of Housing Preservation and Development, and other ACE documents.
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1987-1994
These files include documentation of ACE's tenant organizing efforts in various Manhattan government subsidized affordable housing buildings ("welfare hotels") such as the Harriet Tubman Family Living Center, the Prince George Hotel, and the Martinique Hotel; copies of ACE's Catalyst newsletter; outreach letters to politicians; and other ACE documents.
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early 1990s
This series contains restricted material of tenant satisfaction and building condition surveys from residents living in several Department of Housing Preservation and Development properties in Central Harlem during the early 1990s.