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Box 9, Folder 2, Document 55
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PROGRESS REPORT
TO THE
ATLANTA URBAN CORPS, INC,, BOARD OF TRUSTEES
The Atlanta U.ban Corps completed its first quarter of operation on August
22, climaxing a ten week intern program utilizing students in urban problems .
The program involved 225 students from 43 different colleges. Approximately
80% of these students were from Atlanta area colleges. Interns were placed
in 35 public interest non-profit agencies and 15 departments of the Gity of
Atlanta. Approximately 45% of the students were black and 55% white. A
“ypical example of a city department internship was a team of 15 students
doing research and data analysis in the City sanitation department. Others
served on the Mayor's staff doing research and another example was students
compiling financial information for possible tax legislation in the City of
Atlanta. The private public-interest agencies tended to utilize students
more in the social and humanistic disciplines guch as counseling or working
in recreation programs involving young people and actual communities, A
typical example is an intern serving in the Emmaus House teaching children
trom deprived neighborhoods basic reading skills and education courses during
the summer. Another example involved ten students in a mentally retarded
childrea'’s camp enonsored by the Decatur-Dekalb YMCA,
This summer our operating budgets was approximately $200,000 broken down
as follows.
$52,900 Anprapeesthent from City of Atlanta
$20,659 Southern Regional Education Board
$13,000 Private Business Contributors
$75,000 College Work-Study Program (Grants from the Office
of Education through Individual Colleges)
$20,000 Private Public -interest Agencies
$20,000 Volunteers in Service to America
Approximately half, or 114 students, were spoasored under the College Work-
Study program, which is a federally sponsored program of the Office of Education
whereby the college pays 80% of the intern's stipend, with the agency involved
supplying the remaining 20%. The College Work=-Study program is available to
every public college and grants vary according to requests and needs of the
colleges involved. The student financial aid officer is in charge of these funds
of each campus and can allocate them as he desires to “off-campus non-profit
agencies" such as the Atlanta Urban Corps. This summer we were fortunate in
persuading financial aid officers to contribute heavily to the Atlanta Urban
Corps, and evidently this figure will rise apprecialby next year. Interns
salaries were $72.000 (1.80/hr) weekly for freshman and sophomores, $88.00
($2.20/hr) weekly for juniors and seniors and $100.00 ($2.50/hr) for graduate
students.
We received 880 student applications for the summer program giving a very
good indication that students are indeed very interested in participating in
summer internships and college-community involvement programs. We received
300 requests from city departments and public interest-agencies requesting interns
to serve as assistants during the summer. Unfortunately these position-requests
usually can't be paid for at full cost by the agency, hence, the need for private
donations for non-work-study interns. We have already received over 75 requests
for interns to serve during the academic program,
This summer the Urban Corps was administered by a student staff of 15 peo=
ple whose abilities and dedication are directly attributable to the program's
success. We started extremely late in the academic year and ended up with a
very substantial program involving numerous colleges and students. We were
fortunate that much ground work had been done in Atlanta and many of the organi-
zations whose resources were needed had been involved early in the planning and
understood the aspects of the program well. This was due to hard work done by
many students in Atlanta. from various colleges. A special note of thanks should
go to Dave Whelan, Mark Dash and Rich Speer, whose early work in contacting the
Board of Trustees and especially fund raising later proved beneficial to the Urban
Corps. We found that these students, through contacting various colleges, were -
primarily responsible for the high number of applications we received with little.
or no publicity.
This summer the Urban Corps has administratively operated under the City of
Atlanta and the Southern Regional Education Board, primarily for contractural
agreements purposes with the agencies and for legal contracts with the colleges.
A very large in determining administrative responsibility was in the
question of who served as the paymaster. The City was most cooperative this sum-
mer in absorbing a deficit spending situation whereby it absorbed the cost of
the student's stipend until colleges could reimburse them. Also, many agencies
were tardy in paying their share of the student's stipend. In some cases this
meant a debt of $60,000 which was carried over a three or four week period. This
is the primary problem in utilizing a group such as the Board of Trustees in hand=
ling administrative difficulties that arise in the Urban Corps. If the Board of
Trustees had a large bank account and could absorb tremendous deficits within a
short period of time, no difficulty would arise. Otherwise, the City must be re-
tained in some paymaster role or legal role for contractural authority, (In my
opinion, the Urban Corps as we know it today, should operate under its present
system through the summer of 1970 with the Board of Trustees taking ultimate con-
trol in September of 1970.) The financial and payroll problems incurred this
summer point to the need for extensive planning and lead time before the Trustees
+ Bi ca
take over the Urban Corps operation.
A special note of thanks should go to Dan Sweat, who helped us with space,
payroll problems, contractural problems, and staff expenses during the initial
summer program. Unfortunately, those elected officials at City Hall do not com-
pletely agree with Mr. Sweat. The City Finance Committee naturally closely
scruntinizes our monetary requests. From a purely financial point of view these
members of the Board of Aldermen do. not agree that we should have educational
counseling as they put no emphasis on the educational aspects of the program.
These financial people interpret the Urban Corps as a cheap summer employment pro-
gram for summer months only. This again is an indication that more input is needed
from the colleges and those “education’ spectrums of the community, Naturally the
more money that comes in from other sources the more autonomy we may have in making
expenditures.
From the first ideas of the Urban Corps to its actual implementations, there
has been a tremendous emphasis on student input. Presently, we have a high degree
of student participation in that ail of our staff members are students. In my
opinion, student repréaéntation’ should be included on the Board of Trustees, but
these students should come from the ranks of those who have served as Urban Corps
interns, rather than having student governments elect any interested student to
serve in that role, From operational experiences this summer, we have found that
the program is best administered by one individual reporting to a small group of
people rather than the original proposal of having two people head the organization,
one in the role of a student director and one in the role of the staff director.
