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NATIONAL CITIZENS' COMMITTEE
FOR COMMUNITY RELATIONS
% COMMUNITY RELATIONS SERVICE
WASHINGTON, 0.C. 20530
The Business-Civic Leadership Conference on Employment Problems,
held June 5-7, 1967, in Chicago, brought together 250 employers,
educators and other civic leaders who are pioneering programs to
meet our most crucial domestic problem: how to put hard-core
unemployed and underemployed minority group members into jobs.
The Conference was how-to-do-it meeting, bringing together employers and other lea ders who are· convinced that a successful
attack on this problem brings benefits not only to minority
group members but to industry, the community and the nation as
a whole.
The Conference was sponsored by the National Citizens' Committee
for Community Relations (NCC), a group of more than 400 leading
Americans appointed by President Johnson following passage of
the Civil Rights Act of 1964. Its purpose: to enlist the skills
and strengths of these leaders in supporting the nation's efforts
to assure equality for all Americans. The NCC functions as an
adjunct of the Community Relations Service, which was created by
Congress to hel p communities cope with disputes and difficulties
rooted in racial and ethnic discrimination. Its basic concern
is to help cities overcome minority group deprivations which lead
to conflict.
More than 70 specific projects and activities--some being undertaken by individual companies and o_thers by community-wide organizations--were described and discussed at the Conference. Most
persons attending the Conference, including those who are deeply
involved in projects to put the hard-core unemployed into jobs,
were impressed with the scope and creativity of these projects.
This report on the Conf e rence is offered to assis t employers and
other community leaders who are considering starting or improving
employment, recruitment or training projects in this field. Part I
is a summary of presentations. Par t II cont ains specific tools and
techniques. For additional copies, or further assistance and information, write to:
National Citizens' Committee
for Community Relations
Community Relations Service
Washington, D. C. 20530
�ADVANCE
CO PY
PUTTING THE HARD-CORE UNEMPLOYED INTO JOBS
A Report of the
BUSINESS-CIVIC LEADERSHIP CONFERENCE ON EMPLOYMENT PROBLEM:,
June 5 - 7, 1967, Chicago, Illinois
Sponsored by the
NATIONAL CITIZENS' COMMITTEE FOR COMMUNITY RELATIONS
and the
COMMUNITY RELATIONS SERVICE of the
U.S. DEPARTMENT OF JUSTICE
�PUTTING THE HARD-CORE UNEMPLOYED INTO JOBS
Table of Contents
Page
Preface:
The Man on the Street Corner .
The Problem and the Challenge:
Roger
w.
1
Wilkins
Business and Industry Accept the Challenge:
The Profit and Loss to Business:
R.
3
c.
Cornuelle
Frank Cassell
Commitment Can Pay Off .•• Much More Is Needed •
5
6
8
What Business and Industry Are Doing
11
Major Components of New Job Programs
11
Outreach:
14
Aggressive Recruiting . •
"Fitting the Man to the Job" .•• "What's Right with Him."
19
Education and Training . . .
29
Employers Take Leadership on Community Social Problems
36
Community Job Programs
37
Other Community Programs
40
The Business-Community Organization
so
An Action Program for Business and Indus.try
52
Re source s
55
Community Job Programs
58
Federal Agencies for Guidance and Funding
60
�PREFACE
The Man on the Street Corner
'When you walk in a nei ghborhood and it's men on the corner on
Monday morning to the extent that it looks like Saturday ni ght in
other neighborhoods, watch out, be.cause yo11're watchin ~ the tomorrowless man. He's on that corner because he 's not puttin g enou gh beans
in the pot. .• he knows '1P. ain't putting down what he. 's supposed to be
ruttin g rlown ••• His kids don't have no tomorrow ;rnd i f someone come s
alon g and brin g s some red wine or somethin g, he's go in g to drink •••
For a fellow like this a riot is a pleasant break in his humdrum
e x istence."
Chester Wright, Wa tts, Los Angeles
In Jul y 1967, America n cities across the nation burst into flame, in
violent, tra g ic explosions of frustration, bitterness, hate and lawl e ssness. Whatever the immediate causes or incitements, whe ther planned
or snontaneo~s, whatever the culpability for criminal action, sensitive
and knowledgeable observers agreed that a major cause was long-time
un e mpl oyment, lack of jobs at a living wage, and f ailure of America
to deliver its promises to it s Negro citizens. And no one could
qu est ion the vast dolla r lo ss and the physical and social dama ge tn the
communities invol ved .
In Jun e 196 7 , 200 busine ss and indus try executives who have been working
to ge t hard-core un e mpl oyed minoriti es into jobs me t in Chicago with
repr esen ta t ives of public and pr ivate _iob programs and social age ncies
for two hard-workin g days of s pecif ic experien ce exc han ge on programs
rnd techniques.
These men were more aware than most of the i ncipient da nger ahe ad . Some
ver~, responsible business l eaders even s uggested that such tragic ex p l osions might be the on ly way to mobil ize their communities to do
somethin g me anin gf ul a bout job s, education, housing and other needed
pro grams for ghetto slum dwe ll e rs.
A par ticipan t from Denver, Colorado grimly defined what he saw a head:
We've go t to solve some of the se problems ••• i t isn't a matter
of whether we want to any more, or not. We may be pretty late • .•
now. This s ummer may show us some probl ems ••• we hoped we weren't
going to have ••• but it's qu ite possible ••• There's a pretty good
nationwide riot climate ••• and, unfortunately, as we meet with the
industrial and disadvantaged people .•. our concl us ion, reluctantly~
is, there needs to be a riot ••• and that's a terrible thing, ~ it
unfor tunately, this is what creates movement.
�-
2 -
A business executive from MinneApolis, Minnesota, admitted that job
efforts of the Plans f or Progress Council there had not been making
much pro gr e ss until "1:ist year , in Au gust, we had the first bad riot
in Minneapolis. W~ really got some jobs going very quickly, the
Plans for Progress Council got busy and got this contract with the
Bureau of Apprenticeship Training •.. "
An industry representative from a rn i dwestern city who had been trying
to get an employer job program started was told by a fellow businessman:
'Tion't expect them to make a move, unless you have a demonstration •••
as lon g as everything is peaceful they are not going to anticipate .••
what is ••• beginning in practically every city."
The gentleman from Watts also had a positive suggestion for the conference:
"If you take the same men standin g on the corner the evenin g that
Watts riot started, if they had come in off a back-breaking job,
somewhere, the? would have went in, eat their porkchops, turnip
~reens, sit on a rickety couch, watch Wyatt Eary kill one cowboy,
thev'd have been so dead asleep that the old lady would have to
drag them in the bedroom. They wouldn't have been on a corner."
�-
3 -
THE PROBLEM ••• AND THE CHALLENGE
Excerpts from address of Roger W. Wilkins, Director
Communitv Relations Service, ll. S. Department of Justice
"American center cities are becoming; blacker and poorer .•• Between
1960 and 1965, 2 million Negroes moved into center cities, whereas
a similar if not larger number of whites moved out of the center
cities. During the same period, 62% of new plant development,
by value, moved into the suburbs where whites live, and where, by
and large, non-whites cannot live."
•½ recent Labor Department survey tells us that fully thirty-five
percent of the people in slum areas have a serious unemployment
problem: whether unemployed, employed only part-time, or employed
at wAges below poverty level. That means that these people are in
a perpetual economic state which is similar to, if not worse than
the great American depression of the thirties.••
'Tiespite all of our advances ••. today the Negro median male income
is still 51% of the white median male income just as it was 16
years ago ••. Despite the advances which have benefitted mainly m{ddle
class Negroes, the gap between the quality of minority group life
anct majority group life is great and getting greater."
" ••• It is our failure as a society to come to grips with this gap
that causes us to have ••• unrest in our cities."
'~he trend of the talented white Americans who have the power and
the training to solve problems, who have the tax-paying power to
sustain the economy of the cities moving out of the cities and the
trend of the poor Negroes, poor Mexican-Americans, poor Puerto
Ricans moving into the cities is accelerating.
" ••• Unless we reverse current trends, we could well have islands of
enormous dependency, enormous alienation, enormous hostility in
the middle of the United States of America, and I suggest to you
that if we permit those islands of alienation, hostility and dependency to develop, that whatever else the United States of America
is in the year Two Thousand, it will not be the kind of place that
we want our children and our grandchildren to live in. It will be
a place where the energy, the strength, the spirit , and the dynamism
which has animated this country from its beginning, will be gone ."
" ••. The question for us today is whether we will make decisions and
take actions now that will preserve and enhance the richness of
American life.
�-4-
"The Federal Government cannot take this task alone, nor, I am
convinced, should it even try."
"The National Administration, can and should take the lead, and
enunciate policies embraced on broad national principles and
purposes. It should develop programs to help local people,
local leaders solve their problems, but in the field of race
relations what is needed more than anything else is local drive,
local initiative, local effort, local success."
"I go to meetings in city after city after city. I see sitting
around the table, working on these problems, representatives of
the city government, representatives of the federal government,
representatives of the private organizations, representatives
of the churches, representatives of civil rights organizations,
sometimes even rep·resentatives of the private foundations, but
only rarely representatives of the great businesses of this
country."
"I suggest to you that now it's time for all of American business to
become as fully involved as you have become, in saving our cities."
" •.. The question for American citizens is whether we need riots
in every city in this country before we begin to move as we should.
The question for American business, is whether it will exercise
the kind of leadership in this field that it has exercised in so
many fields in making this country great in the past."
�- 5 -
BTISINESS AND INDUSTRY ACCEPT TIIE CHALLENGE
Excerpts from arldress by Richarrl C. Cornuelle,
Executive Vice-President, National Association of Manufacturers
" .•. After a generation of arguing about the consequences •.. ;rncl
expense of government action on social problems (business) is beginning to realize that there is much more promise ••. in forgetting
•• .the Arguments anrJ allyi;l [': themselves directly to the solution Of
the problems ••• ".
" •.. We h;ive a remarkable unanimit y of opinion among our (NAM) members
th;it thr. r: n ~;:itest. •• most important piece of business on the a~enda
of American business today is to •.. [ind out exactly what its total
capabilities to solve community problems are ••• and to get busy and
put them to work.
"Business has always had a sense of social responsibi1ity ••. but what
is important is that contemporary business is finding ways to express
that responsibility directly rather than by writing checks or supportin r; secondary social a gencies."
"Gallup ••• found fifty-one million Americans would like to go to
work helping the problems they see in their communities if they knew
how, and ••. they would be willing to contribute over two hundred and
fifty million hours."
" ••• if we knew how to use that ener gy as well as we know how to
use human ener gy in commerce, we could have a social production
worth conservatively ei g hty bill ion dollars a year."
·~s we see our business leadership involvin g themselves directly
in problems of hard-core unemployment, housing, delinquency and the
rest ••• we will see a unique talent for organizing human ener gy
applied to these community problems."
·~ have never seen anything develop as fast as top executive awareness of the importance of direct industry-social action. We see
it in the NAM in less than two years' time. The demands for. advice
far exceed our limited capacity to g ive advice to companies that
want to act."
�- 6 -
THE PROFIT AND LOSS TO BUSINESS
Excerpts from the address of Frank Casse ll, Director, ll. S. Employme nt
Service, Former Vice-Pre'siden t, Inland Steel-Ryerson Found at ion_!_/
'~he social cost of poverty is not fully measured by the statistics
or the privation they suggest ••• the desperation and frustration that
results from poverty contributes to ill health, deterioratin g citizenship values and to other factors that we aken our society . The social
cost of poverty must also include the goods and services that are
not produced because of the unemployment and. low productivity of the
poor."
Recognition of these costs to society has prompted ••• many employers
to accept the cha llenge of breakin r, the cycle of poverty for seve ral
million Americans ••• Many employers have embarked upon th i s ••. on their
own, and some have done it with the assist;ince of government financin g .
And in the process employers have le;irned that:
-
most
most
mo st
most
people when given the opportunitv to work want to work
oeople who are unemployed are employable
of the untraine d peopl e in our c ountry ar e trainable
uneducated people are educabl e .
"Employers have learned that the i r investment in working with these
peopl e has resulted in gainin g valuable new employees and opened new
labor market resources •..•. "
'~he l ate Dou gla s McGregor of MIT •.. pointed out that mo s t employers
th i nk o f manpowe r r e sourc es in the s ame way a s they t hink o f phys i c a l a nd
financial resources. He suggested, that instead, the essential task
of mana gement is a process ••• of creating opportunities, releasin g
potential, removin g obstacles, encourag ing g rowth and providin g
guid ance."
Whe r e man ageme n t has be c ome involve d in the 60's in hir i ng and
t r ain i n g ••• o f pe opl e r e jecte d i n the SO' s , the y are l earn i ng
valuable lessons that they can apply to the mana gement of their
companie s . This f a r outwei ghs the extra costs incurred in continuin g
spe cial r e cruitme nt a nd trainin g pr ograms conce ived init i all y to
t a p previ ou sl y unu sed sources o f manpowe r .•• an employe r who r edefines e n t r y l evel job r e qui reme nt s s o tha t they have re l evan ce
to t he job to be done is ••• in a be tter posi t i on t o fi n d people
who rt o a be tter job a t a hi gher l eve l o f pe r f or ma nce tha n a per son
over - qualified for the .iob. Over - qualified people a re a major
rea son for hi gh tu rnover ra t e s , .iob d i s s ati sfact ion , low produ c tivity and poor morale.
"Eliminating irrelevan t requ irement s for e n try l eve l jobs ••. wa s
use d for the purpose of providing job s, but actually t he technique is a pu re and simp l e matter of s avi n g money now wasted because of high turnover r a tes."
1/ Mr. Cassell.Jfl recently recently resigned as Director of USES and
r e tu r.ne~"'Tplicants.
But Conference participants stressed that the frequency and
causes of arrest differ greatly in ghetto and non-ghetto areas.
·~t's pure
luck if you don't get 'busted' (arrested) if you grow up in the sl11ms,"
s,qid one.
Several companies which have hired people with police records
'
(who otherwise showed good potential) reported that they have caused no
problems and some have become superior employees.
- Henry Boardman of Western Electric Company reported that a
comparison of those hired with arrest records and those
without showed no difference at all.
- Pacific Telephone and Telegraph looks carefully at the record,
distin guishin g between arrest and actual conviction, and has
gained several "superior employees" from amon g those with
police records.~/
- William Johnson of the Center for Independent Action, who worked
with Indianapolis employers setting up a job program for hardcore unemployed , said "We ask employers to look at the kind of
record. If it ' s not dangerous and the person is backed up by
his local volunteer counselor who can testif y about his home life
and st ay with him ," the employer is urged to take the chance . I/
1/ See Pa r t I I, pag~
See P ar t I I, p ag e _ __
2/
�- 24 -
Restructuring jobs, dividing them into simpler and more complex parts
has made it possible to employ people with lower qualifications in many
companies, and provided advancement for employees working below their
ability.
It was generally agreed that this kind of effort, which has
been going on in upper echelon jobs, can be done more extensively at lower
levels.
- Dr. Kludt described an effort to determine minimal requirements
for gas company meter readers in the Los Angeles area. The
company required a "knowledge of mathematics." Breaking this
down to the precise operations required, Kludt finally got the
company to agree that they could hire men who could merely add
and subtract; multiplication and division and were not really
necessary and could be learned in night school while the men
were working.
- The Texas Division of the Champion Paper Company restructured a
considerable number of entry-level jobs last year, eliminating
educational and test requirements, and hired "hard-core" unemployed referred by a job project which conducted a house-tohouse canvass in high unemployment neighborhoods. The company
reports that it has gotten "exceptionally good employees." As
a result, it has since hired more through this program.
- The Dieboldt Manufacturing Company is among companies that have
hired Negroes and Spanish-speaking workers at low-skill levels, and
set up in-plant training to upgrade their skills, teach English
and provide other remedial programs. The company employed no
Negroes or Spanish-speaking people 3 years ago; today Negroes
and other minorities are 18% of the work force. Many are already
moving up the ladder to higher jobs.
Upgrading present employees was recommended not only as a way to open
lower jobs but as a frequently overlooked, major source of good talent,
particularly among minority employees who may not have had opportunity
or encouragement for advancement.
- The Polaroid Company and Equitable Life Insurance Company have
instituted a job-posting procedure. All jobs that open up throughout the company are posted . Anyone who thinks he or she is qualified
may apply. Polaroid works with supervisors, urges them to encourage
minor ity employees who may lack confidence or needed skill to take
�- 25 -
t r a ining courses t o qualify, either in company programs or
ou t side . Tom Brown of Polaroid urged employers to emphasize
upgrading. "You have fellows in your stockrooms that could
ve ry easily be running a line as a supervisor ••• people doing
jobs as clerks, typists who •.• if given an opportunity •••
could move up in your company." 1/
- Western Electric's Kearny Works took a look at its work force
and wondered why there were no Negro supervisors. "We put in
a crash program and interviewed every Negro male in the place,"
s a id Henry Boardman. "What we learned was fantastic." Negroes
with college degrees and o ther qualifications were working at
jobs far below their abilities. Western Electric instituted a
special training program to prepare some of these men to be
s upervis ors ••• then went on to use similar techniques with the
total work force. As a result, the company ha s found excellent
new supe rvisors, black and white, who had been overlooked by
fo rmer promotion s ystems.ij
- Equitable Life formerly hired only college graduates for computer programmers. Two years ago, it offered everyone in the
company the opportunity to take two special exams for these
j obs; one the regular IBM exam, the other a specially devel oped
exam t o indi ca te characteristics of thinking. Five hundred
e mpl oyees took the e xam, 100 pass ~d it. The company discovered
t ha t 60% of tho se pa ssing did not have c ollege degrees. It is
conv inced that a major source of higher level job talent is
wi thin its presen t employe e population . y
- I ll i nois Bell offers continuous training for employees, asks
supe r v is ors t o be on the l ookout for talent, and encourage
e mpl oyees t o take courses for advancement. These are open to
te l e phone opera tors , c leric a l employees and all others.!±/
"Sensi tivi ty" Tr a ining fo r Personnel Officials a nd Supervisors Human relations t raining a nd other prep a ration of personnel officers and
supervisor s wa s he l d ess e ntial fo r success of any program to hire and
train hard-core unempl oyed.
This i s particu l a r ly importa n t fo r the people at the f i rst point of
contact.
"You need your be st -- not your wor st -- person at int a ke ," sa id
one par ticipant.
Many stories were told of compan i es whe r e the gua r d at
the gate or the girl who hands out e mp l oyme nt a pp l i ca tion s a ctually make s
I / See
2/ See
3/ See
4/ See
Part
Part
Part
Part
II,
II,
II,
II,
page _ _
page_ _
page_ _
page_ _
�- 26 -
company employment policy -- regardless of what the president or vicepresident thinks his policies are.
Receptionists and interviewers in
State Employment Services, private employment agencies, and companies
were all called guilty.
Employers were urged to carefully review present "intake" methods.
