The United Planning Organization has served the citizens of Washington, D.C. (and in earlier years the entire Metropolitan Washington, D.C area) since December 1962. Below is a historical snapshot of UPO and a look at the many highlights in the agency's distinguished history.

2000 - UPO enters millennium with a bang when it holds an Open House at its Ralph Waldo "Petey" Greene Community Service Center which settles in to a spacious new facility. Randall Robinson, head of the internationally acclaimed TransAfrica, serves as keynote speaker at UPO's 16th Annual Martin Luther King, Jr. Memorial Breakfast where more than 1000 attend. UPO sponsors a "DC Poverty Summit" that brings together hundreds of national and local experts to discuss ideas and learn new trends. UPO serves as a co-host for the April Head Start Conference in partnership with the National Head Start Association.

1999 - Ms. Barbara Skinner, widow of Rev. Thomas Skinner (UPO's first Martin Luther King, Jr. Memorial Breakfast keynote speaker), keynotes the agency's 15th Annual Martin Luther King, Jr. Memorial Breakfast. UPO funds additional five community-based special emphasis organizations. Agency continues its TANF (Temporary Assistance for Needy Families) program assisting new customers move from dependency to independence. UPO celebrates DC Veterans of the War on Poverty with citywide event. More than 600 UPO Youth Programs participants celebrated and receive citywide recognition. Agency's Head Start program receives its largest grant ever from the federal Department of Health and Human Services.Agency holds ground breaking for new Anacostia Community Services center. The new 7,100 square foot building will be completed in a year. UPO celebrates its 37th birthday on December 10.

1998 - Noted attorney Bryan A. Stevenson serves as keynote speaker to UPO's 14th Annual Martin Luther King, Jr. Memorial Breakfast. UPO funds additional five community-based special emphasis organizations. Agency continues its TANF (Temporary Assistance for Needy Families) program assisting new customers move from dependency to independence.

1997 - Rev. Dr. H. Beecher Hicks, Jr. serves as keynote speaker to UPO's 13th Annual Martin Luther King, Jr. Memorial Breakfast. With funding from the U.S. Department of Labor and the D.C. Department of Employment Servuces, UPO launches the Quantum Opportunity Partnership (QOP) activity, a drop-out prevention program, that targets selected students at Anacostia and Eastern High Schools. UPO sponsors 3rd Annual Run/Walk for Head Start. Agency awards funds to five organizations located mainly int the Latino community. Community Transistion Project for youth offenders is renewed. UPO begins Medicaid Managed Care project to help transistion D.C. Medicaid recipients into managed care (HMOs).

1996 - Rev. Jesse Jackson is keynote speaker to UPO's 12th Annual Martin Luther King, Jr. Memorial Breakfast where more than 900 attend the nationally televised event despite inclement weather. UPO kick-offs an expanded Hypothermia program specifically aimed toward the family. A "HOME" program is launched targeting 138 families and children providing them with case management -social services, and ultimately placing them into non-subsidized housing and obtain jobs. UPO co-sponsors, with the D.C. Agenda, the Washington, D.C. Dialogue on Poverty, with results presented at the national conference of the National Association of Community Action Agencies.

1995 - Elaine Jones, director of the NAACP Legal Defense Fund, is keynote speaker at agency's 11th Annual Martin Luther King, Jr. Memorial Breakfast. UPO hosts 1995 National Head Start Conference in April and co-sponsors First Annual Run-Walk for Head Start. A self help program in the city's Langston Terrace neighborhood is launched. UPO relocates its headquarters to 941 North Capitol Street, N.E. Washington, D.C. saving the agency more than $100,000 in annual lease rates.

1994 - Children's Defense Fund head Marion Wright Edelman challenges audience to focus more on children during her keynote address at UPO's 10th Annual Martin Luther King, Jr. Memorial Breakfast. Mayor Sharon Pratt Kelly signs agreement with UPO creating the citywide Youth Programs to provide low-income youth with employment and education activities in their neighborhoods. UPO plays major role in local grassroots preservation movement participating in a Thematic Study of African American Architects, Builders, and Developers. First two UPO/Joseph A. Beavers Scholarship winners graduate from the University of the District of Columbia as Veronica Laney receives a B.B.A. in Accounting and Agustin Chicas receives a B.S. in Biology. UPO automates client information system utilizing a Local Area Network to link delegate agencies and special programs providing services. UPO Executive Director Benjamin Jennings is elected 2nd Vice President of the National Association of Community Action Agencies during national conference in New Orleans. D.C. City Council Chairman Dave Clarke honors UPO employees who have served 25 or more years with agency.

