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Box 3, Folder 16, Document 30
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a ECONOMIC OPPORTUNITY ATLANTA, INC.
gf BOARD MEETING
23 JULY 16, 1969
ADMINISTRATOR'S REPORT
T. M. PARHAM
ot
‘
PROGRAMS
Because people are poor due to many different reasons and circumstances,
EOA has many different approaches. The money received supports all,
a big part, or a tiny part of many activities ---
«+. Neighborhood Service Centers
«ee Concentrated Employment Program
-.. New Careers
--- Operation Ready
--- Atlanta Beautification Corps
--- Manpower Training Center
--.- Neighborhood Youth Corps
»e- Gate House (Job Corps returnees)
eee State Employment Service personnel
ee. Vocational Rehab personnel
eee Rent-A-Kid
ee. Community Organization
ee» Consumer Services
«ee VISTA
«+e Recreation
«+. Creative Atlanta
--. Start Now Atlanta
eee VIP's (Very Informed People)
ee- Volunteers
ese Full Year Head Start
ee. Summer Head Start
ee. Parent-Child Center
ee» West End Child Development Center
eee Emergency School Lunch (4 schools)
eee Summer Feeding (Snacks)
ee. Legal Aid
eee Programs for the Aged
eee Foster Grandparents
eee Comprehensive Health
eee Planned Parenthood
eee Aide Training
These thirty program titles do not nearly exhaust the possibilities or
give the kaleidoscopic effect. To expand the list, one could name all
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 recreation 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 handles payrolls, accounting, purchasing,
inventory, retirement, workman's compensation, the credit union, group
health insurance; or planning which handles proposal development, con-
tracts 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, writes stories and seeks attention for us.
After this recitation, there's one thing that should be said: Be kind
to Mr. Allison --- he will need it.
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 Sieffert.
A regional OEO official recently called this achieve-
ment outstanding.
(3) The Finance Department is in the best condition ever;
according to our external auditors, Wolf and Company.
(4) Neighborhood Service Operations, under the able
guidance of Sue Crank, have become more clearly
defined, and the Center Directors have established
some exacting performance standards of their own,
The accomplishments of our individual Centers have
been recited here each month, and their importance to
the total program cannot be over-emphasized.
(5)
(6)
(7)
(8)
(9)
(10)
(11)
soa ie
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.
The Community Organization Program, led by John Calhoun,
established specific goals in a wide variety of areas,
including education, housing, welfare, employment,
health, recreation, etc., and citizen committees have
worked diligently and persistently at them. The results
have shown increasingly productive dialogues between
representatives of the poor and community institutions.
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 compli-
mented by the Regional Labor Office for its improved
operation.
Public Information, with Mrs. Mitchell assisted by
Pat Mason, continues to do outstanding work. They
scored notable achievements initiating the Start Now
Atlanta Program and the VIP's.
The Volunteer Program, under June Sammons' energetic
and resourceful leadership, has blossomed to 602
active workers and seems limitless in its potential.
At long last, we have our Aide Training Program under
way. Mrs. Anne Jackson is in charge and the goal is
to give increased skills to all our aides and equip
them for better jobs.
VISTA has had one of its brightest, most able groups
of volunteers. They have worked on a variety of
community problems, and through a joint effort in-
volving a large number of them, they hope very soon
(12)
(13)
PROBLEMS
to open a warehouse that will be a coordinating
purchasing office for six buying clubs they have
organized.
Recreation, with Harold Barrett and Duke Harrison
leading, has been developed into a year-round rather
than strictly summer activity. A total of ten youth=-
community centers have been assisted into being, and
football, basketball, and baseball teams have been
developed among otherwise unreached youth. One
present goal that seems achieveable is a year~round
arts activity modeled after this summer's Creative
Atlanta Program.
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 as
child care specialists. There is real hope how that
our Full-Year Head Start Program can be vastly im=-
proved in coming months by the conversion of Summer
Head Start funds.
In view of its assigned mission, EOA has several fundamental problems:
(1)
(2)
The basic community action program is under-funded
and stretched too thin. Neighborhood target areas
are far too large for the resources deployed. NSC's
have too little staff to perform adequately their
out=reach and community organization functions,
There is a need to further strengthen our planning
and evaluation capacities. Close attention needs
to be given to activities to determine what works
well and why --= what doesn't work and why. Pro-
ductive activities should be encouraged and
disseminated; promising ideas should be exploited.
Regular operations staff, burdened with daily
duties, seldom have energy left for this.
(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 prepared
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 per-
formance 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 problem of unemployment among
the poor, but you do not control the jobs, the place-
ment services or the training programs. You are
expected to perfect the delivery of human services,
but other agencies control welfare, -health, education
and recreation resources. You are expected to mobilize
the poor in their own behalf but to do it without
disturbing anyone.
In such an assignment, the array of forces, attitudes
and circumstances which must be dealt with are infinitely
complex and interwoven with the total fabric of society.
