Group plans for local Urban League

Friday, March 14, 2003 | 9:14 a.m.

Las Vegas could soon have its own chapter of the Urban League, and that would bring additional housing, educational and job training programs to the valley, organizers said.

Founded in 1910, the Urban League is a community-based organization that helps blacks move up the economic ladder. It has 108 branches in 34 states and the District of Columbia.

Urban League officials will meet with local leaders Saturday to gauge support for opening a Las Vegas branch. After the meeting, a chapter application will be filed with the Urban League's national board, and the board will respond to the application in July, organizers said.

A committee of 40 Las Vegas Valley residents who work in similar organizations has been studying the possibility of creating an Urban League chapter for a year. That included an assessment of the needs of the area's blacks and other minorities, said Jacqulyn Shropshire, who has led the effort. Shropshire, who moved to Las Vegas three years ago, has worked with the Urban League in three other states.

"With Las Vegas' growth comes problems, and the Urban League has traditionally gone into cities that are growing," Shropshire said.

Rev. Spencer Barrett, president of the new local chapter of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People, said: "It's a needed venture ... and the NAACP and Urban League can work hand-in-hand to help the poor and disenfranchised here."

Shropshire said the area needs job-training programs, as well as programs to keep minorities in school.

The Urban League, with a $50 million budget nationwide -- about a third of which comes from federal grants, and the rest of which is from private sources -- can set up such programs, said Annelle Lewis, senior vice president of affiliate development for the Urban League.

"In looking at the data ... African-Americans (in Las Vegas) are earning less income proportionally ... so this organization could be very effective," said Christine Brady, community relations officer for the EOB.

She also said that community members often call her office asking for services that her organization does not provide.

Barrett said the Urban League focuses on education, housing and employment.

The EOB study showed the Clark County dropout rate at nearly 6 percent for 2000, a figure Shropshire thinks the Urban League could help lower.