 WSPA hosted a national women's symposium ""Community-Based Alternatives and Women in the Eighties,"" on May 17–20, 1981, at American University, Washington, DC.The event focused on women in the areas of housing, employment, economic development, education and cooperative development.Despite ongoing efforts, WSPA's final project was a 1983-1984 Design Arts Grant from the National Endowment for the Arts (NEA) for ""Architectural Quality in Urban Homesteading,"" a project with a stated aim to help urban homesteaders, many of whom where women, ""achieve architectural quality in buildings rehabilitated and cooperatively owned and managed by homesteaders through a participatory design process.""