To carry it off with any degree of success requires
great sensitivity, tact, intelligence, determination,
and courage. If success has been less than complete, as
it obviously has, it should not, in any sense, be looked
opon as failure. To have attacked these tough problems
at all is a tribute to the program's audacity and to its
willingness to risk itself on behalf of the poor. We need
to remember that those of us who undertake to "wash society's
dirtiest linen" seldom have happy customers.
a ECONOMIC OPPORTUNITY ATLANTA, INC.
gf BOARD MEETING
23 JULY 16, 1969
ADMINISTRATOR'S REPORT
T. M. PARHAM
ot
‘
PROGRAMS
Because people are poor due to many different reasons and circumstances,
EOA has many different approaches. The money received supports all,
a big part, or a tiny part of many activities ---
«+. Neighborhood Service Centers
«ee Concentrated Employment Program
-.. New Careers
--- Operation Ready
--- Atlanta Beautification Corps
--- Manpower Training Center
--.- Neighborhood Youth Corps
»e- Gate House (Job Corps returnees)
eee State Employment Service personnel
ee. Vocational Rehab personnel
eee Rent-A-Kid
ee. Community Organization
ee» Consumer Services
«ee VISTA
«+e Recreation
«+. Creative Atlanta
--. Start Now Atlanta
eee VIP's (Very Informed People)
ee- Volunteers
ese Full Year Head Start
ee. Summer Head Start
ee. Parent-Child Center
ee» West End Child Development Center
eee Emergency School Lunch (4 schools)
eee Summer Feeding (Snacks)
ee. Legal Aid
eee Programs for the Aged
eee Foster Grandparents
eee Comprehensive Health
eee Planned Parenthood
eee Aide Training
These thirty program titles do not nearly exhaust the possibilities or
give the kaleidoscopic effect. To expand the list, one could name all
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 recreation 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 handles payrolls, accounting, purchasing,
inventory, retirement, workman's compensation, the credit union, group
health insurance; or planning which handles proposal development, con-
tracts 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, writes stories and seeks attention for us.
After this recitation, there's one thing that should be said: Be kind
to Mr. Allison --- he will need it.
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 Sieffert.
A regional OEO official recently called this achieve-
ment outstanding.
(3) The Finance Department is in the best condition ever;
according to our external auditors, Wolf and Company.
(4) Neighborhood Service Operations, under the able
guidance of Sue Crank, have become more clearly
defined, and the Center Directors have established
some exacting performance standards of their own,
The accomplishments of our individual Centers have
been recited here each month, and their importance to
the total program cannot be over-emphasized.
(5)
(6)
(7)
(8)
(9)
(10)
(11)
soa ie
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.
The Community Organization Program, led by John Calhoun,
established specific goals in a wide variety of areas,
including education, housing, welfare, employment,
health, recreation, etc., and citizen committees have
worked diligently and persistently at them. The results
have shown increasingly productive dialogues between
representatives of the poor and community institutions.
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 compli-
mented by the Regional Labor Office for its improved
operation.
Public Information, with Mrs. Mitchell assisted by
Pat Mason, continues to do outstanding work. They
scored notable achievements initiating the Start Now
Atlanta Program and the VIP's.
The Volunteer Program, under June Sammons' energetic
and resourceful leadership, has blossomed to 602
active workers and seems limitless in its potential.
At long last, we have our Aide Training Program under
way. Mrs. Anne Jackson is in charge and the goal is
to give increased skills to all our aides and equip
them for better jobs.
VISTA has had one of its brightest, most able groups
of volunteers. They have worked on a variety of
community problems, and through a joint effort in-
volving a large number of them, they hope very soon
(12)
(13)
PROBLEMS
to open a warehouse that will be a coordinating
purchasing office for six buying clubs they have
organized.
Recreation, with Harold Barrett and Duke Harrison
leading, has been developed into a year-round rather
than strictly summer activity. A total of ten youth=-
community centers have been assisted into being, and
football, basketball, and baseball teams have been
developed among otherwise unreached youth. One
present goal that seems achieveable is a year~round
arts activity modeled after this summer's Creative
Atlanta Program.
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 as
child care specialists. There is real hope how that
our Full-Year Head Start Program can be vastly im=-
proved in coming months by the conversion of Summer
Head Start funds.
In view of its assigned mission, EOA has several fundamental problems:
(1)
(2)
The basic community action program is under-funded
and stretched too thin. Neighborhood target areas
are far too large for the resources deployed. NSC's
have too little staff to perform adequately their
out=reach and community organization functions,
There is a need to further strengthen our planning
and evaluation capacities. Close attention needs
to be given to activities to determine what works
well and why --= what doesn't work and why. Pro-
ductive activities should be encouraged and
disseminated; promising ideas should be exploited.
Regular operations staff, burdened with daily
duties, seldom have energy left for this.
(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 prepared
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 per-
formance 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 problem of unemployment among
the poor, but you do not control the jobs, the place-
ment services or the training programs. You are
expected to perfect the delivery of human services,
but other agencies control welfare, -health, education
and recreation resources. You are expected to mobilize
the poor in their own behalf but to do it without
disturbing anyone.
In such an assignment, the array of forces, attitudes
and circumstances which must be dealt with are infinitely
complex and interwoven with the total fabric of society.
To carry it off with any degree of success requires
great sensitivity, tact, intelligence, determination,
and courage. If success has been less than complete, as
it obviously has, it should not, in any sense, be looked
opon as failure. To have attacked these tough problems
at all is a tribute to the program's audacity and to its
willingness to risk itself on behalf of the poor. We need
to remember that those of us who undertake to "wash society's
dirtiest linen" seldom have happy customers.
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