The Center for Community Change (CCC, Norman grantee 1970–1985) was founded in 1968 to build power among low-income people of color, challenge the government to be a force for good, and strengthen the field of community organizing. In 1982, CCC launched the Women’s Technical Assistance Project (WTAP) to provide hands-on training, fundraising support, and strategy assistance for women-led community groups, particularly in the Southeast, where poverty rates among women were high and meaningful job opportunities were scarce. Recognizing that these groups often operated in isolation, WTAP convened them to share skills and troubleshoot common challenges together. Norman’s grants helped sustain WTAP’s work during its critical early years; by 1987, WTAP had grown strong enough to become its own independent 501(c)(3) organization.

One of the organizations WTAP supported was the Watermark Association of Artisans, a women’s arts and crafts cooperative founded in 1978 in one of North Carolina’s poorest rural communities. WTAP helped Watermark secure its own building, strengthen its fundraising, and develop its organizational and leadership capacity. The results were transformative: by the early 1990s, Watermark had trained more than 500 members and was marketing their crafts worldwide, with many women earning $20,000 to $25,000 a year — far more than the local economy could have offered them.