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CITIZENS PARTICIPATION -- PRICE NEIGHBORHOOD SERVICE CENTER AREA Citizens participation in the Price Neighborhood Service Center area is relatively wide-spread. From the be ginning of our e xi stance, May , 1965, we have had organized neighborhood groups to determine existing p r oblems, and help to find solutions to these problems. For the la s t 12 months, we have broadened this community participation to neighborhood participation. neighborhood groups, or block clubs. We have 25 organized These gro ups meet and discuss neighbo r hood , as we ll as , community problems , and at the same time, they are ex posed to total city reso urces and problems. Neighborhood groups also have repr e sentation on the over-all Center Advisory Council. This coun cil ser ves as a soundin g boar d for all problems f r om the individual ar eas as well as an excellent v e hicle for the Center staff to r e lat e to th e community. In addition to block or ganization s , th e Cen ter staf f has i nvol ved scor e s o f ne i ghb o r hood, soc ia l , and church groups at th eir r e qu e sts who had s pec i fi c i nt e r es ts for group n eeds . We have or gani z ed f ive group s that s aw a need f or day car e serv ices in their community. Two o f t he s e group s were s u c ce s sful in ge tting t wo la r ge day care center s . From a nucleus of a s mall group of busi ne ssmen fr om t h e a rea, we o rganized two- business i mprovement c lin ic s . had an average attendan ce of 50 per s ons . The se clini c s , ten ses s ions, Two s imi lar-type clinic s were organized with residents of the area who managed apartments. These re s idents wanted to gain knowledge on how to properly care for the prope r ty and work with the resident s . �- 2 - In September, 1966, residents of the area, interested in family day care, were organized to co~duct training clinics and to help get the existing family day care programs up-graded. One block club, that saw an over-all need for concentrated attention on many areas 0f problems, was involved in what we chose to call "Operation Exposure". Representatives from the area block clubs, interested in recreational services, have been involved in area recreational council. This council, during the sunnner of 1966, made approaches to City officials and land owners, and successfully established two equipped play-lots. This group ha3 held many training sessions in an attempt to learn what is involved in an adequate recreational program and what connnunity resources are presently available. �