"Are personnel people courteous, understanding?
Do they give as sistance
of frighten the hell out of the prospective employee?"
"In personnel, the name of the game is to exclude, said one personnel
manager, who agreed that this situation needs to be changed.
Dr. Kludt suggested rotating personnel people from time t o time,
putting the m in to wage and salary, training, or employee services becau se
it "reorients them to the fa c t that they are there to serve people."
Apart from outright discrimination which still persists, personnel
•
peopl e need special ability to understand and r e late to the special
problems of the disadvantaged.
The personnel interviewer dealing with
Negro, Mexican-Ame rican , Puerto Rican o r other minority person should be
"the mo st skilled pe rson in the company" •• should have knowledge of
d i ffe r e n t cul t ural background s ••• " For example:
culture, hum ility is a virtue.
his own t r umpet."
"In the Me xican- American
The Mexican-American is not likely to sound
His rea l a bilities have to be carefully sought out.
"The sil ent wa ys we communicate ••• a nd fa il to commun icate," were
stressed by Bruce Cole , of Chicago's JOBS NOW Project.
For example: "If you wea r your ha t, you're crude if you're middle
cl a ss .
(Bu t ) if yo u're a lower clas s Negro, wea ring a hat means
you're a man . "
�- 27 -
Or: "Many Latin-Americans like to talk about a foot away from the
interviewer while most North Americans feel comfortable about three
feet away, so "what you have is the Yankee backing away and the
Latin moving in ••• and neither of them is comfortable."
Or: (on looking the other person in the eye): "You can't do it
more than 10 seconds, until you .•• are embarrassed ••• iooking
around the room (But) nobody ever tells a Negro kid 'don't stare'
He is going to look you in the eye (and) say 'That white s.o.b.
he doesn't 1 ike me .• he won't look me in the eye •• won't trust me'."
Personnel officials loaned by Chicago companies to the JOBS NOW
Project are learning a great deal about how to deal with the kids
from Chicago's streets when they come for jobs and when they are
on the job._!,_/
- In Boston, 300 company personnel officials who have worked as volunteer interviewers at Jobs Clearing House have learned a lot about
the problems of Negroes in seeking, getting and holding jobs. "They
are getting accustomed to interviewing Negroes in a relaxed way,
which is totally different from the way they interview in their own
companies ••• after they have gone back to their company ••• they
know the problem .•. we have on the other end," said JCH President
Tom Brown. 2/
- In Denver, Colorado, psychologist J ack Yuthas believes that "you
ca n't really understand the disadvantaged unless you live with them
for a while." With other University of Colorado professors, and in
coopera tion with the Denver Plans for Progress Council, he has been
working with industry personnel people and school counsellors to
give them first-hand experience of the problems of the high school
dropout ; his fears, frustrations and hostilities.
Training for Supervisors and Fo remen
- Illinois Bell has run a series of "sensitivity training" courses
f o r first and second level supervisors to develop awareness of special
needs of minorit y and dis a dva nta ged new employees. The company
repo rts an "overwhelming response"; many of these people wanted to go
out a nd do more in the community . Some of them are now doing volunteer
tuto ring of ghetto residents.y
- Equitabl e L i fe placed its first group of employees who didn't meet
usu al qualifica tions under particul a rly sympathetic supervisors. When
the company made c lear to these supervisors that these employees
would no t be charged a gainst their r e gular budget; or efficiency rating ,
a nd u rge d them to take on the special challenge of training them ,
r esu lts were good. :±_/
1/ See
2/ See
3/ See
4/ See
Pa rt
Pa rt
Pa r t
Part
II ,
II ,
II ,
II,
page _ _
page _ _
page _ _
page _ _
�- 28 -
- KLH has worked with Northeastern University in Boston, to develop
~ourse for training supervisors.];/
- The Board for Fundamental Education,which has concentrated on
basic education for minority and other disadvantaged employees, will
soon put on the market a series of tools for foremen, supervisors,
and interviewers to help them work more effectively with a multicultural work force.2/
Other administrative measures by top management to assure that new job
policies are carried out down the line have been found necessary.
There was resounding agreement that the best policy or new approac h
from the president or vice-president's office can get badly fouled up
unless specific additional steps are taken to woek this policy into all
operating parts of the company.
When North American Aviation Company, which has received plaudits
for its policies in hiring and training minorities, analyzed
employment statistics by department and division, it found some
without a single Negro or Mexican-American employee. The company
has now shifted administrative r e sponsibility for equal employment
policy from the Personnel Department to the line officials ,
creating a top management committee of vice-presidents of all
operating departments in the corporate structure, and a similar
committee in each branch operation. These committees analyze
minority employment statistics, review qualifications of present
minority employees for promotion, and receive suggestions from an
Advisory Comm ittee composed of minority emp l oyees. There has been
a notable increase of minorities employed in areas where they had
been absent before, and in those holding supervisory jobs -even in plants in the South where "tradition and attitude" was
supposed to prevent such things.y
Michigan Bell Telephone Company keeps a monthly running inventory
of minority employment records (which it is required to submit as
a government contractor) by district, division and city. This is
c irculated to every operating department head . Looking at another
c ity or department's better record spurs a manager to go out and do
more on his own " before the boss comes in and tells him to do
better." The company has also tried FEPC-type audits on its own
personnel office operations, reviewing applications of minorities
not hired.
Some of these have been called back for second
interviews, hired and turned out to be good employees.!±/
1/ See Part II,
See Part II,
y See Part II,
4/ See Part II,
2/
page_ _
page_ _
page_ _
page_ _
�- 29 -
Education and Training
Orienta tion and counselling before tra in i ng has been found most essential
for many disadvantaged to become good employees.
Such pre-training is now
being done in some cities by social a gencies and government job programs.
In others it is still l a cking, and as a result, employers a re often disappo i nte d wi th job progra m tra inee s.
Pre-t r a ining ranges from very simple practical things, like how to f i nd
the ri ght bus or buying a n a larm c lock to get t o work on time, t o complex
a nd s ubtle attitudes a nd e motiona l probl e ms .
The important elements of pre-tr~ining are illustrated in the 2-week
orientat i on course conducted by J OBS NOW in Chica go.
They are:
- Grooming a nd hygi e ne
- Money manageme nt: (how t o avo id getting hooked on "credit terms ," etc .)
- Trans portation:
(how t o get t p jobs on the public transportation
s y stem -- s ome thi ng that is tota lly ne w f or ma ny )
- J ob pre pa r ation: ( company pe r sonne l expl a in what is expec t ed f r om
e mp l oyees i n t he "work wo rld;" trai nees di scu s s
with them their worries a nd concerns)
- Human r e l a t ions t ra ining: (ge t t i ng the youth t o exami ne their own
a ttitudes toward jobs , themselves, the ir c ommuni ty,
life in gener al . "We try t o provide t hem wi th an
idea t ha t t here is a tomor row. ")
Si mi l ar courses we r e r e ported conduc ted by Opportunit ie s Industri a li zat i on
Centers (OIC ' s ) i n Philade l phia, Los Angel es and other c ities, by the Pul a skiCa va lry Reha bil i tation Ce nte r in Hunt s ville , Al a bama, by the Cook County
1/
We l fare De partme n t a nd othe r s.-
1/ See Part I I , PP•
�- 30 High-support", continued into training and on the job was also
recognized as a necessity for the severely disadvantaged.
The employer
frequently complains that when he gives a "disadvantaged" person a chance,
the employee "doesn't show," is tardy, or drops out after a short time.
Where a continuing "support" program has been carried on, whether by
the company or cooperating social agency, results are much better.
- JOBS NOW Project clients get follow-up help from project"coaches"
who ask employers to give them access to new trainees on the job,
then follow through at home or wherever needed. But the employers
are also asked to develop "support" themselves, through their own
"coach" or a "buddy system." The results: 83% of youth referred
to companies with "support" programs are still on the job, but only
24% are still working in companies where no internal "support"
program was established.
- JOBS NOW Project tells companies that if an employee has a problem
the company should follow through; it can be referred to the social
agency which is su pposed to handle it, but too often the poor are
merely "bucked around from agency to agency .11 If the company checks
up ("uses its muscle") to see what has happened, chances are much
better that the agency will do the job.~/
'
- The Polaroid Compa ny believes it is the company's responsibility
to find out why employees "don't show" and try to help. "It could
be the person is trying to hold down two jobs -- it could be the
ba bysitter didn't show -- if one car breaks down, several people
may become absentees -- you have to be concerned with the total
employee."
- The Opportunities Development Corporation, a new business-supported
job program in Buffalo, trained 200 "tutors" - many from ghetto
neighborhoods - to work with newly placed trainees in the plant
and help counse l them on and off the job, while providing needed
ba si c education in a ft e r work classes.I/
- In Indi a napo lis, a business-sponsored program has recruited volun31
teer counsellors who work with job trainees constantly on a 1-1 basis.-
1/ See Part II, p.
See Part II , p. __
See Pa rt II , p .
2/
3/
�-31This kind of support is costly.
But conferees could not suggest
any program on a mass basis that would work.
from individual counselling.
So far, best results come
However, many said that the high initial
outlay would pay off in better, steadier workers.
Some companies have
already benefited from applying "support" techniques for disadvantaged
new minorities to their regular work force, with resulting reduction of
absenteeism and other problems.
Basic Education is a crucial need for today's unemployed, underemployed
and for many employees whose jobs are being replaced with more skilled
operations.
Whether school dropouts, or products of inadequate schools,
these people cannot meet industry's current requirements.
Some encouraging programs were reported, conducted by industry, itself,
in cooperation with school systems, or ' by other agencies.
There is strong
evidence that "the best place to train people is in the world of work";
employees respond better to programs conducted on company premises than
in educational institutions where they may have had earlier failures, or
which are difficult to reach after work.
-The National Association of Manufacturers started a pilot program
(MIND) several years ago, which raised reading, writing and arithmetic level of Harlem youths by four grade levels in 100 hours of
instruction.
-NAM's MIND staff worked with the Corn Products Company in Argo,
Illinois, to develop a basic education program for company employees
who could not qualify for new jobs. A pilot project for 38 employees
was conducted 2 hours each day after working hours on employees' own
time for an average of 79 class hours per employee. It helped raise
educational levels from 2-3½ years. Although the company had some
difficulties with work schedul es and attendance, and did not get the
�- 32 -
full time projected for instruction, it is enthusiastic about
results and is going ahead with a second program for 59 other
employees. Cost was estimated at $200 per student, chiefly for
salaries of the director and 2 "monitors", not trained teachers,
but sympathetic company officials who were able to give encouragement to the students. The Corn Products Company is now taking
over the "MIND" program as a commercial enterprise and will market
it to other companies.!/
- The Campbell Soup Company developed a program with the Chicago
Board of Education in which the Board supplied teachers and
materials for a course conducted on company premises. Twentyfour employees completed a course covering grades 1-6. Classes
were held 2 hours daily, on employees'own time, before or after
work. The company is so pleased with results that it is now
opening the program to all interested employees. Ten percent of
the hourly work-force have enrolled, and a second course covering
grades 7-12 is being prepared.
- The Board for Fundamental Education (BFE), a non-profit organization which has conducted in-plant basic education courses for
about 80,000 employees, designs special programs to meet individual company needs. Courses are divided into 3 groups: from
zero t o gr ade 4; gra des 4-8 and grades 8-12. BFE recently embarked on a program to upgrade 1,600 e mployees of the 12 largest
steel companies in Chicago and Baltimore. II
Skill Training Programs.
Some progr ams were severely criticized for
tra ining peopl e without r e l a tion to or prior c ommitme nt of jobs, but t he
mo s t su ccess f ul ones ha ve ha d an initial a nd continuing close rel a tions hip
with bus i ness and industry.
Where the business community has taken an
ac tive r ol e in j ob progr ams, it has conc lude d tha t jobs must be found a nd
commit t ed f i rst, t hen train i ng programs de ve l oped a nd t rainees r e cruited .
- I n Lo s Angeles , the Merit Employment Commi ttee and personnel and
training expert s from The America n Society for Training and Devel opment ha ve he l ped organi ze , deve lop curriculum , provide instructors
and material s for federa lly- su pported s ki ll center s and othe r pro grams which are training residents of ghetto areas. 99% of t he
gradu ates of the skill cen ters were reported pl aced i n j o bs . This
high pl a cement ra t e was attribute d to an intensive follow-up program
by the Mer it Employment Commi t t ee to assu r e tha t a gradua t e is pl aced
in one company if a no ther d oes no t ha ve a job for him . Many Los
Angeles employers see t he best hope for f utu re training in more
1/ See Part II, p.
See Part II, p.
2/
See also, Resou rces, p.
�- 33 such "coupled" programs, where the prospective employee gets
institutional training first, then moves into OJT Training
programs in industry. The Douglas Aircraft Company has trained
about 6,000 workers in this way.~/
- In Minneapolis, a Plans for Progress Council of 70 major employers
has entered into a new "coupled" program. It has a contract with
the Labor Department Bureau of Apprenticeship Training (BAT), for
dropouts aged 17-22. The local Opportunities Industrialization
Center and two other agencies will recruit trainees and give them
20 hours of basic training weekly, for which they will be paid
$20.00. Employers will hire these trainees for the other 20 hours
weekly and pay them $30.00 per week. (All funds come from BAT).
The program allows 4-26 weeks for this initial training (OIC believes it will take 11 weeks) then trainees will automatically
go into regular On-the-Job training programs in the companies.
- Michigan Bell Telephone recently participated in a special MDTA
clerical training program for 30 hard-core unemployed women.
After 26 weeks institutional clerical training, they spent an
additional 12 weeks in alternate periods of 2 weeks on the job
at the company, 2 weeks back to school to concentrate on weak
points noted by company supervisors, then back to the company
for another 2 weeks, then back to school and so forth for the
12-week period. Fifteen of the women were hired at the end of
this period; the others needed more training, but Ed Hodges of
Michigan Bell said the "most impp rtant thing was the confidence
gained by these women in their 6 weeks on the job." Most of
them had felt they were confirmed failures and could never make
it."1/
- Aerospace companies in Huntsville, Alabama have had remarkafule
success in pilot programs to train unskilled rural Negroes for
relatively high skill jobs. Through an employer organization
(AHAC) they have strongly supported a local "rehabilitation and
study center" which provides pre-work training, orientation and
counselling , screens and refers a pplicants to the companies,
which then provide skill-training under MDTA programs.I/
RCA has trained 20 such candidates as reproduction technicians, electronic technicians, illustrator -trainees
and file clerks, who now work at wages ranging from $1.90
to $3.75 per hour. Said Paul Klein of RCA, "These are
some of the best employees we have. They have real
motivation."3/
1/ See Part II , p.
See Part II, p.
See Part II, P•
2/
3/
�- 34 -
- The Western Electric Company in Kearny, N. J.,opened its
established tool maker apprentice-training program to the
community by running a new program at night on the second
shift. A special curriculum was developed for an initial
24 hour course in basic shop math, followed by 24 hours of
blueprint reading, 24 hours of actual application, and 50
hours of direct shop learning on lathing, milling and
grinding machines. Eighty men have graduated from the
course; all are now employed at wages from $2.10 to $3.25
per hour. Students in the present course are 80% Negro.
Western Electric has persuaded neighboring companies to
help furnish instructors.
Graduates of this course can enter some 1,000 firms in the
area--many of which suffer serious skill shortages. This
course was totally paid for by the company; the chief cost
was instructor's time. Evaluating this cost, Western Electric's
Henry Boardman noted that the company had spent $10,000 advertising for machinists and toolmakers in the previous year with
no result. The training program cost just about the same and
produced many skilled employees.~/
Apprenticeship Training.
Several participants reiterated charges
that restrictive union practices keep minorities from apprentice training
for skilled trades.
But this argument was countered by others.
It was
I
noted that apprenticeship training is not a major route to employment
for the current 63 million non-farm employees in the
u. s.
Even among
construction employees, only 16,000 have had apprenticeship training,
said Otto Pragan of the AFL-CIO.
Charles Keller, President of a New Orleans construction firm,urged
industry representatives who sit on joint apprenticeship committees to
take responsibility to see that Negroes get applications and equal opportunity to compete for apprenticeships.
1/ See Part II, p.
for other examples .
�-35-
In Baltimore, where a new USES Apprenticeship Information
Conter and a Youth Opportunity Center are trying to help
Negro youth get into apprentice-type jobs, an employer organization discovered that many boys could not affort basic equipment required for an apprentice. (A carpenter needs $40-$50
worth of tools; fitters need more than $100 of equipment). The
businessmen set up a revolving Fund of several thousand dollars,
told the Center that when good candidates don't have money for
equipment to sign an authorization and send them to Sears or
Montgomery Ward, who have agreed to bill the Fund. The apprentice
pays back the loan at $1.00-$2.00 per week.
There was some criticism about the unnecessary length of apprenticeships in craft industries:
a carpenter's a pprentice, for example, must
work an 8-hour day, then go to school 2 nights a week for 4 years before
he can become a journeyman.
"With our modern educational know-how, why
can't we design a program to train skilled mechanics in 2 years or less?"
�- 36 -
Employers Take Leadership on Community Social Problems
"If we can actually sit down and talk with community
(minority) leaders we may have accomplished more than
millions of dollars that we can conceivably throw into
the community."
William E. Elston, American Airlines
"Remember that the poor have been footstools for officialdom all their lives. Someone is always doing something
for them, to them, or on them, and their great desire is
to be a part of the doing."
Chester Wright, Watts, Los Angeles
"We have recognized a totally new concept of how business
must participate in community life."
William Boucher III, Execut ive Director
Greater Baltimore Committee
)
This "new concept" of participation is being carried out by
individual companies, by joint employe r councils and by a growing
number of joint employer community organizations, in which business
leaders work with a broad spectrum of citizen groups, socia l and other
civic agencies.
Joint efforts usua lly started as job-finding pr ograms, inevitably
discovered that training and education were primary needs, and, therefore
have become involved with training, schools, and in some cases, with
housing, transportation, health and welfare and other job-related problems.
How to establish communication •• how to know who are "real" minority
l eadersa.how to get existing agencies and programs to work together
constructively, were frequent questions raised at the Conference.
working on cooperative programs had some answers :
Those
�- 37 -
-The best way to reach "real" minority leaders is to
contact the agencies who work in their neighborhoods;
social agencies; YWCA's, NAACP, Urban Leagues, neighborhood and civic organizations. Beware of thinking that
you can deal with any one "leader"; it may seem easier,
but it won't reach all the people you want to reach.
-Where cooperative programs have been established, existing
agencies and programs have been me·s hed into the overall
structure, without duplication, or stepping on anyone's
toes. Most existing programs are struggling with inadequate
resources; use them for that part of the program they can
do best, then develop additional program where it is needed.