1993 - UPO enters its 31st year. Mr. Russell Simmons is elected president of the UPO Board of Trustees succeeding Dr. Thornell K. Page who served 12 years. Former D.C. Budget Director Gladys Mack is appointed UPO deputy executive director. UPO funds Bright Beginnings to provide Head Start services to homeless children. A new Head Start center is created through funding from ADASA to accommodate children of parents in the city's drug and alcohol treatment program. UPO Crisis Response Center renamed Community Resource Program to better reflect the program's mission. The component has collected and distributed more than one million pounds of food since its creation in 1983. UPO launches Hypothermia Hotline, a citywide emergency transportation service to assist homeless individuals. DHHS awards UPO a demonstration grant to assist 60 minority males with families to achieve self-sufficiency.

1992 - UPO launches Project REACH OUT, a program to provide nutrition education and expand federal food program participation in Ward 8. The homeless assistance program receives grants to expand its case management program for families living in shelters and facilitate their move into permanent housing. East Capitol Dwellings public housing complex is the site of a new UPO Head Start center.

1991 - The federal office of Substance Abuse Prevention awards a $1.5 million five-year grant to UPO to provide substance abuse prevention education to preschoolers and their parents in Columbia Heights. UPO opens a day care center in the Edgewood Terrace housing project and, under contract with the D.C. Department of Human Services, opens an employer-provided day care center for children of city government employees. The UPO Anacostia Neighborhood Center opens in an area formerly served by Southeast House. UPO employees elect the Communications Workers of America as their collective bargaining agent.

1990 - UPO initiates Project HOME, a program involving the discounted purchase and rehabilitation of federally owned single-family dwellings for resale to low- and moderate-income purchasers. The agency opens a Head Start center in the Lincoln Heights public housing complex and funds the Rosemount Day Care Center, which serves a multicultural population.

1989 - The Edward C. Mazique Parent and Child Center, a UPO delegate, receives one of 22 federal grants awarded under the recently enacted Comprehensive Child Development Act. UPO launches a multi-generational case management demonstration project designed to serve 120 families. Marshall Heights Community Development Organization becomes UPO's newest delegate agency.

1988 - UPO conducts a historic preservation-community education program in Anacostia, initiates a Life Management Training project for residents of D.C. homeless shelters, and petitions the D.C. Public Service Commission to require Washington Gas Light Company to improve its services to low-income customers. UPO opens a neighborhood development center in the city's far eastern section, an area formerly served by Far East Community Services. Benjamin Jennings becomes UPO's sixth executive director.

1987 - Executive Director Ernest Pete Ward resigns - James W. Cartee serves as acting executive director. UPO joins several churches and community organizations in forming the Fuller/Church/Community Consortium to provide coordinated services to poor residents of Northeast D.C.

1986 - UPO opens its cafeteria, the Potomac Court Cafe, to the public. The agency inaugurates a four-year teen pregnancy prevention education project that reaches more than 10,000 city youngsters.

1985 - UPO holds its first Martin Luther King, Jr. Memorial Breakfast. Response is so favorable, it becomes an annual event with proceeds supporting the UPO/Joseph A. Beavers Scholarship Program. The agency launches the Summer Youth Employment Program, providing work experience for 200 D.C. high school students, and publishes a Spanish language guide to emergency services in the District.

1983 - UPO launches a bank teller training program, in cooperation with a consortium of D.C. banks, credit unions, and savings institutions. A rental/mortgage assistance program is also established. Pathways to Self-Sufficiency program inaugurated to help parents of Head Start children obtain a GED if they have no high school diploma and obtain jobs.

1982 - James Cartee, head of UPO's Office of Administration and Management becomes acting executive director. Washington Elderly Handicapped Transportation System (WEHTS) is launched in cooperation with D.C. Office on Aging. Mayor Marion Barry, Jr., continues UPO's role as operator of CSBG programs. On October 1, Ernest Pete Ward, executive director of Friendship House since 1970, becomes UPO's fifth executive director.

1981 - UPO rehabilitates five boarded-up city-owned homes for sale to qualifying low-income families. Community Services Administration dies September 30 and is replaced with Community Services Block Grant funds through federal department of HHS. William L. Davis resigns as executive director and is replaced on an acting basis by Frank H. Hollis. Dr. Thornell K. Page is elected board president, succeeding Delano Lewis. A loss of 125 staff members through a reduction in force is the result of budget cuts.

