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CHICAGO-Zoraida June's small size might fool people into thinking of her as a shy, quiet woman, but when she stood in front of 140 community leaders from across the country, nothing could hide her enormous enthusiasm and belief in National People's Action.

June, a leader with the Albany Park Neighborhood Association, described her yearlong relationship with NPA and leaders from across the country an eye-opening and empowering experience.

"In NPA I realized that the power does not belong to the big companies or corporations," she said. "I realized that we have the power. I realized we are not alone in the fight for a better life. I realized that there are people out there who are fighting the same fight we are in our communities because we have the same dissatisfactions and the same anger and the same hope. That is why I'll keep coming back to NPA, because there is a lot to be learned and to bring back to my community. Because we have hope and we have power, we can win more and more victories."

June spoke at the opening session of the annual leadership meeting where community groups from across the country gathered to discuss the agenda for the upcoming NPA conference in late March. The meeting was marked as a success with a larger attendance, longer and more structured issue sessions (the day was extended from five to eight hours) and an energized action on the home of a high-ranking Citibank official.

"It was like a mini-NPA," said one community leader.

Throughout the day, people broke down into down into strategy sessions focusing on a series of NPA campaigns including predatory lending, the Community Reinvestment Act, education, Housing Trust Fund, abandoned buildings/FHA, utilities, jobs, food stamps, youth, neighborhood safety and immigration.

Predatory Lending
Attendance - 40
The consensus among NPA groups was to target Citigroup because they are "the biggest and baddest predatory lender in the country."

Demands include that Robert Rubin, chairman of the executive committee at Citigroup, meet with NPA by March 1.

If Rubin does not get back to NPA leaders, Citigroup and Rubin will become targets for actions over the next couple of months, including National Day of Action on Feb. 15.

Citigroup will be the focus at the workshops and the plenary sessions at the NPA conference.

Education
Attendance - 33
Groups agreed that two main issues would be the focus for NPA's education platform: school construction legislation and developing a relationship with the Department of Education.

A lobby day on Feb. 14 and 15 in Washington DC targeted the Department of Education and Congress. A shower of valentines delivered to Rod Paige, Secretary of Education, and key senators and representatives are the starting point in developing a support system for a school reconstruction bill.

There will be two education workshops at the NPA conference.

Housing Trust Fund
Attendance - 26
Community leaders discussed the affordable Housing Trust Fund and decided that passing the law would be the focus for the upcoming year.

Sen. John Kerry (D-Ma) sponsored last year's Trust Fund bill. Kerry will be the focus of NPA groups once again in 2001 with the delivery of footballs inscribed with the message "Kerry the ball for one more year." (Kerry agreed in late January to responsor the Housing Trust Fund Bill.)

A lobby day in Washington DC on Feb. 13 and 14 included meeting with Senate leadership and representatives from HUD to identify key people to come to the NPA conference.

Jobs
Attendance - 27
The jobs campaign starts now and goes beyond NPA. The diverse issues range from the dysfunctional policies of the Workforce Investment Act to day labor and immigrant workers abuses. Groups will focus their work at the local level. The first action by community groups will be to contact and meet with their respective members of Congress. Groups will be inviting congress members and representatives from the Department of Labor to NPA.

Community Reinvestment Act
Attendance - 37
NPA will continue to target bank regulators for national changes in reinvestment regulations. At the meeting in mid-March NPA groups will work with the top regulatory officials to agree to all five of NPA's demands. Planning and action at the NPA conference will be dependent on the results of the meeting in March.

Youth
Attendance - 24/morning 28/afternoon
State Sen. Miguel Del Valle explained how to deal with a legislator when trying to get a bill passed through Congress.

Rep. Gutierrez (D-Il) is working on scholarship legislation to be written by the end of February. The youth will research locally how much money to ask for and find out who are their representatives and senators.

The afternoon session focused on the issues of education and crime and safety. Both will be the focus for youth at the NPA conference.

Food Stamps
Attendance - 6
The groups present at the session discussed the wins of the first food stamp hearings in Columbia, Mo and strategized for the next one in Pittsburgh, Pa on Feb. 21. The groups will continue to educate people on the problems with Food Stamp policies and strategize on solutions for NPA.

Abandoned buildings/FHA
Attendance - 12
Leaders met to discuss how to protect past FHA wins, how to establish a productive relationship with Bush's new FHA Commissioner and how to address non-FHA abandoned buildings. They agreed to set up a meeting before NPA with the new FHA Commissioner. As soon as an appointment is made, NPA leaders expect the new commissioner to not only uphold NPA's past agreements with the former FHA commissioner William Apgar but to work with NPA on new problems. The new FHA Commissioner will be invited to NPA's plenary. Groups, with NTIC's help when necessary, will research the status of abandoned buildings in their cities.

Energy Utilities Strategy
Attendance - 4
Since energy and utilities are not issues that many NPA groups work on, it was discussed at the leadership meeting how NPA could impact the current crisis in natural gas prices. NPA groups will be asked to send a letter to their representative and senators to ask for an investigation of the rapidly increasing natural gas prices and to demand more money for federal energy assistance.

Safe Neighborhoods
Attendance - 13
Developing the issue of safe neighborhoods for the NPA conference was the focus of the issue session. The NPA workshops will cover youth's easy access to guns and the transportation of handguns across state lines. Local organizing will be the first step in bringing the issue of gun violence to the forefront of each community.

Immigration
Attendance - 13
This NPA will be the first time groups tackle the problems immigrants are faced with while settling in the United States on both local and national levels. NPA will support an amnesty bill and other legislation that protects the rights of immigrants.

Issues that need further research but could be addressed at the NPA Conference: higher education, treatment at work, access to medical services and health coverage for children of immigrants despite their legal status.