.MTQzMg.MTQzMg

ECONOMIC OPPORTUNITY ATLANTA, INC. BOARD MEETING JULY 16, 1969 ADMINISTRATOR'S REPORT T. M. PARHAM PROGRAMS Because people are poor due to many different reasons and circumstances, EOA has many different approaches~ The money r~ceived supports all , a big part, or a tiny part of many activities ••• . Neighborhood Service Centers •• • Concentrated Employment Program ••• . New Careers ••• . Operation Ready ••• Atlanta Beautification Corps .Manpower Training Center Neighborhood Youth Corps Gate House (Job Corps returnees) State Employment Service personnel Vocational Rehab personnel Rent- A-Kid Community Organization Consumer Services VISTA Recreation Creative Atlanta Sta r t Now Atlanta VIP's (Ve r y Informed P e ople) Volunteers Full Year Head Start s ummer Head Star t Parent - Ch i ld Cen ter We s t End Child Devel opment Center . . Emerg e n c y Schoo l Lunch (4 s c hools) . Summer Feeding (Snacks ) Legal Aid P r og r ams fo r the Aged Foster Gr andparents . Comp r ehens i ve Hea l th Pl anne d P arentho od Aide Training . .. .. . .. ... ... These ~hirty program titles do not nea rly exhaus t the possibilities or give the kaleidoscopic effect. To exp a nd t h e list, one cou;bd name all �-2- fourteen neighborhood service centers and several extension offices, or list ten separate full year head start Centers, nine family' planning clinics, five legal aid offices, and the seventeen delegate agencies carrying out summer recreat~on activities. One might name the 200 block clubs and list the CNAC and CCAC committees which make up the heart of the community organization program. The VISTA and volunteer projects could be listed individually. There would be still further ways to break it down, but suffice it to say, we have a lot going. Furthermore, these program titles do not reflect Headquarters support activities like finance which h a ndles payrolls, accounting, purchasing 0 inventory, retirement, workman's compensation, the credit union, group health insurance; or planning which handles proposal development, contracts and data retrieval; or personnel with its task of recruiting, processing, keeping time and attendance, handling grievances, etc; or public information which answers countless questions, guides tours, sends out literature, writ1es stories and seeks attention for us. After this recitation, there's one thing that should be said: to Mr. Allison --- he will need it. Be kind PROGRESS In the past year, progress has been made in many ways: (1) The planning operation has been substantially improved and systematized under the leadership of Mr. Allison. (2) The MIS (Management Information System) report required by OEO has been facilitated by the diligent work of Mrs. Maynard Jackson and her assistant Mrs. Ann Sieffer t. A regional OEO off icial recently called this achievement outs tandin g . (3) The Finance Department is in the best condition ever; accor ding to our external auditors , Wolf and company. (4) Neighbo rhoo d Service Operat ions, u n der the ab le gu idance of Sue Crank, h ave b ecome more clearly defined, and the Center Directors have establ ished some exacting per f ormance s t andar ds of t he i r own. The _accomplishme n ts of o u r i ndividual Centers h ave been recited here each month, and their importance to the total program cannot be over-emphasized. �-3- (5) Edith Hambrick has led a special effort to improve social service activities in the NSC's . Four master social workers now provide guidance and supervision to social service counselors in all the Centers, making our service more consistently adequate and improving the efficiency of our record keeping. (6) The Community Organization Program, led by John Calhoun , established specific goals in a wide variety of areas, including edu cation , housing, welfare , employment, health, recreation, etc., and citizen committees hav e worked diligently and persistently at them. The results have shown increasingly productive dialogues between representatives of the poor and community institutions. (7) Manpower Programs, spurred by Clint Rodgers, have all registered gains. ACEP has been restructured with a much clearer understanding of its potentials as well as its limitations. All the cooperating agencies, EOA, the Georgia State Employment Service, the Vocational Education Division of the City Schools, and Vocational Rehab , have grown in their understanding of the needs of the hard core unemployed. The NYC Program under Charles Pierce has been complimented by the Regional Labor Office for its improved operation . (8) Public Info rmat i on , with Mrs . Mitchell assisted b y Pat Mason, cont i nues to do outstanding work . They scor ed notab l e