I'm not from Harlem. Never set foot in the place before a few months ago (January).
Members of the Church here in Harlem actually drove several hundred miles to upstate NY to bring me down here.
Thanks for the clarification, Tom.
To start with, a survey of people in the area would be a start.
Maybe. Maybe not. Poor people are quite scared, and understandably so, with all the daily violence and problems they have. Door to door could be dangerous, you can be mistaken for someone else, your timing could be poor, or you may just have a lot of doors shut in your face.
The only reason I was able to take the family pix I did was because I was a friend of a neighbour who had lived there all his life and I was staying at his place. They got to know me. Even then, some refused and got angry. If it weren't for the others knowing me and my immediately deleting pix they refused and respecting their rights, that could have been a problem.
L Ron Hubbard, the founder of Scientology, was chased out of many countries, like Rhodesia. Some of it was violent, with rocks thrown at the ships. People got hurt. His tek doesn't work very well outside the closed environment of Scientology where everyone believes in it, and even there, it is so abusive to the staff, the children, the families. There are cultures and there are sub-cultures, there are also communities. One doesn't just walk up and become a trusted member and tell everyone what to do. Life just doesn't work that way.
I delivered the CDs and prints door-to-door. I told everyone where I lived (on their street). For the rest of the week, there were dozens of people knocking at the door thanking me or asking for copies. It was a beautiful thing - some even brought gifts. It was stunning how grateful they were. Those people had plenty of heart and did everything they could for their families. They loved those who respected their rights and helped them keep their families and homes.
You don't need to start from scratch on the various problems in the ghettos and the culture. You can get some solid understanding and basics from the field of Sociology, where those studies have already been conducted. Of course, every area is different and there is more specific information needed for every community, but these are the sorts of things you find out by the people living there, not some pompous stranger.
The University of Chicago's Sociology Department and students spent 20 years doing studies, improving conditions and helping the poor around the University. There were tremendously positive changes as a direct result of their actions. It was unfortunate when the students stopped, but those and many other studies are available. It sounds to me like you'd be a natural at studying Sociology and you can dig right in there and help in ways that really change things. You also might want to look up what happened that the students were no longer allowed to do their studies. Some were hurt. Be careful. Study, study, study what you can in Sociology first and put the Scientology aside and you can do it.
You also can earn a very good salary after you finish University and not live like a nun in a cult while those at the top get rich off your efforts. Staff in Scn pays peanuts because you're just not important to them. Forget the BS of what an "honor" it is to be a staff member. It's a crock of shit. I was Scn staff for 9 years and wasted the best times of my life there. Nothing changed from scn, in fact, things got worse from within and without - scn destroyed families, lives. There were so many suicides of scientologists. True believers give up everything for that hope, then when they find out they've been conned or cut off from their loved ones, some just lose it altogether. It's a very mean cult that has no room for individual ideas, only followers willing to support those at the top so they can have their charge cards and gold plated plumbing taps and all those other stupid things while the rest of the staff are kept brainwashed enough to work their lives away for peanuts.
Get enrolled in University, you can do it, you really can. Forget the side attractions and diversions designed by cults and study what you need and dig in with all your heart and mind. Keep it simple, keep it real. That's my advice.