-A coordinated, community job program eases the pressure on
employers, particularly smaller employers, who have been
beseiged by requests from different job programs. It can
provide the busy employer with a quick central source to
find where to go for what. Two community programs -- Newark
and Baltimore -- have published digests, summarizing
information, individual names and numbers to contact on all
job training programs in their areas: (Newark listed 38
such programs in its first publication).l/
Most community job programs 1 have raised local funds first, then
gone after government -- or in some cases foundation -- grants for
large-scale training programs.
This process has been long and sometimes
discouraging, but the "pioneers'" experience should help ease the way
for those who follow.
Some sources of technical help were suggested
at the conference.~/
Community Job Programs
Some cities, notably Indianapolis and Los Angeles, have started
job programs as a purely business effort on the theory that if business
bears full responsibility it will do the job better.
However, these
programs have relied heavily on cooperation with a network of social
and community groups.
See Par t II, page
•
See page
(Resources)
�- 38 -
More cities -- among them Newark, Rochester, Buffalo, St. Louis,
Baltimore, Huntsville, Alabama, Oakland, California -- have involved
a broad cross section of the community (minority groups, social and
government agencies, religious and civic leaders and others) from the
start in developing and operating the ir progr_a ms.
They believe that
the urgent need for communication between these separate groups can
only be met throu gh this kind of organization, which enables constant
communication of problems , as se ssment of resources and a ssignment of
specific re sponsibilities.
-In Indianapolis the business-sponsored project got substantial
job commitments from employers, recruited and tra ined hundreds
of volunteers to wo r k with unemploye d as individua l counsellors,
helping them t hr ou gh s cree ning, training , j ob pl a c eme nt and
f o l l ow- up on t he j ob. Major busin e ss f irms c ontribute d interviewers, experimentally hired people who didn't meet regular
st anda rds, and wound up k~eping many of them as permanent
employees . The Chamber o f Commerce plans to continue sponsoring
t he program •.!:/
-In Los Angel es a major effo r t involving thous ands of emp l oyers
was started by the Ch amber of Commerce fo llowing the Watts riots,
to work intensively on hiring , training, placement, counselling,
motivation and ot he r pr obl ems, in cooperation with gove rnment
and private job pro gr ams.1 /
- In Newark , N. J., a working federation of bu siness and indu stria l
l eaders , civil rights and other commun ity groups has already
placed more than 5000 Negroes in jobs and is moving out from
i n i t ial j ob pl ac eme nt into more complex problems of education ,
training and bas ic communit y needs .1/
-Rochester Jobs, Inc. is a recentl y forme d corporation with a
similar broad representation of business and civic groups
( including the militant Negro "FIGHT" o rganization which has
shaken up t he communi ty). It has secured an initial commitment of 15 0 0 jobs and initial funds from indust ry, and i s
using members of civil rights and neighborhood organizations
to recruit, counsel and help steer unemployed to training and
jobs. While s tart ing with jobs, the Rochester organization is
a lready committed to work on schools, hous ing and other community
problems •!Y
1/
11
11
11
See
See
See
See
Part
Part
Part
Part
II
II
II
II
page
page
page
page
0
�- 39 -
-Work Opportunities Unlimited (WOU) in St. Louis, has the
presidents of the city's largest corporations on its Board
of Directors with leaders of minority groups, unions and
other community agencies. It has 5,000 job orders in a
"Job Bank" and has placed about 1,800 people in one year
of operation. The gap between the two figures illustrates
the extensive programs of recruiting, screening, testing,
counseling, training and supportive services needed to place
most hard-core unemployed in jobs. WOU is using several
government programs (particularly those of the Bureau of
Apprenticeship Training, u. S. Department of Labor) and a
number of closely coordinated local agencies for this complex
job. I/
-The Opportunities Development Corporation in Buffalo is
another broad, representative community organization, brought
together by the city's Chamber of Commerce. It got an initial
commitment of 1,000 jobs and $40,000 seed money from local
industry, then developed a job training program which has
received $3,000,000 in Federal grants. Of the first 400
people placed in jobs, 110 came directly off relief rolls. 11
l
-In Oakland, California, business leaders helped form a tripartite organization of business, labor and minority representatives, which, in cooperation with the State Employment Service
and other government programs has placed 3,000 people in jobs
in the past 3 years.
-In Baltimore, the Voluntary Council on Equal Opportunity, a
bi-r a cial group composed of hea_d s of business and industry,
e duc ation and bther civic groups, finds that the "interlocking" organizational memberships of its Board provide
ne eded exchange of information, and project it into action
on many community needs. Employer members started with equal
employment and training programs in their own companies, then
started v isits of "teams of two" substantial executives to
·o ther major executive s to promote the program. The Council
h a s sponsored workshops for school counsellors and teachers,
motiv ational programs to prevent drop- outs, and is moving
t oward f urther cooperation with public schools, and vocational
t r a ining pr og rams . It a lso aids " self-help" programs in the
ghe t to , and pr ovides liaison for its members with a ll employme nt an d t raining programs in the area .1/
!/
2/
3/
See Part II page
See Part II page
See page
(Resou rce s)
�- 40 -
-In Huntsville, Alabama, in the heart of the South, an employer's
association has formed a working alliance with Negro and other
citizen groups, public and private agencies to train Negroes for
jobs, improve education at all levels, and support other basic
community programs which contribute to making disadvantaged people
employable. Top executives of major aerospace companies are
active members of this association, which carefully analyzes
and involves existing resources and programs, and continues
to support and encourage these before it develops new programs
for unmet needs.1/
Other Community Programs
Following are activities indicating new business involvement .i n jobrelated community problems including education, transportation, housing,
health, and welfare.
Schools
"Educators say 'we don't know what to do with business; they don't
cooperate. They don't talk to us.' You say to them 'When was the
last time you talked to business ? ; Well, we're waiting for them to
come to us.
.and business groups say 'Damned educators . . . they don't
understand. '"
William Flynn
National Association of Manufacturers
The growing conviction that business must take the initiative to
bridge a great communic a tion gap with the schools is reflected in NAM's
recent establishment of a special Education Committee.
Job training programs were called only "remedial," "treating the
symptom and not the disease", or as one Conference participant put it:
"It is impractic al to allow public schools of this country to produce
a product which you cannot use while you are paying for it."
The most frequent complaints voiced at the Conference:
-elementary and secondary school graduates do not have basic skills
for present and future job needs . (In many cities high school graduates
were termed "six th-grade readers . ")
-vocational education is still training "buggy whip makers" and
similar outmoded skills rather than for industry's increasingly
technical needs .
1/ See pages
Also Part II, Page
�- 41 -
-school counsellors and other school personnel are often totally
uninformed about actual job opportunities in neighborhood communities;
also, they are frequently preJudiced, and hold unfair "stereotypes"
about industry or factory type jobs.
Beyond these criticisms is recognized a fundamental mutual need
of schools and industry to find new ways to identify potential skills
and adapt them to changing situations.
Some specific recommendations made to business:
-Get on local school boards; become actively concerned with the
qua lity of eleme ntary a nd secondary e ducation in communities from
which you expe ct to draw employees.
-Investigate your local vocational education programs; find
ways to help develop curriculum, provide instruction and materials
to relate these programs to your needs.
-F i nd a systema t i c way of sha ring the busine ss world with educators,
r a ther tha n the once-a-year "Career Day" t ype of opera tion.
Traditionally, business has not bee n active on local school boards.
It wa s sugge ste d tha t " companie s don't' want e x ecutives taking strong
po l i tica l pos it i ons be c au se i t might inte rf e r e with public r e l a tions."
But this attitude is changing:
"I think we're going to s ee more businessmen on school boards; we
do have a ccounta bility in this area," said Ra nda ll Klemme , Vice
Preside nt of Mutua l of Oma ha, who ha s just be come the f irst
businessman on t he Omaha s chool boa rd.
Some examples of s ucce ssful coope r a tion of busine ss and e ducation:
-Several year s ago , the employment mana ge r of Western El e ctr ic
Company,._Kearny Works. looke d at the " gene r a l" h igh school curriculum.
He fourid on l y l year of science , 1 year of math, and Industria l Arts
courses featuring "Woodworking" a nd " Leathercraft. " His inves t igation
l ed t o a pr ogram call e d "Narrowing the Distance . "
�- 42 -
First, principals of six high schools were invited to tour
the plant and participate in extensive evaluation sessions,
exploring present and future job needs. The immediate payoff:
several new courses introduced the following fall in basic
technology, applied physics, applied chemistry, and a new
electronics lab.
Western Electric then set up an eight-week summer intern program
for school guidance counsellors, exposing them to industry at
work and needed educational preparation. The company paid them
the equivalent of their school salaries. Evaluations of the
counsellors (like those of school principals) at the end of the
session revealed immense changes in attitudes and concepts about
industry job opportunities. Said one:
"I'm stil 1 in a state of shock after my visits to the
Princeton Research Center and Clark Plant where I viewed
new technology and became aware of the tremendous implications that these developments have for the world of
work."
One "intern," the head of an Industrial Arts program at a nearby
high school, has started to develop a radically new curriculum
for his school, in which realistic vocational training is incorporated and related to the entire academic program. The school
expects to get hel p from industry through provision of expert
speake rs and a cooperative work-study program for s e nior students.1/
-The Jersey City Chamber of Commerce has conducted an in-service
training program for teachers (for which they get regular credit)
in which business and industry representatives describe varied
vocational requirements in area industries.
-Pacific Telephone and Telegraph Company's "Bridging the Gap" program
brings high school counsellors and t eac hers to the company for
workshops and up-to-date information of jobs, conducts plant tours
and workshops for high school students and provides exhibits, films,
talks, and discussion materials for schools. Illinois Bell Telephone
Company has a lso conducted summer programs for counsellors and teachers
at the company.
1/ A detailed report on these activities is given in the "Patterns of
Participation," published by Western Electr ic Company, Kearny, N. J.
�- 43 -
-Denver's Plans for Progress Council and the University of Colorado
sponsored a unique program in which high school counsellors spent
one week in the streets experiencing daily problems of minority kids
seeking jobs, then joined in seminars with industry personnel people
to jointly explore job needs and job counselling problems.~/
-In Huntsville, Alabama, AHAC (an association of major employers)
has become deeply involved in programs to improve schooling at all
levels. AHAC has worked with local and state vocational education
officials to develop new curriculum, and has provided instructors
and teaching materials. It helped develop and write a proposal
which won a $2.7 million Ford Foundation grant to fundamentally
improve pre-school, first, second, and third grade instruction in
Huntsville schools. AHAC members see this as a "long'-term investment."
"It's hard to get qualified people to come South. We are growing
our own" said Paul Klein, Manager of RCA Service Company.y
Some questioned whether it was proper for business to "invade" the
"ivory tower of educators" or whether it was possible to breach these
"impregnable walls" of education.
Businessmen who have been actively
involved dismissed these fears.
"The whole idea is so simple--it merely means getting together
people who should be talking to each other."
In Huntsville, · for example,
bus.iness relations with school boards and city and county education
officials have been excellent.
"Their reaction was 'oh boy, industry people are taking an interest
in education; they are going to tell us what they really need and are
going to help us"' said Clinton Crace, IBM Manager in Huntsville.
If educators try to defend outmoded systems, it was suggested that
a few corporation heads sponsoring a study of local education could
provide a most effective means of getting change.
1/ A report on this program is available in a reprint of "Maybe Tomorrow"
published by MONITOR, Mountain States Telephone Company, Denver , Colorado.
2/ See Part II>Page
�- 44 -
Transportation:
"The Jobs Are Leaving the People"
"The city of Philadelphia is losing 9,000 jobs a year.
.But
metropolitan region employers are crying for workers at . • • skilled and
semi-skilled levels . . . How does (the) man in the ghetto get to the
jobs? . . . Regional transportation systems are oriented towards getting
the suburban workers into the city to work and then back at home at
night . . . The ghetto dweller may have to spend two to four -hours . •
covering the same map distance his suburbanite brother covers in 45
minutes."
Alvin Echols, Executive Director ·
North City Congress, Philadelphia
This "Philadelphia story" was reported as a basic pattern throughout
the country.
For example, in Chicago job programs find it very hard to
get unemployed youth to travel three hours daily to jobs offered at $1 . 90
per hour.
Some urged that industry consider locating or re-locating operations
in the cities where workers live; other s said this is not feasible, because
industrial development would displace homes of poor minority families, or
be prohibited by zoning and other restrictions.
One participant said realistically:
"We move where it's economic."
Another added "and where there are good schools."
In New Orleans, reported Charles Keller, a county-w ide government
has started to revise zoning to provide industrial locations close to the
central city, coupled with improved local transit.
But most cities must
contend with multiple political jurisdictions at their borders, making it
much more difficult to plan comprehensive zoning and transportation .
�- 45 -
A few examples of employer efforts to improve transportation:
-In Los Angeles, North American Aviation and several other large
companies, individually or jointly, are providing bus transportation
to bring central city ghetto residents out to jobs.y
- In Long Island, New York, a company located in an industrial park
with 134 other firms which employ 10,000 people and suffer a chronic
shortage of unskilled and semi-skilled workers has helped start a
pilot program of bus service from areas of high unemployment, aided
by a federal grant. So far, employers, employees, and bus company
are very pleased with the results.2/
Better transportation systems were recognized as an urgent shortterm need.
However, some participants felt that the only long-range
solution is available housing for minority workers, and all workers, at
prices they can afford, near their jobs.
Housing
"Business is becoming very aware . . • that the question of jobs and
education and housing are not seP,arate problems. They are related."
Paul Stuber, Employment Practices
Reynolds Metals Company
"As we move to the suburbs and surrounding communities . . • housing
must be found • . • where . . • jobs are."
Edward W. Siebert, Civic Affairs
Manager, Caterpillar Tractor Co.
A number of large companies first became involved in housing
discrimination problems when badly needed professional Negroes turned
down job offers because they could not find suitable housing for their
families.
But a few companies and employer groups are now more actively
involved in the problem of housing for workers at all levels.
1/ See Part II page
See Part II page
2/
�- 46 -
-When North American Aviation moved a large operation to Palmdale,
California, "the only place Negroes lived was a little shantytown
way outside . . . we had to talk to local business people, bankers,
and real estate people. We said, "We're coming up here, we've got
this kind of a work force, what are you going to do about it? Well,
they began doing something about it. If whites can move to the
suburbs, Negroes ought to be able to move there," said Dwight Zook.
-The Caterpillar Tractor Company, largest single employer in the
state of Illinois, has a~tively supported local and state fair
housing legislation and has worked to involve other business and
industry l eade rs in programs for ope n housing and e limination of slum
housing . The compa ny a lso assures tha t housing lis ted by its transferred employees is available to all.1/
-When the Boeing Company in Seattle radically increased its employment
last year from 60,000 to 90,000, it recognized that housing
discrimination was a barrier to minority employment. The company
set up its own l isting serv i c e , permitting any house, apartment,
or lodg ing to be liste d wi t hout f ee providing i t wa s ope n without
discrimination. The company got about 2,000 listings. Major
expansion is finished, but the company is continuing the service.
-Reynolds Metals Company opened a new plant in a deep South area
whe r e no Negroe s lived . The compa ny first expl a ine d to the c i ty
gove rnme nt a nd r eal esta t e pe opl e tha t Ne gro worke rs would be coming
and asked their s upport a nd c oope r ation. "We are pl eas e d to say
that we got it," s a id Paul Stuber , Reynolds Employment Practices
Manager. Ne groes at various job levels were able to find suitable
housing. " We think the pre -planning tha t went into this paid
direct dividends. "
-AHAC i n Huntsv i ll e, Al a bama, has a l s o he lpe d Negr o employee s get
hou sing in wh ite areas . The Ass ociation has worked t o get more
low cost r e nta l housing and public housing , t o reha bilita t e substandar d
housing, and t o r e loc a te displ aced familie s. It organi ze d a committee
r e pre se n ting t he Home Builders As socia tion,Boa rd of Realtors ,
Mortgage Ba nkers, Hou s ing Au t ho r ity, a nd others concerned to get
action on t hese problems.I/
- I n Ch icago, as t he Conferenc e was meeting, thousands of bus ines smen
were pa rt ic i pa t ing in a Good Neighbo r Proje c t, ho l ding workshops i n
s uburban and metropol i t an Chicago areas to debunk myths and fe a r s
a bout fal l i ng prope rty values a nd e n trance of minority fami l ie s i nto
neighborhoods. The Pro j ect was sponsored by t he Leaders h ip Counc i l
for Metropolitan Open Communities headed by Joseph Cook, President
of the Illinois Be l l Telephone Company.
1/ See Part II page
See Part II page
2/
�- 47 -
But a participant commented that the involvement of business in
housing problems appears to be still fairly limited, and not recognized
as an essential, economic business factor.
When General Electric
Company took the case of a Negro engineer who had not been able to get
a house in the Philadelphia area to the State Human Relations Commission,
"we were told that this was the first time an employer in the State
of Pennsylvania had made any statement . . • in the interest of fair
housing," said George Lehman, of General Electric.
Fair housing is not the only problem for minority workers.
First
and foremost, the Negro needs housing he can afford.
Employers were urged to be more actively involved with basic landuse policies, zoning, and other political decisions in communities
)
surrounding their plants.
Alvin Echols, Executive Director of the North City Congress in
Philadelphia, challenged businessmen to look at the inefficient way their
tax dollar is used:
.when high-rise public housing is constructed in the ghetto
at a cost per unit of $21,000 or more for which you can build . .
at least two $10,000 - $12,000 houses in suburban areas in this
region."
Echols warned that if suburban areas are zoned so that it is
impossible to build low or middle-income housing, fair housing laws will
be meaningless .
Local political units pass restrictive measures making
it impossible to build lower cost housing.
Also, local mortgage requirements
demand that a man have a minimum income of $6,000 to afford the lowest
priced currently available housing .
"That is a little less than $3.00
�- 48 -
an hour.
Can housing be built for lower income workers? Is rental housing
available in your area?" he asked.
Health and Welfare
In communities where joint employer, or employer-community job programs
have been established, health
and welfare services have been involved
in their organizational set-up, and used to help provide counsel and
prepare disadvantaged for jobs.
In Illinois, the State Chamber of Commerce actively supported a
major increase in funds for the State Department of Public Aid,
which has helped reduce relief case loads by providing needed
counselling, training and supportive services for welfare clients
to become self-sufficient workers. Employers have cooperated with
the Department on job-training projects.y
Health problems remain a major obstacle to reducing unemployment.
William Robinson, Director of the Cook County Department of Public Aid,
reported that the majority of those now on "General Assistance" in Chicago
are there because of "emotional, physical, and psychological reasons . "
Therefore, the work-training programs which his department has developed
must have very intensive physical and mental health and other supportive
services , and this means more staff, and more funds.2/
Day Care for pre-school children of unemployed women who want to get
training and work is another major need.
Some employers recalled the
in-pl a nt day- care centers provided by industry during World War II , when
women we r e a v ital labor source , and suggested that similar efforts might
be c on side red again .