1980 - UPO's Energy Conservation Assistance Program has weatherized 1,600 dwellings owned by low-income D.C. residents since its modest beginnings five years earlier.

1979 - Establishment of UPO Community Food and Nutrition Program leads to development of Capital Area Community Food Bank and D.C. Women, Infants and Children (WIC) nutrition program. First Lady Rosalynn Carter helps inaugurate Cities in Schools project. Delano Lewis succeeds Walter B. Lewis as board president.

1978 - CSA Director Gracia Olivarez tours UPO facilities and presents Mayor Washington a $500,000 minority youth employment grant to be administered by UPO. Agency forms partnership with Department of the Army to provide work experience to disadvantaged youth.

1976 - UPO Enterprises, Inc., is formed as a subsidiary to develop and operate area's first Bonanza Sirloin Pit restaurant. UPO sponsors a Foster Grandparent program.

1975 - Dr. Walter B. Lewis is elected president of the Board of Trustees as OEO is transformed into the Community Services Administration (CSA). UPO launches weekend meals program for senior citizens, delivery of meals to the homebound bound, and emergency shelter program and home weatherization for the low-income elderly. Fairfax County, Virginia opts out of the UPO network to become its own community action agency.

1973 - The Rev. H. Albion Ferrell is elected board president. President Nixon names Howard Phillips OEO director and orders him to shut down poverty agencies and choke off community action. A lawsuit forestalls the action; U.S. District Court Judge William Jones rules Phillips' action "in excess of any statutory authority." Passage of Comprehensive Employment and Training Act (CETA) divests UPO of manpower programs' sponsorship, costing agency $10 million in grants funds. Jeanus Parks resigns as executive director and is succeeded by William L. Davis, UPO's General Counsel.

1972 - UPO opens its first Early childhood Development Center, a model daycare facility for the city. After a decade at the helm, Frederick Lee steps down as board president and is succeeded by the Hon. John D. Fauntleroy, judge of the D.C. Superior Court, who completes Lee's term of office.

1971 - Economic development thrust begins with formation of $225,000 Brookland Fund. Operating with grants from fund, Brookland Enterprises, Inc., a corporation of minority businessmen, takes over management of a large Anacostia apartment complex and develops the Georgia Aspen Motel and a Maine Avenue waterfront restaurant building.

1969 - District of Columbia Mayor Walter Washington redesignates UPO as the city's community action agency. CHANGE Neighborhood Health Center is funded, along with two Martin Luther King Food Cooperatives. Anti-fraud consumer protection program is launched to protect the poor. Wiley Branton resigns and is replaced as executive director by Jeanus Parks, executive director of Neighborhood Legal Services. Anti-CAP drive by Nixon Administration begins, leading to $1 million cut in UPO's summer youth funds. Protests and demonstrations result in fund restoration.

1968 - Turmoil following the assassination of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. embroils UPO. Demonstrators briefly take over Branton's office. Agency tackles huge problem of finding food, shelter and jobs for members of its client population burned out during riots.

1967 - James Banks resigns as executive director and is replaced by Wiley Branton, executive secretary of the President's Council on Equal Opportunity. UPO is one of 21 community action agencies nationwide chosen to operate new federal Concentrated Employment Program (CEP).

1965 - Manpower programs begin making their appearance with on-the-job training. The Housing Development Corporation is established. Over a decade it develops or rehabilitates 1,375 homes for low-income families. UPO sends its first recruits to the Camp Kilmer Job Corps Center in New Jersey.

1964 - UPO is designated area's community action agency following passage of Economic Opportunity Act of 1964. In its first year as a CAP agency, UPO uses $15.8 million in grants to establish eight neighborhood development centers, inaugurate a Neighborhood Youth Corps, fund a Model School System, inaugurate a pilot Head Start program, and launch the community credit union movement with founding loans to three credit unions. The agency establishes Neighborhood Legal Services Program, and a Small Business Development Center.

1962 - United Planning Organization (UPO) is incorporated on December 10, 1962, to coordinate planning of human service needs and facilities in the national capital area. Ford Foundation and Meyer Foundation grants support long-range programs. Frederick B. Lee chairs Board of Trustees. James G. Banks appointed executive director.

 

 

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