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Economic Opportunity At a 101 Marietta Street Bldg . ., ,\tl,rnt a, Ge o rgia 30303 ., nc . 5 2 5-6 854 T. M. P arham Ex ec uti v e Administrat o r M9 rch 7, 1969 Mr. Dav id C. Cowl ey , Di rector Human Relations Commission Ann Arbor, Michigan Dear Mr. Cowl ey : nhis is .1.n reply to your letter of February 24, f or inf ormation

- 143.215.248.55 13:10, 29 December 2017 (EST)ain~ chi ld c are plans for l ow-income arid working mothers.

1·he Community Ac tion Agen c y , Economic Opportu n ity At-l an t a , Inc._was fac e::! ., j th this di l e mma a t the ve ry be yinr1ing of th e program sin e.~ At l anta h a s a l arge n umber o f lo,.1- i nsome working m0thers who a~e h eads o f ho useho l ds. We began by going to voJ.untary agencies , c hurche s, civic organization s , etc ., which were b a sed i n l ow income ar eas and asking these organi za tions to co nsider organizing cay c are c enters f0r l ow-ii:i~ome far..c3 lies. We are now co ntra cti ng with te n (1 0) autonomous ag ~nr i e~ which are und er c ontract ~o run eleven (11) centers carina f" or 715 children b etiveen the ages of six months to nine ye ar s . ~inety per143.215.248.55t ' 90%) of the ch J.ldren are b e tween the ages o f 3-6 y 0~ . - Originally , we were ru~ning as s~r a ight day ca re ag enc i es and ch arg e d a f ee pe r f a mil _,r ~ .as-2d on f am:i.ly _income . About fifte en · p er c en t (15%) o f our i ncomP wa s d er i ve d from fe es. Twenty per c ent ( 20%) c ame f rom th e c ommun ity in the fo r m of volunt ary s er vic es o r in-kind c ontr ibu tions .. Th e rest of our income c ame from Of fice of Economic Opportunity (OEO ) fund s . It is to b e noted that we may rent at only on e f ac ility, th e r est of our hou sing is d onated. We are us i ng f a cilitie s in fi ve churche s~ t hree hou s ing pr.e j e cts, two re mo d e led h ouses a nd on e warehouse. The cost per · child i s from $75 to $90 pe r month. �Mr. David C. Cowley Page 2 March 7, 1969 About t wo and one-hal f or thre e year s ago, we were incorp ora te d into full-year, el even hou r , he a d st a rt. The ma jor c hanges were in the i mp r oved ratio of adult to child and e x te n ded medical s erv ic e s . As of Apri l 1 968 , OEO h a d us disc o nt i nue ch a r ging fees. Our pres e nt str uc tu r e c o n s ist of a c o ordinating he a dquart e rs s t a f f including a dir ec to r , assista n t dire~tor , progr a m coordinator, v ~lun t eer coordin a t o r, and p r og ram e v aluator. Ther e is

, r , 0 v er a J 1 Po licy Adv i s o r y Comm itt ee co ns isting· of pare nt s ,

p arent xepres e nt a tives , inte res ted prof e ssion a l s and me mbe r s o f ·LLe loc al conmmnity. Each Child De v e lopme nt Center is s e par ate ly j n c o r por a ted as an autonomous a gency with its own boar d and staff . With i n the guid e lines as s e t fc rt h in the Head Start. Ma nu a l, each boa r d s et s its own pr ogram of -i n s tructio n , personne l policies , p a r e nt or gani zat io n , e t c. Each must rais e it s t wen ty pe r c ent ( 20%) c ommunity c ont ribut ion. We h ave h ad c ent ra l recruitment a 11d t ra ininc o f volu n t eers . · We _h andl e pur ch asing a n d f inan c e c entra lly th rough th e Commun i "!::.y Acti on Agency. Al s o each prog r am is r ev i ewed c entra lly f or 1 quality c o n tro a nd i mproveme nt o f o pera tio n . We h a v e ava il ed ou rse l ves exten. i ve l y o f s L :-1. :cL -!: ra i n i ng o pport.-c·,n it ies a ff orded u s t hrough OEO. We a : so : ~~u r~gu l ar i n - servi ce t ra i n i ng. We were f aced wi t h many seriou s prob ems f rom the outset, many o f wh i ch are sti ll n o r c'f' O] vcd . Because o ur l oca l boards were made up l arge l y o f thE' poor with li ttle o r n o community e xperience , many errors i n j uJgment were made i n h and l ing funds , s taff se l ec t ion , and socia l seryices. Time and experience h as h e l ped somewhat but we s t ill h ave a l ong way t o go. Another a rea o f c oncern is the lack o f q ualif i ed staff. Ou r s tate offers n o c ert i fication for pre-schoo l t eachers and there i s very li ttle t raining _through t he l ocal c o ll eges, a l though t he Atlanta Board of Education ha s i naugurated an e x tensive program of evening classes for people i n day c are on a non-credit, l ow f ee basis. Perhaps ou r greatest handicap i s ins uffic i ent funds �7 Mr. David C . Cowl ey Page 3 March 7, 1969 to att ract top quality staff and to e x tend our services. The estimate is th at 10,000 low-income children need d ay c are and we are providing for only 715. I hope our e xpe rience has been us efu l to you . in your enterprise. I wis h you wel l Yours t ruly , (Mrs .) Gl oria S. Gross Co ns ultant in Child Development ---.. GSG/ j m cc: ' I Mr . T. M. Parh ::JPMr. Dan Sweat 1 