1/ See Par t II page
2/ See Par t II page
�- 49 -
-The KLH Company in Cambridge, Massachusetts, with a high percentage
of women employees, discovered that child-care problems were a major
cause of absenteeism. The company has just started an in-plant daycare program and is receiving funds for this pilot project from the
Children's Bureau of the U. S. Department of Health, Education, and
Welfare.1/
1/ See Part II page
�- so -
THE BUSINESS-COMMUNITY ORGANIZATION
Business is becoming increasingly involved in community social
problems.
Business-community job organizations are helping business meet
its job placement problems.
Such broad-based groups were seen as the most
effective means to assure effective employment for the hard-core as well
as effective community action on social problems obstructing such
employment.
-In Huntsville, Alabama, and Newark, New Jersey, the business-community
organizations originally formed to work on jobs are already deeply
involved with education, health and welfare, and housing.y
-In Rochester, New York, the new community job program recognizes
that its activities must be broadened in the future. A similar trend
was reported by the Voluntary Council on Equal Opportunity in
Baltimore. The Community Relations Program of the state-wide
Associated Industries of Massachusetts has established liaison with,
and helped coordinate, employment programs, and is now starting to
work in other areas.
Once communication among business, minority groups, schools, and
social agencies is established through a regular working channel, the
need for broader action becomes evident, and it is easier to start
cooperative programs.
Business-community organizations have started in different ways, but
all appear to have these common essentials:
-An initial core of dedicated, committed top business leadership,
men who will go out to sell the idea to others. In some communities
Plans for Progress firms supplied this core, in others the Chamber of
Commerce; sometimes leadership was provided by just one or two top
businessmen.
1/ See Par t II page
�- 51 -
-Effective communication and working involvement with genuine
representatives of the minority community, and the complex of
private, local, state, and Federal government agencies working
on community social problems.
-Full-time staff and budget. Although many groups started with
·volunteer services of business and community agencies, such as the
Welfare Federation, all have found it necessary to provide fulltime staff once the program gets going.
-Flexibility in organiz~tion and structure, enabling quick and
effective response to problems as they arise, rather than fixed
commitment to a single program.
�- 52 -
AN ACTION PROGRAM FOR BUSINESS AND INDUSTRY
Business and industry shoul d be doing much more , right now, on job
programs for unemployed and on related community problems, said Conference
participants.
Their s e nse of urge ncy was borne out by the summer's
uphe avals in cities across the nation.
What needs to be done, and
how to go about it, may differ from community to community, and
can best be developed by local leadership, participants s aid , but
certain basic a c tions were suggested :
-Review and activate an affirma tive equal employment program
throughout your own comp a ny or corporation. Some specific
recomme ndations and activities rep orted at the Conference:1/
Concentrate rec ruitment on t he 80% in the ghetto who can be
ma de employable and provide a real reservoir of talent and
ability,rather than the 10% who can find employment for itself ,or
the 10% representing chronic problems.
Develop new r ec ruitme nt systems. Let opportunit ies be known
t hrou gh the use of r ecruiters and organizations in the ghetto .
Develop ne w methods of sc r eening and testing prospective
employees, taking into consider at ion the life experiences
of the applican t.
Expand on-the-job training. Downgrade job development programs
which demand long periods of training prior to job opportunity.
Consider setting some percentage for "higher risk" employees .
Develop a c ouns e lling program for new emp l oyees. Initial
counselling is important to help avoid pitfalls of high interest
credit buying. Ghetto e mployees a lso face multiple proble ms
in their lives which affect job performance. Housing, hea l th,
l e gal, and other problems could be brought to an on-the-job
counselor who could refer e mployees to appropriate service
agencies in the community. The Counselor should monitor
the way in which these agencies respond. This monitoring
would have great impact on how agencies deal with the problems.
Business contributions to community agencies justify active
concern about the way they provide service.
1/ See Part II page
for reports of company programs .
�-53-
Help develop credit unions, cooperative purchasing clubs, etc.
which reduce employees ' need to rely upon exhorbitant credit
demands often prevalent in the ghetto.
Develop "worker sponsors " already on the job to help new workers
master demands of their new job environment. Identify such
worker sponsors and give them status.
Institute rapid, short step promotions where possible. Good
performance should be rewarded quickly rather than relying upon
big jumps spaced over longer periods.
Stimulate educational development of employers and reward it
where possible by bending rules and employment policies.
Provide new programs for rapid and cheap transportation to and
from work.
Support the work _of employees who attempt to improve their own
neighborhoods and communities in their free time. Where appropriate, make small grants to local institutions in which these
employees are involved.
Assist development of new business within the ghetto.
-Promote broader job efforts through trade associations, which can
concentrate on employme nt problems common to their particular industry.
Work throu gh associations of personnel administrators, industrial
relations managers. Communicate successful action through publications
of these groups and through company house organs.
-Urge Schools of Business Administration to add course s dealing
with the specific problems of qualifying and employing disadvantaged
minorities. (A participant stated that no major business school
has such a course today.)
-Be come actively involved with the quality and content of educ at ion-elementary, secondary, and vocational--in your community. Serve
on local school boards; establish a continuous relationship and
interchange with vocational and counselling programs .
-Use business influence and "muscle" to get housing--at convenient
locations and at prices they can pay--for minority employees. Recognize
that adequate housing is an essential factor to get and retain good
employees.
�- 54 -
-Help organize a joint business community program. Consider the
experience of communities which have found it most effective to
start with a broad-based organization including minority group
representatives, social and civic agencies, and others to plan
and work on job and job-related programs.!/
Specific groups will differ in each community, but a program might
start with:
Chamber of Commerce, Plans for Progress Council, or other employer
group.
Representatives of minority organizations, such as NAACP, Urban
League, CORE, and/or other local action groups, and neighborhood
organizations which have real contact with minority residents.
In some areas representatives of Puerto Rican, Mexican-American,
or other minority organizations should be included.
Social agencies with services and links to minority community:
YMCA, neighborhood houses, churches, etc.
Public agencies: local Employment Service, Board of Education,
Welfare agency, Youth Opportunity Center, representatives of
Mayor's office, local human relations commission, etc.
Council of Churches, Ministerial Alliance and civic groups
concerned with employment, training, and jobs.
Some basic guidelines for a community program:
-Find out what is being done; what needs to be done.
-Organize to coordina te and support existing programs.
-Develop new programs to fill major gap&
-Use experience of other communities as a guide; call on public and
private resources for advice and assistance;y utilize local resources.
For example:
A local university's urban affairs department can help
research basic community needs in housing, transportation,
health , etc. The university can also help develop
training programs .
1/ See Part II page
for reports on community job programs.
2/ See following page for some suggested resources.
�- 55 -
Manpower resources for job programs might include retired
executives, retired office managers and supervisors, and
retired foremen and craftsmen.
RESOURCES
The NATIONAL CITIZENS' COMMITTEE for COMMUNITY REIATIONS of the Community
Relations Service is a central resource for information about community job
programs and technical and financial assistance available from private and
government sources.
The Committee will provide:
- Information about and referral to successful community programs
- Consultation and technical assistance by task forces of private
employer and/or Federal experts
- Assistance in forming a business-civic organization
- Guidance in developing regional conferences on job and job-related
problems
- Informat ion a bout relevant Federal programs
Direct contact wi th proper Federal agency in Washington
For assistance 1 contact Mr. Charles A. Tuller , Program Director ,
Nat ional Citizens' Committee, Community Relations Service,
Washington, D. C. 20530 Tel: 202-386-6422
~
A number of other resources for technical assistance on job programs
and job-related social problems were identified at the Conference.
is a brief listing, by no means all-inclusive:
Following
Private national organizations
American Society for Training & Development
Carl B. Kludt, Director of Community Affairs Program
4404 South Bixel Street
Los Angeles, California 90054 Tel:213 - 482-4010
This professional society of industrial training experts has provided
staff and technical assistance to community job programs in the Los Angele s
area. It now offers to help other communities organize effective programs
and financial support from private and government sources.
1/ For information on other programs mentioned in text, refer to Participant
List a t the end of this section.
�-56-
The Board for Fundamental Education
Dr. Cleo W. Blackburn, Executive Director
146 E. Washington Street
Indianapolis, Indiana 46204
Tel:317-639-4281
A non-profit institution. Designs iR-plant basic education
programs geared to company needs.
Courses from illiteracy level to
high school equivalency.
Provides other services to help disadvantaged help themselves, such as pre-vocational counselling,
education in consumer economics.
Chamber of Commerce of the United States
Mr. Richard L. Breault, Manager
Community & Regional Resources Developnent Group
1615 H Street, N. W.
Washington, D. C. 20006 Tel:202-659-6170
Consultation on job programs, community development programs
and creating the business-civic organization.
Film:
"A Tale of Four Cities" (34 mins.)
the Lead on Community Problems
How Business is Taking
_MIND (Methods of Intellectual Development)
Mr. L. T. Knauff, Vice President
18 W. Putnam Avenue
Greenwi c h, Connecticut 06 8 30 Tel:203- 86 9-1350
Originally developed by the NAM as a pilot basic education
program to upgrade employees, this program is now a subsidiary of the
Corn Products Company. It will conduct training programs or provide
consultant service to help companies set up their own programs.
Plans for Progress
1800 G St. N. W.
Washington, D. c. 20006
Tel:202-961-5556
A small sta ff
loaned by member companies,assists in organizing
local merit employe/ councils and conducts local manpower development
seminars.
Literature on company "Plans" for equal employment opportunity .
�-57-
STEP (Solutions to Employment Problems)
William Flynn, Director
National Association of Manufacturers
277 Park Avenue
New York, New York 10017 Tel: 212-826-2100
A continuing series of writte n case studies deta i ling how companies
are meeting specific employment problems: training, re-training, upgrading, basic education, recruiting, etc.
Staff assistance to aid businessmen and business-community organizations
on job programs.
Film:
"The Bridge" (20 mins.)
the Dropout Problem
What Business Can Do to Help on
�-58-
Community Job Programs
Listed are some of the organizations referred to in the
report which should be able to provide details on structure,
organization and program. Some may be able to give further
assistance.
Associated Industries of Massachusetts
Walter Palmer,
Director of Human Relations
4005 Prudential Tower
Boston, Massachusetts 02199 Tel: 617-262-1180
Association of Huntsville Area Companies
L. C. McMillan, Director
2205 E. University Drive
Huntsville, Alabama 35805 Tel:205-539-8174
Business & Industrial Coordinating Council
William A. Mercer
Coordinator,
46 Branford Place
Newark, New Jersey 07102 Tel:201-622-3750
Employment Opportunities Committee
Indianapolis Chamber of Commerce
Carl R. Dortch
Exec. Vice-President
320 N. Meridian Street
Indianapolis, Indiana 46209 Tel:317-635-6423
JOBS NOW Project
C. Joseph Ehrenberg, Jr.
Executive Director
1020 S . Wabash Avenue
Chicago, Illinois 60605 Tel:312-922-3414
Los Angeles Merit Employment Committee
Merl R. Felker, Chairma n
Douglas Aircraft Company
3000 Ocean Park Blvd.
Santa Monica, California 90406 Tel:213-399-9311
Opportunities Development Corporation
Dr . Allan H. Bush, Executive Director
121 Ellicott Street
Buffalo, New York 14202 Tel:716- 8 54-4060
�-59-
Rochester Jobs Incorporated
Edward Croft, Director
Sibley Tower Building
25 North Street
Rochester, New York 14604 Tel: 716-232-2600
Tri-Faith Employment Project
Monroe Sullivan, Coordinator
116 South Michigan Avenue
Chicago, Illinois 60603 Tel: 312-263-2558
Voluntary Council on Equal Opportunity
Alfred P. Ramsey, Chairman
1901 Gas & Electric Building
Baltimore, Maryland 21203 Tel: 301-752-5260
Work Opportunities Unlimited
Mr. Fred Karches, Director
1700 South Second Street
St. Louis, Missouri 63104 Tel: 314-Ma. 1-0929
�-60-
FEDERAL AGENCIES FOR GUIDANCE AND FUNDING
I.
DEPARTMENT OF LABOR, Manpower Administration, Washington, D.C. 20210 ( AC 202)
A.
Bureau of Apprenticeship and Training - administers programs for
the development, expansion and improvement of company sponsored
on-the-job training programs to provide employees in the skilled
crafts and trades. Some training costs are reimbursable. Program
grants, technical assistance and printed materials are available
for employers.
CONTACTS: Mr. Hugh c. Murphy, Administrator •
961-2644
Mr. George W. Sabo, Deputy Administrator
961-2483
Mr. Robert C. McConnon, Director, Office
of On-the-Job Training • • • • • •
961-5244
B.
Office of Manpower Policy, Evaluation and Research - provides grants
for experimental and demonstration programs involving new app roaches
and innova tive techniques in such a r eas as recruiting, counseling,
training and placement, which are suitable for action programs; include basic education and occupational training.~/ Grants, technical
assistance and printed materials are available.
CONTACT: Mr. Judah Drob, Chief , Division of Program
Utilization, Office of Special Manpower
Programs • . • • . . . • • • • • • • • • • 961-2232
C.
Bureau of Work Programs - administers several employment-training
programs through which employers can hire "participants" or serve
as sub-contractors.
Neighborhood Youth Corps - provides part-time work and on-the-job
training for high school age youth fr om
low-income f amilies, through gr ant s to
local s ponsoring gro up s; a lso provides
for training costs to private employers
for OJT projects in which employers
pay wages.
Special Impact Program
provides a work-training experience for
persons 16 and over who are unemployed or
member s of low-income families, via
projects in and for poverty-stricken
urban communities and neighborhoods , through
grants to local sponsoring groups.
1/ OMPER also administers programs of indirect assistance to employers: a
pilot program of relocation assistance allowances, of grants and loans ,
to involuntarily unemployed workers who can obtain jobs from employers
in other localities; and a program of occup ational training and retra ining of persons in designated redevelopment areas, to qualify them for
existing job vacancies, among other po sition s. Grants, technical assista n ce and printed materials are availabl e.
�-61-
New Careers Program and
Operation Mainstream
are adult work-training employment
programs geared first toward positions
in public service and ultimately to
permanent positions in private industry
as well, through grants to local sponsoring groups.
(These programs are generally sponsored by public agencies, community action groups or private non-profit organizations.)
CONTACTS: Dr. James F. Tucker, Director, Office of
Operations • • • • • • • • • . • • • • 961-5545
Mr. Leonard Burchman, Director, Office
of Public Affairs • • . • • .
• 961-3784
(The best contacts for specific information on these programs are the
seven Regional Directors of the Bureau,
since grant decisions are made at this
level, not in the Washington office.)
D.
II.
Bureau of Employment Security - provides several information and technical assistance services to private employers through the United States
Employment Service, operating through the state employment agencies:
Community Employment Programs, Industrial Services, Farm Labor Services,
Job Market Information, Smaller Community Programs, and Youth Opportunity Ce nters. Employers s hould contact the individua l state employment agencies which operate these programs or
CONTACT: Miss Ruth Barth, Acting Director,
Office of Information . . • • • •
961-2822
DEPARTMENT OF HEALTH, EDUCATION AND WELFARE, Washingt on , D.C. 20201 ( AC 202)
A.
Off i ce of Educa tion Division of Manpower Development and Training - in conjunction
with the Manpower Administra tion , Depa rtment of Labor , administers gr ant s, contra cts , and technica l ass istance for bas ic educ a tion progr ams to a c c ompany on-the- job and cl ass room tra ining
proje ct s, to sta t e agen c i e s and t o privat e indus try.
CONTACT : Dr. Howa rd A. Matthews , Dire ctor , Div i s ion
of Manpower Development and Tra ining . • •
963-7132
B.
Socia l Re ha bilitation Serv i ce Bureau of Family Ser vices - administer s the Work Exper i e n ce Program
thr ough whi ch ac tua l and potentia l we l fa r e r ecip ient s are provided
with a comp rehensive ran ge of work ex peri e nce and trainin g, and
�-62social and educational supportive services; to hire trainees from
this program, employers should contact their local or state welfare
agency through which grants are administered, or for basic information.
CONTACT: Mr. Andrew Truelson, Chief, Office of Special
Service, Assistance Payment Division.
963-3157
C.
Welfare Administration Children's Bureau - administers several grant programs - appropriate
for child day-care centers, to local and state welfare agencies.
Employers can use these programs for the care of children of employees who cannot otherwise obtain care for them during working
hours. (The local welfare agencies can also obtain funds from
other sources, e.g., Headstart, appropriate for day-care centers.)
Employers should request assistance directly from the local welfare
agency. Program information is available from the HEW Regional
Offices or
CONTACT: Miss Gertrude Hoffman, Specialist on
963-5045
Day-Care Services • • • • •
III.
OFFICE OF ECONOMIC OPPORTUNITY, Washington, D.C. 20506
(AC 202)
A.
Cormnunity Action Programs - administers a grant program for demonstrations and unique experimental projects, appropriate for private
industry participation, in the areas of manpower and education,
among others. Employers should submit specific proposals and
programs. (Regular manpower programs in OEO are administered
through the Department of Labor.)
CONTACT: Mr. Gerson Green, Director, Research
and Demonstrations Division. • • • •
382-2737
B.
Job Corps - provides a program of basic education, skill training
and work experience for men and women ages 16 through 21. Employers
can participa te in the program by hiring "graduates" of the Corps,
or by contracting to establish and opera te a Corps Center. For
hiring, employers with a single plant operation should contact
their Regional OEO Office; those with larger operations .
CONTACT: Mr. David Oestreich, Chief, Placement
Division • • • • • • • • • • • • •
382-5312
For submitting proposals for operating Centers, employers
should
CONTACT: Mr. John Donohue, Chief of Procurement,
Contracts Divis ion • • • •
382-3751
�-63IV.DEPARTMENT OF HOUSING AND URBAN DEVELOPMENT, Washington, D.C. 20410
(AC 202)
Metropolitan Development
Urban Transportation Administration - administers a demonstration grant
program and a capital grant program for studies and projects on the
transportation needs for employment. Employers can participate
in these projects by submitting proposals and requests to their
local public transportation authorities which are the .official grant
recipients in the programs.
CONTACTS: Mr. Robert H. McManus, Director, Division
of Project Development (for capital grants) .• 382-5374
Miss Hartley Campbell, Division of Demonstrations Programs & Studies (for demonstration grants) •..•.•.....•...•.......••.•• 382-3783
Model Cities Programs - low rent public housing Urban Renewal
Projects.
CONTACT: Mr. Elliot Roberts, Information Officer • • • •.. 393-4160
V. DEPARTMENT OF COMMERCE, Washington, D.C. 20230 (AC 202)
Economic Development Administration - administers two programs in
employers can participate : business loans are available to firms
for building or expanding in designated EDA areas; and technical
assistance grants are available on a limited basis to employers
for funding certain employment projects. Loans and grants are
awarded by the EDA Regional Offices; for general information .