achievements initiating the Start Now At l anta P r ogram a nd the VIP ' s. (9) The Volun te er P r ogram, u n der June sammon s ' ener get ic and r e s ourcefu l l eader sh i p , has b los somed t o 602 act i ve wo rke rs and s e ems l imitl ess i n i ts pote nt ial. (1 0) At long last, we have o ur Aide Tr a ining Program under way. Mrs. Anne Jackson i s in charge a nd t he goal is to give increased skills to all our aides and equip them for better jobs. (11) VISTA has had one of its brightest, most able groups of volunteers . They have worked on a variety of community problems 8 and through a joint effort involving a large number of them , they hope very soon �-4to open a warehouse that will be a coordinating purchasing office for six buying clubs they ~~ve organized. (12) Recreation, with Harold Barrett and Duke Harrison leading, has been developed into a y ear-round rather than strictly summer activity. A t otal of ten youthcommunity centers have been assisted into being, and football, basketball, and baseball teams have been developed among otherwise unreached youth .. One pr_e sent goal that seems achieveable is a year-roun d arts activity modeled after this summer's Creative Atlanta Program. (13) Child Development activities have been augmented by the successful beginning of the Edgewood Parent-Child Center for children from birth to age 3 and by the opening of the West End Child Development Center with its special emphasis on the use of older citizens a s child care specialists. There is real hope how that our Full-Year Head Start Program can be vastly improved in coming months by the conversion of summer Head Start funds. PROBLEMS In view of its assigned mission, EOA has several fundamental p roblems: (1) The basic community action program is under-funded and stretched · too thin . Neighborhood target areas are far too large for the r esources deployed . NSC's have too little staff to perform adequately their out-reach and community organization functions. (2) There is a need to further strengthen our plannin g and evaluation capacities . Close attention needs to be g iven to activities to determine what works well and why --- what doesn't work and why. Productive activities should be encourag ed and disseminated; promising ideas should be exploited. Regular operations staff, burdened with daily duties, seldom have energy left for this& �--5- (3) A formal staff development program is needed. EOA has, as part of its agenda, the employment within its own program of persons who are not fully p _r;-epared for the responsibilities given them. This affords opportunities to many who have aptitude but little formal training and experience. Many persons have blossomed with this opportunity, but some have been overwhelmed and frustrated. More consistent performance would be secured if each staff member could be regularly exposed to a program designed to increase his understanding of the problems the agency is working on and the techniques it attempts to use. {4} Erratic, year to year funding greatly handicaps planning , program development , and staff recruitment . It is hard to persuade competent, widely sought personnel to come to a program the future of which seems constantly in jeopardy. It is hard to plan and build improved services with the constant threat of budget retrenchment. Congress should be encouraged to clearly define the program and to give it authorization and appropriations adequate and dependable enough to do the job. (5) Finally, the biggest problem for EOA, in my opinion., remains the inherent complexity of the task. You are expected to solve the pnoblem of unemployment among the poor, but you do not control the jobs, the placement services or the training programs. You are expected to perfect the delivery of human services, but other a gencies contr ol welfare; _. health, education and recreation resources . You are expected to mobilize the poor in their own behalf but to do it without disturbing anyone o In s uch an as signme nt , the arr ay of forc e s , attitudes a nd cir cums t a nces which mu s t b e dea lt with a re inf initely complex and i n terwoven with the total fab r ic of society . To carry i t off with a ny degree of succ ess requir es g reat sensit i v ity, tact, intelligence , d et ermi nation , and cou rage. If success h as been l ess than c omplete, as it obviously has, it s h o u ld not, in any sense, be looked opon as fail.ure. To have attacked these tough problems a t all is a tribu t e t o the program's a udaci ty and to its willingne ss to risk itsel f on behalf of the poor. We need to remember that those of us who undertake to "wash society ' s dirtiest linen" seldom have happy customerso �