CONTACT: Mr. Morton Baill, Chief, Industrial Projects
Division, Technical Assistance Office • ....... 967-2 8 12
�
FOR COMMUNITY RELATIONS
% COMMUNITY RELATIONS SERVICE
WASHINGTON, 0.C. 20530
The Business-Civic Leadership Conference on Employment Problems,
held June 5-7, 1967, in Chicago, brought together 250 employers,
educators and other civic leaders who are pioneering programs to
meet our most crucial domestic problem: how to put hard-core
unemployed and underemployed minority group members into jobs.
The Conference was how-to-do-it meeting, bringing together employers and other lea ders who are· convinced that a successful
attack on this problem brings benefits not only to minority
group members but to industry, the community and the nation as
a whole.
The Conference was sponsored by the National Citizens' Committee
for Community Relations (NCC), a group of more than 400 leading
Americans appointed by President Johnson following passage of
the Civil Rights Act of 1964. Its purpose: to enlist the skills
and strengths of these leaders in supporting the nation's efforts
to assure equality for all Americans. The NCC functions as an
adjunct of the Community Relations Service, which was created by
Congress to hel p communities cope with disputes and difficulties
rooted in racial and ethnic discrimination. Its basic concern
is to help cities overcome minority group deprivations which lead
to conflict.
More than 70 specific projects and activities--some being undertaken by individual companies and o_thers by community-wide organizations--were described and discussed at the Conference. Most
persons attending the Conference, including those who are deeply
involved in projects to put the hard-core unemployed into jobs,
were impressed with the scope and creativity of these projects.
This report on the Conf e rence is offered to assis t employers and
other community leaders who are considering starting or improving
employment, recruitment or training projects in this field. Part I
is a summary of presentations. Par t II cont ains specific tools and
techniques. For additional copies, or further assistance and information, write to:
National Citizens' Committee
for Community Relations
Community Relations Service
Washington, D. C. 20530
�ADVANCE
CO PY
PUTTING THE HARD-CORE UNEMPLOYED INTO JOBS
A Report of the
BUSINESS-CIVIC LEADERSHIP CONFERENCE ON EMPLOYMENT PROBLEM:,
June 5 - 7, 1967, Chicago, Illinois
Sponsored by the
NATIONAL CITIZENS' COMMITTEE FOR COMMUNITY RELATIONS
and the
COMMUNITY RELATIONS SERVICE of the
U.S. DEPARTMENT OF JUSTICE
�PUTTING THE HARD-CORE UNEMPLOYED INTO JOBS
Table of Contents
Page
Preface:
The Man on the Street Corner .
The Problem and the Challenge:
Roger
w.
1
Wilkins
Business and Industry Accept the Challenge:
The Profit and Loss to Business:
R.
3
c.
Cornuelle
Frank Cassell
Commitment Can Pay Off .•• Much More Is Needed •
5
6
8
What Business and Industry Are Doing
11
Major Components of New Job Programs
11
Outreach:
14
Aggressive Recruiting . •
"Fitting the Man to the Job" .•• "What's Right with Him."
19
Education and Training . . .
29
Employers Take Leadership on Community Social Problems
36
Community Job Programs
37
Other Community Programs
40
The Business-Community Organization
so
An Action Program for Business and Indus.try
52
Re source s
55
Community Job Programs
58
Federal Agencies for Guidance and Funding
60
�PREFACE
The Man on the Street Corner
'When you walk in a nei ghborhood and it's men on the corner on
Monday morning to the extent that it looks like Saturday ni ght in
other neighborhoods, watch out, be.cause yo11're watchin ~ the tomorrowless man. He's on that corner because he 's not puttin g enou gh beans
in the pot. .• he knows '1P. ain't putting down what he. 's supposed to be
ruttin g rlown ••• His kids don't have no tomorrow ;rnd i f someone come s
alon g and brin g s some red wine or somethin g, he's go in g to drink •••
For a fellow like this a riot is a pleasant break in his humdrum
e x istence."
Chester Wright, Wa tts, Los Angeles
In Jul y 1967, America n cities across the nation burst into flame, in
violent, tra g ic explosions of frustration, bitterness, hate and lawl e ssness. Whatever the immediate causes or incitements, whe ther planned
or snontaneo~s, whatever the culpability for criminal action, sensitive
and knowledgeable observers agreed that a major cause was long-time
un e mpl oyment, lack of jobs at a living wage, and f ailure of America
to deliver its promises to it s Negro citizens. And no one could
qu est ion the vast dolla r lo ss and the physical and social dama ge tn the
communities invol ved .
In Jun e 196 7 , 200 busine ss and indus try executives who have been working
to ge t hard-core un e mpl oyed minoriti es into jobs me t in Chicago with
repr esen ta t ives of public and pr ivate _iob programs and social age ncies
for two hard-workin g days of s pecif ic experien ce exc han ge on programs
rnd techniques.
These men were more aware than most of the i ncipient da nger ahe ad . Some
ver~, responsible business l eaders even s uggested that such tragic ex p l osions might be the on ly way to mobil ize their communities to do
somethin g me anin gf ul a bout job s, education, housing and other needed
pro grams for ghetto slum dwe ll e rs.
A par ticipan t from Denver, Colorado grimly defined what he saw a head:
We've go t to solve some of the se problems ••• i t isn't a matter
of whether we want to any more, or not. We may be pretty late • .•
now. This s ummer may show us some probl ems ••• we hoped we weren't
going to have ••• but it's qu ite possible ••• There's a pretty good
nationwide riot climate ••• and, unfortunately, as we meet with the
industrial and disadvantaged people .•. our concl us ion, reluctantly~
is, there needs to be a riot ••• and that's a terrible thing, ~ it
unfor tunately, this is what creates movement.
�-
2 -
A business executive from MinneApolis, Minnesota, admitted that job
efforts of the Plans f or Progress Council there had not been making
much pro gr e ss until "1:ist year , in Au gust, we had the first bad riot
in Minneapolis. W~ really got some jobs going very quickly, the
Plans for Progress Council got busy and got this contract with the
Bureau of Apprenticeship Training •.. "
An industry representative from a rn i dwestern city who had been trying
to get an employer job program started was told by a fellow businessman:
'Tion't expect them to make a move, unless you have a demonstration •••
as lon g as everything is peaceful they are not going to anticipate .••
what is ••• beginning in practically every city."
The gentleman from Watts also had a positive suggestion for the conference:
"If you take the same men standin g on the corner the evenin g that
Watts riot started, if they had come in off a back-breaking job,
somewhere, the? would have went in, eat their porkchops, turnip
~reens, sit on a rickety couch, watch Wyatt Eary kill one cowboy,
thev'd have been so dead asleep that the old lady would have to
drag them in the bedroom. They wouldn't have been on a corner."
�-
3 -
THE PROBLEM ••• AND THE CHALLENGE
Excerpts from address of Roger W. Wilkins, Director
Communitv Relations Service, ll. S. Department of Justice
"American center cities are becoming; blacker and poorer .•• Between
1960 and 1965, 2 million Negroes moved into center cities, whereas
a similar if not larger number of whites moved out of the center
cities. During the same period, 62% of new plant development,
by value, moved into the suburbs where whites live, and where, by
and large, non-whites cannot live."
•½ recent Labor Department survey tells us that fully thirty-five
percent of the people in slum areas have a serious unemployment
problem: whether unemployed, employed only part-time, or employed
at wAges below poverty level. That means that these people are in
a perpetual economic state which is similar to, if not worse than
the great American depression of the thirties.••
'Tiespite all of our advances ••. today the Negro median male income
is still 51% of the white median male income just as it was 16
years ago ••. Despite the advances which have benefitted mainly m{ddle
class Negroes, the gap between the quality of minority group life
anct majority group life is great and getting greater."
" ••• It is our failure as a society to come to grips with this gap
that causes us to have ••• unrest in our cities."
'~he trend of the talented white Americans who have the power and
the training to solve problems, who have the tax-paying power to
sustain the economy of the cities moving out of the cities and the
trend of the poor Negroes, poor Mexican-Americans, poor Puerto
Ricans moving into the cities is accelerating.
" ••• Unless we reverse current trends, we could well have islands of
enormous dependency, enormous alienation, enormous hostility in
the middle of the United States of America, and I suggest to you
that if we permit those islands of alienation, hostility and dependency to develop, that whatever else the United States of America
is in the year Two Thousand, it will not be the kind of place that
we want our children and our grandchildren to live in. It will be
a place where the energy, the strength, the spirit , and the dynamism
which has animated this country from its beginning, will be gone ."
" ••. The question for us today is whether we will make decisions and
take actions now that will preserve and enhance the richness of
American life.
�-4-
"The Federal Government cannot take this task alone, nor, I am
convinced, should it even try."
"The National Administration, can and should take the lead, and
enunciate policies embraced on broad national principles and
purposes. It should develop programs to help local people,
local leaders solve their problems, but in the field of race
relations what is needed more than anything else is local drive,
local initiative, local effort, local success."
"I go to meetings in city after city after city. I see sitting
around the table, working on these problems, representatives of
the city government, representatives of the federal government,
representatives of the private organizations, representatives
of the churches, representatives of civil rights organizations,
sometimes even rep·resentatives of the private foundations, but
only rarely representatives of the great businesses of this
country."
"I suggest to you that now it's time for all of American business to
become as fully involved as you have become, in saving our cities."
" •.. The question for American citizens is whether we need riots
in every city in this country before we begin to move as we should.
The question for American business, is whether it will exercise
the kind of leadership in this field that it has exercised in so
many fields in making this country great in the past."
�- 5 -
BTISINESS AND INDUSTRY ACCEPT TIIE CHALLENGE
Excerpts from arldress by Richarrl C. Cornuelle,
Executive Vice-President, National Association of Manufacturers
" .•. After a generation of arguing about the consequences •.. ;rncl
expense of government action on social problems (business) is beginning to realize that there is much more promise ••. in forgetting
•• .the Arguments anrJ allyi;l [': themselves directly to the solution Of
the problems ••• ".
" •.. We h;ive a remarkable unanimit y of opinion among our (NAM) members
th;it thr. r: n ~;:itest. •• most important piece of business on the a~enda
of American business today is to •.. [ind out exactly what its total
capabilities to solve community problems are ••• and to get busy and
put them to work.
"Business has always had a sense of social responsibi1ity ••. but what
is important is that contemporary business is finding ways to express
that responsibility directly rather than by writing checks or supportin r; secondary social a gencies."
"Gallup ••• found fifty-one million Americans would like to go to
work helping the problems they see in their communities if they knew
how, and ••. they would be willing to contribute over two hundred and
fifty million hours."
" ••• if we knew how to use that ener gy as well as we know how to
use human ener gy in commerce, we could have a social production
worth conservatively ei g hty bill ion dollars a year."
·~s we see our business leadership involvin g themselves directly
in problems of hard-core unemployment, housing, delinquency and the
rest ••• we will see a unique talent for organizing human ener gy
applied to these community problems."
·~ have never seen anything develop as fast as top executive awareness of the importance of direct industry-social action. We see
it in the NAM in less than two years' time. The demands for. advice
far exceed our limited capacity to g ive advice to companies that
want to act."
�- 6 -
THE PROFIT AND LOSS TO BUSINESS
Excerpts from the address of Frank Casse ll, Director, ll. S. Employme nt
Service, Former Vice-Pre'siden t, Inland Steel-Ryerson Found at ion_!_/
'~he social cost of poverty is not fully measured by the statistics
or the privation they suggest ••• the desperation and frustration that
results from poverty contributes to ill health, deterioratin g citizenship values and to other factors that we aken our society . The social
cost of poverty must also include the goods and services that are
not produced because of the unemployment and. low productivity of the
poor."
Recognition of these costs to society has prompted ••• many employers
to accept the cha llenge of breakin r, the cycle of poverty for seve ral
million Americans ••• Many employers have embarked upon th i s ••. on their
own, and some have done it with the assist;ince of government financin g .
And in the process employers have le;irned that:
-
most
most
mo st
most
people when given the opportunitv to work want to work
oeople who are unemployed are employable
of the untraine d peopl e in our c ountry ar e trainable
uneducated people are educabl e .
"Employers have learned that the i r investment in working with these
peopl e has resulted in gainin g valuable new employees and opened new
labor market resources •..•. "
'~he l ate Dou gla s McGregor of MIT •.. pointed out that mo s t employers
th i nk o f manpowe r r e sourc es in the s ame way a s they t hink o f phys i c a l a nd
financial resources. He suggested, that instead, the essential task
of mana gement is a process ••• of creating opportunities, releasin g
potential, removin g obstacles, encourag ing g rowth and providin g
guid ance."
Whe r e man ageme n t has be c ome involve d in the 60's in hir i ng and
t r ain i n g ••• o f pe opl e r e jecte d i n the SO' s , the y are l earn i ng
valuable lessons that they can apply to the mana gement of their
companie s . This f a r outwei ghs the extra costs incurred in continuin g
spe cial r e cruitme nt a nd trainin g pr ograms conce ived init i all y to
t a p previ ou sl y unu sed sources o f manpowe r .•• an employe r who r edefines e n t r y l evel job r e qui reme nt s s o tha t they have re l evan ce
to t he job to be done is ••• in a be tter posi t i on t o fi n d people
who rt o a be tter job a t a hi gher l eve l o f pe r f or ma nce tha n a per son
over - qualified for the .iob. Over - qualified people a re a major
rea son for hi gh tu rnover ra t e s , .iob d i s s ati sfact ion , low produ c tivity and poor morale.
"Eliminating irrelevan t requ irement s for e n try l eve l jobs ••. wa s
use d for the purpose of providing job s, but actually t he technique is a pu re and simp l e matter of s avi n g money now wasted because of high turnover r a tes."
1/ Mr. Cassell.Jfl recently recently resigned as Director of USES and
r e tu r.ne~"'Tplicants.
But Conference participants stressed that the frequency and
causes of arrest differ greatly in ghetto and non-ghetto areas.
·~t's pure
luck if you don't get 'busted' (arrested) if you grow up in the sl11ms,"
s,qid one.
Several companies which have hired people with police records
'
(who otherwise showed good potential) reported that they have caused no
problems and some have become superior employees.
- Henry Boardman of Western Electric Company reported that a
comparison of those hired with arrest records and those
without showed no difference at all.
- Pacific Telephone and Telegraph looks carefully at the record,
distin guishin g between arrest and actual conviction, and has
gained several "superior employees" from amon g those with
police records.~/
- William Johnson of the Center for Independent Action, who worked
with Indianapolis employers setting up a job program for hardcore unemployed , said "We ask employers to look at the kind of
record. If it ' s not dangerous and the person is backed up by
his local volunteer counselor who can testif y about his home life
and st ay with him ," the employer is urged to take the chance . I/
1/ See Pa r t I I, pag~
See P ar t I I, p ag e _ __
2/
�- 24 -
Restructuring jobs, dividing them into simpler and more complex parts
has made it possible to employ people with lower qualifications in many
companies, and provided advancement for employees working below their
ability.
It was generally agreed that this kind of effort, which has
been going on in upper echelon jobs, can be done more extensively at lower
levels.
- Dr. Kludt described an effort to determine minimal requirements
for gas company meter readers in the Los Angeles area. The
company required a "knowledge of mathematics." Breaking this
down to the precise operations required, Kludt finally got the
company to agree that they could hire men who could merely add
and subtract; multiplication and division and were not really
necessary and could be learned in night school while the men
were working.
- The Texas Division of the Champion Paper Company restructured a
considerable number of entry-level jobs last year, eliminating
educational and test requirements, and hired "hard-core" unemployed referred by a job project which conducted a house-tohouse canvass in high unemployment neighborhoods. The company
reports that it has gotten "exceptionally good employees." As
a result, it has since hired more through this program.
- The Dieboldt Manufacturing Company is among companies that have
hired Negroes and Spanish-speaking workers at low-skill levels, and
set up in-plant training to upgrade their skills, teach English
and provide other remedial programs. The company employed no
Negroes or Spanish-speaking people 3 years ago; today Negroes
and other minorities are 18% of the work force. Many are already
moving up the ladder to higher jobs.
Upgrading present employees was recommended not only as a way to open
lower jobs but as a frequently overlooked, major source of good talent,
particularly among minority employees who may not have had opportunity
or encouragement for advancement.
- The Polaroid Company and Equitable Life Insurance Company have
instituted a job-posting procedure. All jobs that open up throughout the company are posted . Anyone who thinks he or she is qualified
may apply. Polaroid works with supervisors, urges them to encourage
minor ity employees who may lack confidence or needed skill to take
�- 25 -
t r a ining courses t o qualify, either in company programs or
ou t side . Tom Brown of Polaroid urged employers to emphasize
upgrading. "You have fellows in your stockrooms that could
ve ry easily be running a line as a supervisor ••• people doing
jobs as clerks, typists who •.• if given an opportunity •••
could move up in your company." 1/
- Western Electric's Kearny Works took a look at its work force
and wondered why there were no Negro supervisors. "We put in
a crash program and interviewed every Negro male in the place,"
s a id Henry Boardman. "What we learned was fantastic." Negroes
with college degrees and o ther qualifications were working at
jobs far below their abilities. Western Electric instituted a
special training program to prepare some of these men to be
s upervis ors ••• then went on to use similar techniques with the
total work force. As a result, the company ha s found excellent
new supe rvisors, black and white, who had been overlooked by
fo rmer promotion s ystems.ij
- Equitable Life formerly hired only college graduates for computer programmers. Two years ago, it offered everyone in the
company the opportunity to take two special exams for these
j obs; one the regular IBM exam, the other a specially devel oped
exam t o indi ca te characteristics of thinking. Five hundred
e mpl oyees took the e xam, 100 pass ~d it. The company discovered
t ha t 60% of tho se pa ssing did not have c ollege degrees. It is
conv inced that a major source of higher level job talent is
wi thin its presen t employe e population . y
- I ll i nois Bell offers continuous training for employees, asks
supe r v is ors t o be on the l ookout for talent, and encourage
e mpl oyees t o take courses for advancement. These are open to
te l e phone opera tors , c leric a l employees and all others.!±/
"Sensi tivi ty" Tr a ining fo r Personnel Officials a nd Supervisors Human relations t raining a nd other prep a ration of personnel officers and
supervisor s wa s he l d ess e ntial fo r success of any program to hire and
train hard-core unempl oyed.
This i s particu l a r ly importa n t fo r the people at the f i rst point of
contact.
"You need your be st -- not your wor st -- person at int a ke ," sa id
one par ticipant.
Many stories were told of compan i es whe r e the gua r d at
the gate or the girl who hands out e mp l oyme nt a pp l i ca tion s a ctually make s
I / See
2/ See
3/ See
4/ See
Part
Part
Part
Part
II,
II,
II,
II,
page _ _
page_ _
page_ _
page_ _
�- 26 -
company employment policy -- regardless of what the president or vicepresident thinks his policies are.
Receptionists and interviewers in
State Employment Services, private employment agencies, and companies
were all called guilty.
Employers were urged to carefully review present "intake" methods.
"Are personnel people courteous, understanding?
Do they give as sistance
of frighten the hell out of the prospective employee?"
"In personnel, the name of the game is to exclude, said one personnel
manager, who agreed that this situation needs to be changed.
Dr. Kludt suggested rotating personnel people from time t o time,
putting the m in to wage and salary, training, or employee services becau se
it "reorients them to the fa c t that they are there to serve people."
Apart from outright discrimination which still persists, personnel
•
peopl e need special ability to understand and r e late to the special
problems of the disadvantaged.
The personnel interviewer dealing with
Negro, Mexican-Ame rican , Puerto Rican o r other minority person should be
"the mo st skilled pe rson in the company" •• should have knowledge of
d i ffe r e n t cul t ural background s ••• " For example:
culture, hum ility is a virtue.
his own t r umpet."
"In the Me xican- American
The Mexican-American is not likely to sound
His rea l a bilities have to be carefully sought out.
"The sil ent wa ys we communicate ••• a nd fa il to commun icate," were
stressed by Bruce Cole , of Chicago's JOBS NOW Project.
For example: "If you wea r your ha t, you're crude if you're middle
cl a ss .
(Bu t ) if yo u're a lower clas s Negro, wea ring a hat means
you're a man . "
�- 27 -
Or: "Many Latin-Americans like to talk about a foot away from the
interviewer while most North Americans feel comfortable about three
feet away, so "what you have is the Yankee backing away and the
Latin moving in ••• and neither of them is comfortable."
Or: (on looking the other person in the eye): "You can't do it
more than 10 seconds, until you .•• are embarrassed ••• iooking
around the room (But) nobody ever tells a Negro kid 'don't stare'
He is going to look you in the eye (and) say 'That white s.o.b.
he doesn't 1 ike me .• he won't look me in the eye •• won't trust me'."
Personnel officials loaned by Chicago companies to the JOBS NOW
Project are learning a great deal about how to deal with the kids
from Chicago's streets when they come for jobs and when they are
on the job._!,_/
- In Boston, 300 company personnel officials who have worked as volunteer interviewers at Jobs Clearing House have learned a lot about
the problems of Negroes in seeking, getting and holding jobs. "They
are getting accustomed to interviewing Negroes in a relaxed way,
which is totally different from the way they interview in their own
companies ••• after they have gone back to their company ••• they
know the problem .•. we have on the other end," said JCH President
Tom Brown. 2/
- In Denver, Colorado, psychologist J ack Yuthas believes that "you
ca n't really understand the disadvantaged unless you live with them
for a while." With other University of Colorado professors, and in
coopera tion with the Denver Plans for Progress Council, he has been
working with industry personnel people and school counsellors to
give them first-hand experience of the problems of the high school
dropout ; his fears, frustrations and hostilities.
Training for Supervisors and Fo remen
- Illinois Bell has run a series of "sensitivity training" courses
f o r first and second level supervisors to develop awareness of special
needs of minorit y and dis a dva nta ged new employees. The company
repo rts an "overwhelming response"; many of these people wanted to go
out a nd do more in the community . Some of them are now doing volunteer
tuto ring of ghetto residents.y
- Equitabl e L i fe placed its first group of employees who didn't meet
usu al qualifica tions under particul a rly sympathetic supervisors. When
the company made c lear to these supervisors that these employees
would no t be charged a gainst their r e gular budget; or efficiency rating ,
a nd u rge d them to take on the special challenge of training them ,
r esu lts were good. :±_/
1/ See
2/ See
3/ See
4/ See
Pa rt
Pa rt
Pa r t
Part
II ,
II ,
II ,
II,
page _ _
page _ _
page _ _
page _ _
�- 28 -
- KLH has worked with Northeastern University in Boston, to develop
~ourse for training supervisors.];/
- The Board for Fundamental Education,which has concentrated on
basic education for minority and other disadvantaged employees, will
soon put on the market a series of tools for foremen, supervisors,
and interviewers to help them work more effectively with a multicultural work force.2/
Other administrative measures by top management to assure that new job
policies are carried out down the line have been found necessary.
There was resounding agreement that the best policy or new approac h
from the president or vice-president's office can get badly fouled up
unless specific additional steps are taken to woek this policy into all
operating parts of the company.
When North American Aviation Company, which has received plaudits
for its policies in hiring and training minorities, analyzed
employment statistics by department and division, it found some
without a single Negro or Mexican-American employee. The company
has now shifted administrative r e sponsibility for equal employment
policy from the Personnel Department to the line officials ,
creating a top management committee of vice-presidents of all
operating departments in the corporate structure, and a similar
committee in each branch operation. These committees analyze
minority employment statistics, review qualifications of present
minority employees for promotion, and receive suggestions from an
Advisory Comm ittee composed of minority emp l oyees. There has been
a notable increase of minorities employed in areas where they had
been absent before, and in those holding supervisory jobs -even in plants in the South where "tradition and attitude" was
supposed to prevent such things.y
Michigan Bell Telephone Company keeps a monthly running inventory
of minority employment records (which it is required to submit as
a government contractor) by district, division and city. This is
c irculated to every operating department head . Looking at another
c ity or department's better record spurs a manager to go out and do
more on his own " before the boss comes in and tells him to do
better." The company has also tried FEPC-type audits on its own
personnel office operations, reviewing applications of minorities
not hired.
Some of these have been called back for second
interviews, hired and turned out to be good employees.!±/
1/ See Part II,
See Part II,
y See Part II,
4/ See Part II,
2/
page_ _
page_ _
page_ _
page_ _
�- 29 -
Education and Training
Orienta tion and counselling before tra in i ng has been found most essential
for many disadvantaged to become good employees.
Such pre-training is now
being done in some cities by social a gencies and government job programs.
In others it is still l a cking, and as a result, employers a re often disappo i nte d wi th job progra m tra inee s.
Pre-t r a ining ranges from very simple practical things, like how to f i nd
the ri ght bus or buying a n a larm c lock to get t o work on time, t o complex
a nd s ubtle attitudes a nd e motiona l probl e ms .
The important elements of pre-tr~ining are illustrated in the 2-week
orientat i on course conducted by J OBS NOW in Chica go.
They are:
- Grooming a nd hygi e ne
- Money manageme nt: (how t o avo id getting hooked on "credit terms ," etc .)
- Trans portation:
(how t o get t p jobs on the public transportation
s y stem -- s ome thi ng that is tota lly ne w f or ma ny )
- J ob pre pa r ation: ( company pe r sonne l expl a in what is expec t ed f r om
e mp l oyees i n t he "work wo rld;" trai nees di scu s s
with them their worries a nd concerns)
- Human r e l a t ions t ra ining: (ge t t i ng the youth t o exami ne their own
a ttitudes toward jobs , themselves, the ir c ommuni ty,
life in gener al . "We try t o provide t hem wi th an
idea t ha t t here is a tomor row. ")
Si mi l ar courses we r e r e ported conduc ted by Opportunit ie s Industri a li zat i on
Centers (OIC ' s ) i n Philade l phia, Los Angel es and other c ities, by the Pul a skiCa va lry Reha bil i tation Ce nte r in Hunt s ville , Al a bama, by the Cook County
1/
We l fare De partme n t a nd othe r s.-
1/ See Part I I , PP•
�- 30 High-support", continued into training and on the job was also
recognized as a necessity for the severely disadvantaged.
The employer
frequently complains that when he gives a "disadvantaged" person a chance,
the employee "doesn't show," is tardy, or drops out after a short time.
Where a continuing "support" program has been carried on, whether by
the company or cooperating social agency, results are much better.
- JOBS NOW Project clients get follow-up help from project"coaches"
who ask employers to give them access to new trainees on the job,
then follow through at home or wherever needed. But the employers
are also asked to develop "support" themselves, through their own
"coach" or a "buddy system." The results: 83% of youth referred
to companies with "support" programs are still on the job, but only
24% are still working in companies where no internal "support"
program was established.
- JOBS NOW Project tells companies that if an employee has a problem
the company should follow through; it can be referred to the social
agency which is su pposed to handle it, but too often the poor are
merely "bucked around from agency to agency .11 If the company checks
up ("uses its muscle") to see what has happened, chances are much
better that the agency will do the job.~/
'
- The Polaroid Compa ny believes it is the company's responsibility
to find out why employees "don't show" and try to help. "It could
be the person is trying to hold down two jobs -- it could be the
ba bysitter didn't show -- if one car breaks down, several people
may become absentees -- you have to be concerned with the total
employee."
- The Opportunities Development Corporation, a new business-supported
job program in Buffalo, trained 200 "tutors" - many from ghetto
neighborhoods - to work with newly placed trainees in the plant
and help counse l them on and off the job, while providing needed
ba si c education in a ft e r work classes.I/
- In Indi a napo lis, a business-sponsored program has recruited volun31
teer counsellors who work with job trainees constantly on a 1-1 basis.-
1/ See Part II, p.
See Part II , p. __
See Pa rt II , p .
2/
3/
�-31This kind of support is costly.
But conferees could not suggest
any program on a mass basis that would work.
from individual counselling.
So far, best results come
However, many said that the high initial
outlay would pay off in better, steadier workers.
Some companies have
already benefited from applying "support" techniques for disadvantaged
new minorities to their regular work force, with resulting reduction of
absenteeism and other problems.
Basic Education is a crucial need for today's unemployed, underemployed
and for many employees whose jobs are being replaced with more skilled
operations.
Whether school dropouts, or products of inadequate schools,
these people cannot meet industry's current requirements.
Some encouraging programs were reported, conducted by industry, itself,
in cooperation with school systems, or ' by other agencies.
There is strong
evidence that "the best place to train people is in the world of work";
employees respond better to programs conducted on company premises than
in educational institutions where they may have had earlier failures, or
which are difficult to reach after work.
-The National Association of Manufacturers started a pilot program
(MIND) several years ago, which raised reading, writing and arithmetic level of Harlem youths by four grade levels in 100 hours of
instruction.
-NAM's MIND staff worked with the Corn Products Company in Argo,
Illinois, to develop a basic education program for company employees
who could not qualify for new jobs. A pilot project for 38 employees
was conducted 2 hours each day after working hours on employees' own
time for an average of 79 class hours per employee. It helped raise
educational levels from 2-3½ years. Although the company had some
difficulties with work schedul es and attendance, and did not get the
�- 32 -
full time projected for instruction, it is enthusiastic about
results and is going ahead with a second program for 59 other
employees. Cost was estimated at $200 per student, chiefly for
salaries of the director and 2 "monitors", not trained teachers,
but sympathetic company officials who were able to give encouragement to the students. The Corn Products Company is now taking
over the "MIND" program as a commercial enterprise and will market
it to other companies.!/
- The Campbell Soup Company developed a program with the Chicago
Board of Education in which the Board supplied teachers and
materials for a course conducted on company premises. Twentyfour employees completed a course covering grades 1-6. Classes
were held 2 hours daily, on employees'own time, before or after
work. The company is so pleased with results that it is now
opening the program to all interested employees. Ten percent of
the hourly work-force have enrolled, and a second course covering
grades 7-12 is being prepared.
- The Board for Fundamental Education (BFE), a non-profit organization which has conducted in-plant basic education courses for
about 80,000 employees, designs special programs to meet individual company needs. Courses are divided into 3 groups: from
zero t o gr ade 4; gra des 4-8 and grades 8-12. BFE recently embarked on a program to upgrade 1,600 e mployees of the 12 largest
steel companies in Chicago and Baltimore. II
Skill Training Programs.
Some progr ams were severely criticized for
tra ining peopl e without r e l a tion to or prior c ommitme nt of jobs, but t he
mo s t su ccess f ul ones ha ve ha d an initial a nd continuing close rel a tions hip
with bus i ness and industry.
Where the business community has taken an
ac tive r ol e in j ob progr ams, it has conc lude d tha t jobs must be found a nd
commit t ed f i rst, t hen train i ng programs de ve l oped a nd t rainees r e cruited .
- I n Lo s Angeles , the Merit Employment Commi ttee and personnel and
training expert s from The America n Society for Training and Devel opment ha ve he l ped organi ze , deve lop curriculum , provide instructors
and material s for federa lly- su pported s ki ll center s and othe r pro grams which are training residents of ghetto areas. 99% of t he
gradu ates of the skill cen ters were reported pl aced i n j o bs . This
high pl a cement ra t e was attribute d to an intensive follow-up program
by the Mer it Employment Commi t t ee to assu r e tha t a gradua t e is pl aced
in one company if a no ther d oes no t ha ve a job for him . Many Los
Angeles employers see t he best hope for f utu re training in more
1/ See Part II, p.
See Part II, p.
2/
See also, Resou rces, p.
�- 33 such "coupled" programs, where the prospective employee gets
institutional training first, then moves into OJT Training
programs in industry. The Douglas Aircraft Company has trained
about 6,000 workers in this way.~/
- In Minneapolis, a Plans for Progress Council of 70 major employers
has entered into a new "coupled" program. It has a contract with
the Labor Department Bureau of Apprenticeship Training (BAT), for
dropouts aged 17-22. The local Opportunities Industrialization
Center and two other agencies will recruit trainees and give them
20 hours of basic training weekly, for which they will be paid
$20.00. Employers will hire these trainees for the other 20 hours
weekly and pay them $30.00 per week. (All funds come from BAT).
The program allows 4-26 weeks for this initial training (OIC believes it will take 11 weeks) then trainees will automatically
go into regular On-the-Job training programs in the companies.
- Michigan Bell Telephone recently participated in a special MDTA
clerical training program for 30 hard-core unemployed women.
After 26 weeks institutional clerical training, they spent an
additional 12 weeks in alternate periods of 2 weeks on the job
at the company, 2 weeks back to school to concentrate on weak
points noted by company supervisors, then back to the company
for another 2 weeks, then back to school and so forth for the
12-week period. Fifteen of the women were hired at the end of
this period; the others needed more training, but Ed Hodges of
Michigan Bell said the "most impp rtant thing was the confidence
gained by these women in their 6 weeks on the job." Most of
them had felt they were confirmed failures and could never make
it."1/
- Aerospace companies in Huntsville, Alabama have had remarkafule
success in pilot programs to train unskilled rural Negroes for
relatively high skill jobs. Through an employer organization
(AHAC) they have strongly supported a local "rehabilitation and
study center" which provides pre-work training, orientation and
counselling , screens and refers a pplicants to the companies,
which then provide skill-training under MDTA programs.I/
RCA has trained 20 such candidates as reproduction technicians, electronic technicians, illustrator -trainees
and file clerks, who now work at wages ranging from $1.90
to $3.75 per hour. Said Paul Klein of RCA, "These are
some of the best employees we have. They have real
motivation."3/
1/ See Part II , p.
See Part II, p.
See Part II, P•
2/
3/
�- 34 -
- The Western Electric Company in Kearny, N. J.,opened its
established tool maker apprentice-training program to the
community by running a new program at night on the second
shift. A special curriculum was developed for an initial
24 hour course in basic shop math, followed by 24 hours of
blueprint reading, 24 hours of actual application, and 50
hours of direct shop learning on lathing, milling and
grinding machines. Eighty men have graduated from the
course; all are now employed at wages from $2.10 to $3.25
per hour. Students in the present course are 80% Negro.
Western Electric has persuaded neighboring companies to
help furnish instructors.
Graduates of this course can enter some 1,000 firms in the
area--many of which suffer serious skill shortages. This
course was totally paid for by the company; the chief cost
was instructor's time. Evaluating this cost, Western Electric's
Henry Boardman noted that the company had spent $10,000 advertising for machinists and toolmakers in the previous year with
no result. The training program cost just about the same and
produced many skilled employees.~/
Apprenticeship Training.
Several participants reiterated charges
that restrictive union practices keep minorities from apprentice training
for skilled trades.
But this argument was countered by others.
It was
I
noted that apprenticeship training is not a major route to employment
for the current 63 million non-farm employees in the
u. s.
Even among
construction employees, only 16,000 have had apprenticeship training,
said Otto Pragan of the AFL-CIO.
Charles Keller, President of a New Orleans construction firm,urged
industry representatives who sit on joint apprenticeship committees to
take responsibility to see that Negroes get applications and equal opportunity to compete for apprenticeships.
1/ See Part II, p.
for other examples .
�-35-
In Baltimore, where a new USES Apprenticeship Information
Conter and a Youth Opportunity Center are trying to help
Negro youth get into apprentice-type jobs, an employer organization discovered that many boys could not affort basic equipment required for an apprentice. (A carpenter needs $40-$50
worth of tools; fitters need more than $100 of equipment). The
businessmen set up a revolving Fund of several thousand dollars,
told the Center that when good candidates don't have money for
equipment to sign an authorization and send them to Sears or
Montgomery Ward, who have agreed to bill the Fund. The apprentice
pays back the loan at $1.00-$2.00 per week.
There was some criticism about the unnecessary length of apprenticeships in craft industries:
a carpenter's a pprentice, for example, must
work an 8-hour day, then go to school 2 nights a week for 4 years before
he can become a journeyman.
"With our modern educational know-how, why
can't we design a program to train skilled mechanics in 2 years or less?"
�- 36 -
Employers Take Leadership on Community Social Problems
"If we can actually sit down and talk with community
(minority) leaders we may have accomplished more than
millions of dollars that we can conceivably throw into
the community."
William E. Elston, American Airlines
"Remember that the poor have been footstools for officialdom all their lives. Someone is always doing something
for them, to them, or on them, and their great desire is
to be a part of the doing."
Chester Wright, Watts, Los Angeles
"We have recognized a totally new concept of how business
must participate in community life."
William Boucher III, Execut ive Director
Greater Baltimore Committee
)
This "new concept" of participation is being carried out by
individual companies, by joint employe r councils and by a growing
number of joint employer community organizations, in which business
leaders work with a broad spectrum of citizen groups, socia l and other
civic agencies.
Joint efforts usua lly started as job-finding pr ograms, inevitably
discovered that training and education were primary needs, and, therefore
have become involved with training, schools, and in some cases, with
housing, transportation, health and welfare and other job-related problems.
How to establish communication •• how to know who are "real" minority
l eadersa.how to get existing agencies and programs to work together
constructively, were frequent questions raised at the Conference.
working on cooperative programs had some answers :
Those
�- 37 -
-The best way to reach "real" minority leaders is to
contact the agencies who work in their neighborhoods;
social agencies; YWCA's, NAACP, Urban Leagues, neighborhood and civic organizations. Beware of thinking that
you can deal with any one "leader"; it may seem easier,
but it won't reach all the people you want to reach.
-Where cooperative programs have been established, existing
agencies and programs have been me·s hed into the overall
structure, without duplication, or stepping on anyone's
toes. Most existing programs are struggling with inadequate
resources; use them for that part of the program they can
do best, then develop additional program where it is needed.
-A coordinated, community job program eases the pressure on
employers, particularly smaller employers, who have been
beseiged by requests from different job programs. It can
provide the busy employer with a quick central source to
find where to go for what. Two community programs -- Newark
and Baltimore -- have published digests, summarizing
information, individual names and numbers to contact on all
job training programs in their areas: (Newark listed 38
such programs in its first publication).l/
Most community job programs 1 have raised local funds first, then
gone after government -- or in some cases foundation -- grants for
large-scale training programs.
This process has been long and sometimes
discouraging, but the "pioneers'" experience should help ease the way
for those who follow.
Some sources of technical help were suggested
at the conference.~/
Community Job Programs
Some cities, notably Indianapolis and Los Angeles, have started
job programs as a purely business effort on the theory that if business
bears full responsibility it will do the job better.
However, these
programs have relied heavily on cooperation with a network of social
and community groups.
See Par t II, page
•
See page
(Resources)
�- 38 -
More cities -- among them Newark, Rochester, Buffalo, St. Louis,
Baltimore, Huntsville, Alabama, Oakland, California -- have involved
a broad cross section of the community (minority groups, social and
government agencies, religious and civic leaders and others) from the
start in developing and operating the ir progr_a ms.
They believe that
the urgent need for communication between these separate groups can
only be met throu gh this kind of organization, which enables constant
communication of problems , as se ssment of resources and a ssignment of
specific re sponsibilities.
-In Indianapolis the business-sponsored project got substantial
job commitments from employers, recruited and tra ined hundreds
of volunteers to wo r k with unemploye d as individua l counsellors,
helping them t hr ou gh s cree ning, training , j ob pl a c eme nt and
f o l l ow- up on t he j ob. Major busin e ss f irms c ontribute d interviewers, experimentally hired people who didn't meet regular
st anda rds, and wound up k~eping many of them as permanent
employees . The Chamber o f Commerce plans to continue sponsoring
t he program •.!:/
-In Los Angel es a major effo r t involving thous ands of emp l oyers
was started by the Ch amber of Commerce fo llowing the Watts riots,
to work intensively on hiring , training, placement, counselling,
motivation and ot he r pr obl ems, in cooperation with gove rnment
and private job pro gr ams.1 /
- In Newark , N. J., a working federation of bu siness and indu stria l
l eaders , civil rights and other commun ity groups has already
placed more than 5000 Negroes in jobs and is moving out from
i n i t ial j ob pl ac eme nt into more complex problems of education ,
training and bas ic communit y needs .1/
-Rochester Jobs, Inc. is a recentl y forme d corporation with a
similar broad representation of business and civic groups
( including the militant Negro "FIGHT" o rganization which has
shaken up t he communi ty). It has secured an initial commitment of 15 0 0 jobs and initial funds from indust ry, and i s
using members of civil rights and neighborhood organizations
to recruit, counsel and help steer unemployed to training and
jobs. While s tart ing with jobs, the Rochester organization is
a lready committed to work on schools, hous ing and other community
problems •!Y
1/
11
11
11
See
See
See
See
Part
Part
Part
Part
II
II
II
II
page
page
page
page
0
�- 39 -
-Work Opportunities Unlimited (WOU) in St. Louis, has the
presidents of the city's largest corporations on its Board
of Directors with leaders of minority groups, unions and
other community agencies. It has 5,000 job orders in a
"Job Bank" and has placed about 1,800 people in one year
of operation. The gap between the two figures illustrates
the extensive programs of recruiting, screening, testing,
counseling, training and supportive services needed to place
most hard-core unemployed in jobs. WOU is using several
government programs (particularly those of the Bureau of
Apprenticeship Training, u. S. Department of Labor) and a
number of closely coordinated local agencies for this complex
job. I/
-The Opportunities Development Corporation in Buffalo is
another broad, representative community organization, brought
together by the city's Chamber of Commerce. It got an initial
commitment of 1,000 jobs and $40,000 seed money from local
industry, then developed a job training program which has
received $3,000,000 in Federal grants. Of the first 400
people placed in jobs, 110 came directly off relief rolls. 11
l
-In Oakland, California, business leaders helped form a tripartite organization of business, labor and minority representatives, which, in cooperation with the State Employment Service
and other government programs has placed 3,000 people in jobs
in the past 3 years.
-In Baltimore, the Voluntary Council on Equal Opportunity, a
bi-r a cial group composed of hea_d s of business and industry,
e duc ation and bther civic groups, finds that the "interlocking" organizational memberships of its Board provide
ne eded exchange of information, and project it into action
on many community needs. Employer members started with equal
employment and training programs in their own companies, then
started v isits of "teams of two" substantial executives to
·o ther major executive s to promote the program. The Council
h a s sponsored workshops for school counsellors and teachers,
motiv ational programs to prevent drop- outs, and is moving
t oward f urther cooperation with public schools, and vocational
t r a ining pr og rams . It a lso aids " self-help" programs in the
ghe t to , and pr ovides liaison for its members with a ll employme nt an d t raining programs in the area .1/
!/
2/
3/
See Part II page
See Part II page
See page
(Resou rce s)
�- 40 -
-In Huntsville, Alabama, in the heart of the South, an employer's
association has formed a working alliance with Negro and other
citizen groups, public and private agencies to train Negroes for
jobs, improve education at all levels, and support other basic
community programs which contribute to making disadvantaged people
employable. Top executives of major aerospace companies are
active members of this association, which carefully analyzes
and involves existing resources and programs, and continues
to support and encourage these before it develops new programs
for unmet needs.1/
Other Community Programs
Following are activities indicating new business involvement .i n jobrelated community problems including education, transportation, housing,
health, and welfare.
Schools
"Educators say 'we don't know what to do with business; they don't
cooperate. They don't talk to us.' You say to them 'When was the
last time you talked to business ? ; Well, we're waiting for them to
come to us.
.and business groups say 'Damned educators . . . they don't
understand. '"
William Flynn
National Association of Manufacturers
The growing conviction that business must take the initiative to
bridge a great communic a tion gap with the schools is reflected in NAM's
recent establishment of a special Education Committee.
Job training programs were called only "remedial," "treating the
symptom and not the disease", or as one Conference participant put it:
"It is impractic al to allow public schools of this country to produce
a product which you cannot use while you are paying for it."
The most frequent complaints voiced at the Conference:
-elementary and secondary school graduates do not have basic skills
for present and future job needs . (In many cities high school graduates
were termed "six th-grade readers . ")
-vocational education is still training "buggy whip makers" and
similar outmoded skills rather than for industry's increasingly
technical needs .
1/ See pages
Also Part II, Page
�- 41 -
-school counsellors and other school personnel are often totally
uninformed about actual job opportunities in neighborhood communities;
also, they are frequently preJudiced, and hold unfair "stereotypes"
about industry or factory type jobs.
Beyond these criticisms is recognized a fundamental mutual need
of schools and industry to find new ways to identify potential skills
and adapt them to changing situations.
Some specific recommendations made to business:
-Get on local school boards; become actively concerned with the
qua lity of eleme ntary a nd secondary e ducation in communities from
which you expe ct to draw employees.
-Investigate your local vocational education programs; find
ways to help develop curriculum, provide instruction and materials
to relate these programs to your needs.
-F i nd a systema t i c way of sha ring the busine ss world with educators,
r a ther tha n the once-a-year "Career Day" t ype of opera tion.
Traditionally, business has not bee n active on local school boards.
It wa s sugge ste d tha t " companie s don't' want e x ecutives taking strong
po l i tica l pos it i ons be c au se i t might inte rf e r e with public r e l a tions."
But this attitude is changing:
"I think we're going to s ee more businessmen on school boards; we
do have a ccounta bility in this area," said Ra nda ll Klemme , Vice
Preside nt of Mutua l of Oma ha, who ha s just be come the f irst
businessman on t he Omaha s chool boa rd.
Some examples of s ucce ssful coope r a tion of busine ss and e ducation:
-Several year s ago , the employment mana ge r of Western El e ctr ic
Company,._Kearny Works. looke d at the " gene r a l" h igh school curriculum.
He fourid on l y l year of science , 1 year of math, and Industria l Arts
courses featuring "Woodworking" a nd " Leathercraft. " His inves t igation
l ed t o a pr ogram call e d "Narrowing the Distance . "
�- 42 -
First, principals of six high schools were invited to tour
the plant and participate in extensive evaluation sessions,
exploring present and future job needs. The immediate payoff:
several new courses introduced the following fall in basic
technology, applied physics, applied chemistry, and a new
electronics lab.
Western Electric then set up an eight-week summer intern program
for school guidance counsellors, exposing them to industry at
work and needed educational preparation. The company paid them
the equivalent of their school salaries. Evaluations of the
counsellors (like those of school principals) at the end of the
session revealed immense changes in attitudes and concepts about
industry job opportunities. Said one:
"I'm stil 1 in a state of shock after my visits to the
Princeton Research Center and Clark Plant where I viewed
new technology and became aware of the tremendous implications that these developments have for the world of
work."
One "intern," the head of an Industrial Arts program at a nearby
high school, has started to develop a radically new curriculum
for his school, in which realistic vocational training is incorporated and related to the entire academic program. The school
expects to get hel p from industry through provision of expert
speake rs and a cooperative work-study program for s e nior students.1/
-The Jersey City Chamber of Commerce has conducted an in-service
training program for teachers (for which they get regular credit)
in which business and industry representatives describe varied
vocational requirements in area industries.
-Pacific Telephone and Telegraph Company's "Bridging the Gap" program
brings high school counsellors and t eac hers to the company for
workshops and up-to-date information of jobs, conducts plant tours
and workshops for high school students and provides exhibits, films,
talks, and discussion materials for schools. Illinois Bell Telephone
Company has a lso conducted summer programs for counsellors and teachers
at the company.
1/ A detailed report on these activities is given in the "Patterns of
Participation," published by Western Electr ic Company, Kearny, N. J.
�- 43 -
-Denver's Plans for Progress Council and the University of Colorado
sponsored a unique program in which high school counsellors spent
one week in the streets experiencing daily problems of minority kids
seeking jobs, then joined in seminars with industry personnel people
to jointly explore job needs and job counselling problems.~/
-In Huntsville, Alabama, AHAC (an association of major employers)
has become deeply involved in programs to improve schooling at all
levels. AHAC has worked with local and state vocational education
officials to develop new curriculum, and has provided instructors
and teaching materials. It helped develop and write a proposal
which won a $2.7 million Ford Foundation grant to fundamentally
improve pre-school, first, second, and third grade instruction in
Huntsville schools. AHAC members see this as a "long'-term investment."
"It's hard to get qualified people to come South. We are growing
our own" said Paul Klein, Manager of RCA Service Company.y
Some questioned whether it was proper for business to "invade" the
"ivory tower of educators" or whether it was possible to breach these
"impregnable walls" of education.
Businessmen who have been actively
involved dismissed these fears.
"The whole idea is so simple--it merely means getting together
people who should be talking to each other."
In Huntsville, · for example,
bus.iness relations with school boards and city and county education
officials have been excellent.
"Their reaction was 'oh boy, industry people are taking an interest
in education; they are going to tell us what they really need and are
going to help us"' said Clinton Crace, IBM Manager in Huntsville.
If educators try to defend outmoded systems, it was suggested that
a few corporation heads sponsoring a study of local education could
provide a most effective means of getting change.
1/ A report on this program is available in a reprint of "Maybe Tomorrow"
published by MONITOR, Mountain States Telephone Company, Denver , Colorado.
2/ See Part II>Page
�- 44 -
Transportation:
"The Jobs Are Leaving the People"
"The city of Philadelphia is losing 9,000 jobs a year.
.But
metropolitan region employers are crying for workers at . • • skilled and
semi-skilled levels . . . How does (the) man in the ghetto get to the
jobs? . . . Regional transportation systems are oriented towards getting
the suburban workers into the city to work and then back at home at
night . . . The ghetto dweller may have to spend two to four -hours . •
covering the same map distance his suburbanite brother covers in 45
minutes."
Alvin Echols, Executive Director ·
North City Congress, Philadelphia
This "Philadelphia story" was reported as a basic pattern throughout
the country.
For example, in Chicago job programs find it very hard to
get unemployed youth to travel three hours daily to jobs offered at $1 . 90
per hour.
Some urged that industry consider locating or re-locating operations
in the cities where workers live; other s said this is not feasible, because
industrial development would displace homes of poor minority families, or
be prohibited by zoning and other restrictions.
One participant said realistically:
"We move where it's economic."
Another added "and where there are good schools."
In New Orleans, reported Charles Keller, a county-w ide government
has started to revise zoning to provide industrial locations close to the
central city, coupled with improved local transit.
But most cities must
contend with multiple political jurisdictions at their borders, making it
much more difficult to plan comprehensive zoning and transportation .
�- 45 -
A few examples of employer efforts to improve transportation:
-In Los Angeles, North American Aviation and several other large
companies, individually or jointly, are providing bus transportation
to bring central city ghetto residents out to jobs.y
- In Long Island, New York, a company located in an industrial park
with 134 other firms which employ 10,000 people and suffer a chronic
shortage of unskilled and semi-skilled workers has helped start a
pilot program of bus service from areas of high unemployment, aided
by a federal grant. So far, employers, employees, and bus company
are very pleased with the results.2/
Better transportation systems were recognized as an urgent shortterm need.
However, some participants felt that the only long-range
solution is available housing for minority workers, and all workers, at
prices they can afford, near their jobs.
Housing
"Business is becoming very aware . . • that the question of jobs and
education and housing are not seP,arate problems. They are related."
Paul Stuber, Employment Practices
Reynolds Metals Company
"As we move to the suburbs and surrounding communities . . • housing
must be found • . • where . . • jobs are."
Edward W. Siebert, Civic Affairs
Manager, Caterpillar Tractor Co.
A number of large companies first became involved in housing
discrimination problems when badly needed professional Negroes turned
down job offers because they could not find suitable housing for their
families.
But a few companies and employer groups are now more actively
involved in the problem of housing for workers at all levels.
1/ See Part II page
See Part II page
2/
�- 46 -
-When North American Aviation moved a large operation to Palmdale,
California, "the only place Negroes lived was a little shantytown
way outside . . . we had to talk to local business people, bankers,
and real estate people. We said, "We're coming up here, we've got
this kind of a work force, what are you going to do about it? Well,
they began doing something about it. If whites can move to the
suburbs, Negroes ought to be able to move there," said Dwight Zook.
-The Caterpillar Tractor Company, largest single employer in the
state of Illinois, has a~tively supported local and state fair
housing legislation and has worked to involve other business and
industry l eade rs in programs for ope n housing and e limination of slum
housing . The compa ny a lso assures tha t housing lis ted by its transferred employees is available to all.1/
-When the Boeing Company in Seattle radically increased its employment
last year from 60,000 to 90,000, it recognized that housing
discrimination was a barrier to minority employment. The company
set up its own l isting serv i c e , permitting any house, apartment,
or lodg ing to be liste d wi t hout f ee providing i t wa s ope n without
discrimination. The company got about 2,000 listings. Major
expansion is finished, but the company is continuing the service.
-Reynolds Metals Company opened a new plant in a deep South area
whe r e no Negroe s lived . The compa ny first expl a ine d to the c i ty
gove rnme nt a nd r eal esta t e pe opl e tha t Ne gro worke rs would be coming
and asked their s upport a nd c oope r ation. "We are pl eas e d to say
that we got it," s a id Paul Stuber , Reynolds Employment Practices
Manager. Ne groes at various job levels were able to find suitable
housing. " We think the pre -planning tha t went into this paid
direct dividends. "
-AHAC i n Huntsv i ll e, Al a bama, has a l s o he lpe d Negr o employee s get
hou sing in wh ite areas . The Ass ociation has worked t o get more
low cost r e nta l housing and public housing , t o reha bilita t e substandar d
housing, and t o r e loc a te displ aced familie s. It organi ze d a committee
r e pre se n ting t he Home Builders As socia tion,Boa rd of Realtors ,
Mortgage Ba nkers, Hou s ing Au t ho r ity, a nd others concerned to get
action on t hese problems.I/
- I n Ch icago, as t he Conferenc e was meeting, thousands of bus ines smen
were pa rt ic i pa t ing in a Good Neighbo r Proje c t, ho l ding workshops i n
s uburban and metropol i t an Chicago areas to debunk myths and fe a r s
a bout fal l i ng prope rty values a nd e n trance of minority fami l ie s i nto
neighborhoods. The Pro j ect was sponsored by t he Leaders h ip Counc i l
for Metropolitan Open Communities headed by Joseph Cook, President
of the Illinois Be l l Telephone Company.
1/ See Part II page
See Part II page
2/
�- 47 -
But a participant commented that the involvement of business in
housing problems appears to be still fairly limited, and not recognized
as an essential, economic business factor.
When General Electric
Company took the case of a Negro engineer who had not been able to get
a house in the Philadelphia area to the State Human Relations Commission,
"we were told that this was the first time an employer in the State
of Pennsylvania had made any statement . . • in the interest of fair
housing," said George Lehman, of General Electric.
Fair housing is not the only problem for minority workers.
First
and foremost, the Negro needs housing he can afford.
Employers were urged to be more actively involved with basic landuse policies, zoning, and other political decisions in communities
)
surrounding their plants.
Alvin Echols, Executive Director of the North City Congress in
Philadelphia, challenged businessmen to look at the inefficient way their
tax dollar is used:
.when high-rise public housing is constructed in the ghetto
at a cost per unit of $21,000 or more for which you can build . .
at least two $10,000 - $12,000 houses in suburban areas in this
region."
Echols warned that if suburban areas are zoned so that it is
impossible to build low or middle-income housing, fair housing laws will
be meaningless .
Local political units pass restrictive measures making
it impossible to build lower cost housing.
Also, local mortgage requirements
demand that a man have a minimum income of $6,000 to afford the lowest
priced currently available housing .
"That is a little less than $3.00
�- 48 -
an hour.
Can housing be built for lower income workers? Is rental housing
available in your area?" he asked.
Health and Welfare
In communities where joint employer, or employer-community job programs
have been established, health
and welfare services have been involved
in their organizational set-up, and used to help provide counsel and
prepare disadvantaged for jobs.
In Illinois, the State Chamber of Commerce actively supported a
major increase in funds for the State Department of Public Aid,
which has helped reduce relief case loads by providing needed
counselling, training and supportive services for welfare clients
to become self-sufficient workers. Employers have cooperated with
the Department on job-training projects.y
Health problems remain a major obstacle to reducing unemployment.
William Robinson, Director of the Cook County Department of Public Aid,
reported that the majority of those now on "General Assistance" in Chicago
are there because of "emotional, physical, and psychological reasons . "
Therefore, the work-training programs which his department has developed
must have very intensive physical and mental health and other supportive
services , and this means more staff, and more funds.2/
Day Care for pre-school children of unemployed women who want to get
training and work is another major need.
Some employers recalled the
in-pl a nt day- care centers provided by industry during World War II , when
women we r e a v ital labor source , and suggested that similar efforts might
be c on side red again .
1/ See Par t II page
2/ See Par t II page
�- 49 -
-The KLH Company in Cambridge, Massachusetts, with a high percentage
of women employees, discovered that child-care problems were a major
cause of absenteeism. The company has just started an in-plant daycare program and is receiving funds for this pilot project from the
Children's Bureau of the U. S. Department of Health, Education, and
Welfare.1/
1/ See Part II page
�- so -
THE BUSINESS-COMMUNITY ORGANIZATION
Business is becoming increasingly involved in community social
problems.
Business-community job organizations are helping business meet
its job placement problems.
Such broad-based groups were seen as the most
effective means to assure effective employment for the hard-core as well
as effective community action on social problems obstructing such
employment.
-In Huntsville, Alabama, and Newark, New Jersey, the business-community
organizations originally formed to work on jobs are already deeply
involved with education, health and welfare, and housing.y
-In Rochester, New York, the new community job program recognizes
that its activities must be broadened in the future. A similar trend
was reported by the Voluntary Council on Equal Opportunity in
Baltimore. The Community Relations Program of the state-wide
Associated Industries of Massachusetts has established liaison with,
and helped coordinate, employment programs, and is now starting to
work in other areas.
Once communication among business, minority groups, schools, and
social agencies is established through a regular working channel, the
need for broader action becomes evident, and it is easier to start
cooperative programs.
Business-community organizations have started in different ways, but
all appear to have these common essentials:
-An initial core of dedicated, committed top business leadership,
men who will go out to sell the idea to others. In some communities
Plans for Progress firms supplied this core, in others the Chamber of
Commerce; sometimes leadership was provided by just one or two top
businessmen.
1/ See Par t II page
�- 51 -
-Effective communication and working involvement with genuine
representatives of the minority community, and the complex of
private, local, state, and Federal government agencies working
on community social problems.
-Full-time staff and budget. Although many groups started with
·volunteer services of business and community agencies, such as the
Welfare Federation, all have found it necessary to provide fulltime staff once the program gets going.
-Flexibility in organiz~tion and structure, enabling quick and
effective response to problems as they arise, rather than fixed
commitment to a single program.
�- 52 -
AN ACTION PROGRAM FOR BUSINESS AND INDUSTRY
Business and industry shoul d be doing much more , right now, on job
programs for unemployed and on related community problems, said Conference
participants.
Their s e nse of urge ncy was borne out by the summer's
uphe avals in cities across the nation.
What needs to be done, and
how to go about it, may differ from community to community, and
can best be developed by local leadership, participants s aid , but
certain basic a c tions were suggested :
-Review and activate an affirma tive equal employment program
throughout your own comp a ny or corporation. Some specific
recomme ndations and activities rep orted at the Conference:1/
Concentrate rec ruitment on t he 80% in the ghetto who can be
ma de employable and provide a real reservoir of talent and
ability,rather than the 10% who can find employment for itself ,or
the 10% representing chronic problems.
Develop new r ec ruitme nt systems. Let opportunit ies be known
t hrou gh the use of r ecruiters and organizations in the ghetto .
Develop ne w methods of sc r eening and testing prospective
employees, taking into consider at ion the life experiences
of the applican t.
Expand on-the-job training. Downgrade job development programs
which demand long periods of training prior to job opportunity.
Consider setting some percentage for "higher risk" employees .
Develop a c ouns e lling program for new emp l oyees. Initial
counselling is important to help avoid pitfalls of high interest
credit buying. Ghetto e mployees a lso face multiple proble ms
in their lives which affect job performance. Housing, hea l th,
l e gal, and other problems could be brought to an on-the-job
counselor who could refer e mployees to appropriate service
agencies in the community. The Counselor should monitor
the way in which these agencies respond. This monitoring
would have great impact on how agencies deal with the problems.
Business contributions to community agencies justify active
concern about the way they provide service.
1/ See Part II page
for reports of company programs .
�-53-
Help develop credit unions, cooperative purchasing clubs, etc.
which reduce employees ' need to rely upon exhorbitant credit
demands often prevalent in the ghetto.
Develop "worker sponsors " already on the job to help new workers
master demands of their new job environment. Identify such
worker sponsors and give them status.
Institute rapid, short step promotions where possible. Good
performance should be rewarded quickly rather than relying upon
big jumps spaced over longer periods.
Stimulate educational development of employers and reward it
where possible by bending rules and employment policies.
Provide new programs for rapid and cheap transportation to and
from work.
Support the work _of employees who attempt to improve their own
neighborhoods and communities in their free time. Where appropriate, make small grants to local institutions in which these
employees are involved.
Assist development of new business within the ghetto.
-Promote broader job efforts through trade associations, which can
concentrate on employme nt problems common to their particular industry.
Work throu gh associations of personnel administrators, industrial
relations managers. Communicate successful action through publications
of these groups and through company house organs.
-Urge Schools of Business Administration to add course s dealing
with the specific problems of qualifying and employing disadvantaged
minorities. (A participant stated that no major business school
has such a course today.)
-Be come actively involved with the quality and content of educ at ion-elementary, secondary, and vocational--in your community. Serve
on local school boards; establish a continuous relationship and
interchange with vocational and counselling programs .
-Use business influence and "muscle" to get housing--at convenient
locations and at prices they can pay--for minority employees. Recognize
that adequate housing is an essential factor to get and retain good
employees.
�- 54 -
-Help organize a joint business community program. Consider the
experience of communities which have found it most effective to
start with a broad-based organization including minority group
representatives, social and civic agencies, and others to plan
and work on job and job-related programs.!/
Specific groups will differ in each community, but a program might
start with:
Chamber of Commerce, Plans for Progress Council, or other employer
group.
Representatives of minority organizations, such as NAACP, Urban
League, CORE, and/or other local action groups, and neighborhood
organizations which have real contact with minority residents.
In some areas representatives of Puerto Rican, Mexican-American,
or other minority organizations should be included.
Social agencies with services and links to minority community:
YMCA, neighborhood houses, churches, etc.
Public agencies: local Employment Service, Board of Education,
Welfare agency, Youth Opportunity Center, representatives of
Mayor's office, local human relations commission, etc.
Council of Churches, Ministerial Alliance and civic groups
concerned with employment, training, and jobs.
Some basic guidelines for a community program:
-Find out what is being done; what needs to be done.
-Organize to coordina te and support existing programs.
-Develop new programs to fill major gap&
-Use experience of other communities as a guide; call on public and
private resources for advice and assistance;y utilize local resources.
For example:
A local university's urban affairs department can help
research basic community needs in housing, transportation,
health , etc. The university can also help develop
training programs .
1/ See Part II page
for reports on community job programs.
2/ See following page for some suggested resources.
�- 55 -
Manpower resources for job programs might include retired
executives, retired office managers and supervisors, and
retired foremen and craftsmen.
RESOURCES
The NATIONAL CITIZENS' COMMITTEE for COMMUNITY REIATIONS of the Community
Relations Service is a central resource for information about community job
programs and technical and financial assistance available from private and
government sources.
The Committee will provide:
- Information about and referral to successful community programs
- Consultation and technical assistance by task forces of private
employer and/or Federal experts
- Assistance in forming a business-civic organization
- Guidance in developing regional conferences on job and job-related
problems
- Informat ion a bout relevant Federal programs
Direct contact wi th proper Federal agency in Washington
For assistance 1 contact Mr. Charles A. Tuller , Program Director ,
Nat ional Citizens' Committee, Community Relations Service,
Washington, D. C. 20530 Tel: 202-386-6422
~
A number of other resources for technical assistance on job programs
and job-related social problems were identified at the Conference.
is a brief listing, by no means all-inclusive:
Following
Private national organizations
American Society for Training & Development
Carl B. Kludt, Director of Community Affairs Program
4404 South Bixel Street
Los Angeles, California 90054 Tel:213 - 482-4010
This professional society of industrial training experts has provided
staff and technical assistance to community job programs in the Los Angele s
area. It now offers to help other communities organize effective programs
and financial support from private and government sources.
1/ For information on other programs mentioned in text, refer to Participant
List a t the end of this section.
�-56-
The Board for Fundamental Education
Dr. Cleo W. Blackburn, Executive Director
146 E. Washington Street
Indianapolis, Indiana 46204
Tel:317-639-4281
A non-profit institution. Designs iR-plant basic education
programs geared to company needs.
Courses from illiteracy level to
high school equivalency.
Provides other services to help disadvantaged help themselves, such as pre-vocational counselling,
education in consumer economics.
Chamber of Commerce of the United States
Mr. Richard L. Breault, Manager
Community & Regional Resources Developnent Group
1615 H Street, N. W.
Washington, D. C. 20006 Tel:202-659-6170
Consultation on job programs, community development programs
and creating the business-civic organization.
Film:
"A Tale of Four Cities" (34 mins.)
the Lead on Community Problems
How Business is Taking
_MIND (Methods of Intellectual Development)
Mr. L. T. Knauff, Vice President
18 W. Putnam Avenue
Greenwi c h, Connecticut 06 8 30 Tel:203- 86 9-1350
Originally developed by the NAM as a pilot basic education
program to upgrade employees, this program is now a subsidiary of the
Corn Products Company. It will conduct training programs or provide
consultant service to help companies set up their own programs.
Plans for Progress
1800 G St. N. W.
Washington, D. c. 20006
Tel:202-961-5556
A small sta ff
loaned by member companies,assists in organizing
local merit employe/ councils and conducts local manpower development
seminars.
Literature on company "Plans" for equal employment opportunity .
�-57-
STEP (Solutions to Employment Problems)
William Flynn, Director
National Association of Manufacturers
277 Park Avenue
New York, New York 10017 Tel: 212-826-2100
A continuing series of writte n case studies deta i ling how companies
are meeting specific employment problems: training, re-training, upgrading, basic education, recruiting, etc.
Staff assistance to aid businessmen and business-community organizations
on job programs.
Film:
"The Bridge" (20 mins.)
the Dropout Problem
What Business Can Do to Help on
�-58-
Community Job Programs
Listed are some of the organizations referred to in the
report which should be able to provide details on structure,
organization and program. Some may be able to give further
assistance.
Associated Industries of Massachusetts
Walter Palmer,
Director of Human Relations
4005 Prudential Tower
Boston, Massachusetts 02199 Tel: 617-262-1180
Association of Huntsville Area Companies
L. C. McMillan, Director
2205 E. University Drive
Huntsville, Alabama 35805 Tel:205-539-8174
Business & Industrial Coordinating Council
William A. Mercer
Coordinator,
46 Branford Place
Newark, New Jersey 07102 Tel:201-622-3750
Employment Opportunities Committee
Indianapolis Chamber of Commerce
Carl R. Dortch
Exec. Vice-President
320 N. Meridian Street
Indianapolis, Indiana 46209 Tel:317-635-6423
JOBS NOW Project
C. Joseph Ehrenberg, Jr.
Executive Director
1020 S . Wabash Avenue
Chicago, Illinois 60605 Tel:312-922-3414
Los Angeles Merit Employment Committee
Merl R. Felker, Chairma n
Douglas Aircraft Company
3000 Ocean Park Blvd.
Santa Monica, California 90406 Tel:213-399-9311
Opportunities Development Corporation
Dr . Allan H. Bush, Executive Director
121 Ellicott Street
Buffalo, New York 14202 Tel:716- 8 54-4060
�-59-
Rochester Jobs Incorporated
Edward Croft, Director
Sibley Tower Building
25 North Street
Rochester, New York 14604 Tel: 716-232-2600
Tri-Faith Employment Project
Monroe Sullivan, Coordinator
116 South Michigan Avenue
Chicago, Illinois 60603 Tel: 312-263-2558
Voluntary Council on Equal Opportunity
Alfred P. Ramsey, Chairman
1901 Gas & Electric Building
Baltimore, Maryland 21203 Tel: 301-752-5260
Work Opportunities Unlimited
Mr. Fred Karches, Director
1700 South Second Street
St. Louis, Missouri 63104 Tel: 314-Ma. 1-0929
�-60-
FEDERAL AGENCIES FOR GUIDANCE AND FUNDING
I.
DEPARTMENT OF LABOR, Manpower Administration, Washington, D.C. 20210 ( AC 202)
A.
Bureau of Apprenticeship and Training - administers programs for
the development, expansion and improvement of company sponsored
on-the-job training programs to provide employees in the skilled
crafts and trades. Some training costs are reimbursable. Program
grants, technical assistance and printed materials are available
for employers.
CONTACTS: Mr. Hugh c. Murphy, Administrator •
961-2644
Mr. George W. Sabo, Deputy Administrator
961-2483
Mr. Robert C. McConnon, Director, Office
of On-the-Job Training • • • • • •
961-5244
B.
Office of Manpower Policy, Evaluation and Research - provides grants
for experimental and demonstration programs involving new app roaches
and innova tive techniques in such a r eas as recruiting, counseling,
training and placement, which are suitable for action programs; include basic education and occupational training.~/ Grants, technical
assistance and printed materials are available.
CONTACT: Mr. Judah Drob, Chief , Division of Program
Utilization, Office of Special Manpower
Programs • . • • . . . • • • • • • • • • • 961-2232
C.
Bureau of Work Programs - administers several employment-training
programs through which employers can hire "participants" or serve
as sub-contractors.
Neighborhood Youth Corps - provides part-time work and on-the-job
training for high school age youth fr om
low-income f amilies, through gr ant s to
local s ponsoring gro up s; a lso provides
for training costs to private employers
for OJT projects in which employers
pay wages.
Special Impact Program
provides a work-training experience for
persons 16 and over who are unemployed or
member s of low-income families, via
projects in and for poverty-stricken
urban communities and neighborhoods , through
grants to local sponsoring groups.
1/ OMPER also administers programs of indirect assistance to employers: a
pilot program of relocation assistance allowances, of grants and loans ,
to involuntarily unemployed workers who can obtain jobs from employers
in other localities; and a program of occup ational training and retra ining of persons in designated redevelopment areas, to qualify them for
existing job vacancies, among other po sition s. Grants, technical assista n ce and printed materials are availabl e.
�-61-
New Careers Program and
Operation Mainstream
are adult work-training employment
programs geared first toward positions
in public service and ultimately to
permanent positions in private industry
as well, through grants to local sponsoring groups.
(These programs are generally sponsored by public agencies, community action groups or private non-profit organizations.)
CONTACTS: Dr. James F. Tucker, Director, Office of
Operations • • • • • • • • • . • • • • 961-5545
Mr. Leonard Burchman, Director, Office
of Public Affairs • • . • • .
• 961-3784
(The best contacts for specific information on these programs are the
seven Regional Directors of the Bureau,
since grant decisions are made at this
level, not in the Washington office.)
D.
II.
Bureau of Employment Security - provides several information and technical assistance services to private employers through the United States
Employment Service, operating through the state employment agencies:
Community Employment Programs, Industrial Services, Farm Labor Services,
Job Market Information, Smaller Community Programs, and Youth Opportunity Ce nters. Employers s hould contact the individua l state employment agencies which operate these programs or
CONTACT: Miss Ruth Barth, Acting Director,
Office of Information . . • • • •
961-2822
DEPARTMENT OF HEALTH, EDUCATION AND WELFARE, Washingt on , D.C. 20201 ( AC 202)
A.
Off i ce of Educa tion Division of Manpower Development and Training - in conjunction
with the Manpower Administra tion , Depa rtment of Labor , administers gr ant s, contra cts , and technica l ass istance for bas ic educ a tion progr ams to a c c ompany on-the- job and cl ass room tra ining
proje ct s, to sta t e agen c i e s and t o privat e indus try.
CONTACT : Dr. Howa rd A. Matthews , Dire ctor , Div i s ion
of Manpower Development and Tra ining . • •
963-7132
B.
Socia l Re ha bilitation Serv i ce Bureau of Family Ser vices - administer s the Work Exper i e n ce Program
thr ough whi ch ac tua l and potentia l we l fa r e r ecip ient s are provided
with a comp rehensive ran ge of work ex peri e nce and trainin g, and
�-62social and educational supportive services; to hire trainees from
this program, employers should contact their local or state welfare
agency through which grants are administered, or for basic information.
CONTACT: Mr. Andrew Truelson, Chief, Office of Special
Service, Assistance Payment Division.
963-3157
C.
Welfare Administration Children's Bureau - administers several grant programs - appropriate
for child day-care centers, to local and state welfare agencies.
Employers can use these programs for the care of children of employees who cannot otherwise obtain care for them during working
hours. (The local welfare agencies can also obtain funds from
other sources, e.g., Headstart, appropriate for day-care centers.)
Employers should request assistance directly from the local welfare
agency. Program information is available from the HEW Regional
Offices or
CONTACT: Miss Gertrude Hoffman, Specialist on
963-5045
Day-Care Services • • • • •
III.
OFFICE OF ECONOMIC OPPORTUNITY, Washington, D.C. 20506
(AC 202)
A.
Cormnunity Action Programs - administers a grant program for demonstrations and unique experimental projects, appropriate for private
industry participation, in the areas of manpower and education,
among others. Employers should submit specific proposals and
programs. (Regular manpower programs in OEO are administered
through the Department of Labor.)
CONTACT: Mr. Gerson Green, Director, Research
and Demonstrations Division. • • • •
382-2737
B.
Job Corps - provides a program of basic education, skill training
and work experience for men and women ages 16 through 21. Employers
can participa te in the program by hiring "graduates" of the Corps,
or by contracting to establish and opera te a Corps Center. For
hiring, employers with a single plant operation should contact
their Regional OEO Office; those with larger operations .
CONTACT: Mr. David Oestreich, Chief, Placement
Division • • • • • • • • • • • • •
382-5312
For submitting proposals for operating Centers, employers
should
CONTACT: Mr. John Donohue, Chief of Procurement,
Contracts Divis ion • • • •
382-3751
�-63IV.DEPARTMENT OF HOUSING AND URBAN DEVELOPMENT, Washington, D.C. 20410
(AC 202)
Metropolitan Development
Urban Transportation Administration - administers a demonstration grant
program and a capital grant program for studies and projects on the
transportation needs for employment. Employers can participate
in these projects by submitting proposals and requests to their
local public transportation authorities which are the .official grant
recipients in the programs.
CONTACTS: Mr. Robert H. McManus, Director, Division
of Project Development (for capital grants) .• 382-5374
Miss Hartley Campbell, Division of Demonstrations Programs & Studies (for demonstration grants) •..•.•.....•...•.......••.•• 382-3783
Model Cities Programs - low rent public housing Urban Renewal
Projects.
CONTACT: Mr. Elliot Roberts, Information Officer • • • •.. 393-4160
V. DEPARTMENT OF COMMERCE, Washington, D.C. 20230 (AC 202)
Economic Development Administration - administers two programs in
employers can participate : business loans are available to firms
for building or expanding in designated EDA areas; and technical
assistance grants are available on a limited basis to employers
for funding certain employment projects. Loans and grants are
awarded by the EDA Regional Offices; for general information .
CONTACT: Mr. Morton Baill, Chief, Industrial Projects
Division, Technical Assistance Office • ....... 967-2 8 12
�
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