My suggestion for continuing the student input is to make sure that the Director
is a young person, preferably a graduate student himself and that the Board of
Trustees function more closely to the Urban Corps.
Presently, the Atlanta Urban Corps, Iinc., exists only on paper. The Internal
Revenue Service has granted the Atlanta Urban Corps, Inc., a tax exemption
status. The next step for the Board of Trustees is to make the by-laws more
specific. Also, the membership of the Board of Trustees should be revised to
make sure that all sectors of the community are equally involved and that no
sector is overweighed, specifically in reference to the resources needed to
operate the Urban Corps. .
I am leaving-to attend Graduate School at Harvard University, but have
found a replacement who is very interested in the Urban Corps and knows a
‘lot about it from his experience this summer. This student was recruited
end: inéersiawed by myself, Bill Ramsay, Dan Sweat and others intimately in-
volved in the Urban Corps.
Mr. Ken Millwood is a graduate of’ the University of Georgia School of
Journalism and is-presently pursuing -a-Master's Degree in Georgia State's
” Night School. Ken was Urban Corps Public Relations Director this summer and
did an excellent job as you probably ‘know if -you saw news clippings about the
Urban Corps this summer. The present plan of the Urban Corps is to administ-
ratively report to the City and the Southern Regional Education Board as we
‘have done in the past.
There are many possibilities on the hortzon for future operations as far
~ae finance and other resources are concerned,. The Urban Observatory, a college
affiliated research group of the Mayor's Office, has asked for a grant of
$30,000 to be given to the Urban Corps for operational expenses. This grant
has not yet been approved by HEW. The-United. States Commissioner of Education,
Mr. James E, Allen, Jr., had indicated véry strong support from HEW to the Urban
Corps and other internship programs. _Mr. Allen made a statement recently to
Urban Corps interng saying that roughly half-of the college work-study allocat-
‘dons should be spent in such involvement programs between the college and the
and the community. The Office of Education is presently implementing this
guideline which means that next year the Urban Corps in Atlanta will absorb
approximately $700,000 of College Work-Study funding. We anticipate roughly
1,000 summer interns next year and 100 interns during the academic year. We
are also working closely with colleges in trying to persuade them to grant
academic credit with guidelines to insure that educational experieace is in-
deed received. We are running into quite a bit of difficulty in the area of
academic credit and welcome help from the members of the Board of Trustees.
A very unique part of the Atlanta Urban Corps is its Field and Education
Staff. This summer this group of students staffers has structured seminars
and visited with interns discussing urban problems as well as personal difficul~
ties that may arise on the job. The Field and Education Staff should be an
integral part of the Urban Corps from now on, since it has proved so beneficial
for the summer operation. Typical examples of seminars have ranged from speakers
such as Joe Boone, Civil Rights L@ader in Atlanta; to Members of the Mayor's
Staff working on Urban problems, We have tried to pick -people from all spectrums
of the urban scene to give interns a good idea of what our problems are in Atlanta
and what is being done and what should be done about them.
As an integral part of the internship program this summer, each student
submitted a final report detailing his experiences and recommendations about
the Urban Corps and about his agency of city department. These reports have
been used by agencies and city government in obtaining grants and reviewing
their administrative and program operation. Other reports have given the Board
of Aldermen plans for urban renewal in Plunkettown and many private agencies
have used these reports in raising funds and improving their operation. A cata-
logue of these reports is available for those persons interested and each report
is on file in the Urban Corps office,
The Atlanta Urban Corps has attained national prestige this first
year due to the many people in Atlanta who were interested in its success.
We have received unanticipated amounts of publicity from the local press
to the nationally syndicated newspapers. We are the only program of our
type which has been able to obtain support from the business community, ed-
ucational community, the government, and public service community. The greatest
factor for success now rests with the educational and governmental sector. I
urge those members of the business group on our Board of Trustees and other in-
fluential members to try to persuade the new Mayor to support the Urban Corps as”
much as Mayor Allen has. Also, we are in desperate need of funds as usual. Mem-
bers of the business coummunity should help our student staff members in raising
these funds.
The Urban Corps has proven that students can indeed contribute to solving
‘the urban problems of Atlanta. We hope this is only the beginning and that fur-
ther and more sophisticated cooperatidn can become evident between the college
and its community in the near future. Mr, Ken Millwood, the new Director, will
be in touch with you a later date to outline specific plans and progress reports
of the Urban Corps. We welcome any of you to visit our office at any time. We
are located upstairs in the Old City Auditorium:
The Fall Program of the Atlanta Urban Corps is now in operation. Fifty -
five (55) to sixty-five (65) interns will be placed this fall. As in the past,
the sponsorship of Atlanta Urban Corps is shared by SREB and the City of Atlanta.
The internships are to begin September 29, 1969, and run for twelve (12) weeks
until December 19, 1969.
SomVi thane
Sam Williams
Director
Atlanta Urban Corps
TO THE
ATLANTA URBAN CORPS, INC,, BOARD OF TRUSTEES
The Atlanta U.ban Corps completed its first quarter of operation on August
22, climaxing a ten week intern program utilizing students in urban problems .
The program involved 225 students from 43 different colleges. Approximately
80% of these students were from Atlanta area colleges. Interns were placed
in 35 public interest non-profit agencies and 15 departments of the Gity of
Atlanta. Approximately 45% of the students were black and 55% white. A
“ypical example of a city department internship was a team of 15 students
doing research and data analysis in the City sanitation department. Others
served on the Mayor's staff doing research and another example was students
compiling financial information for possible tax legislation in the City of
Atlanta. The private public-interest agencies tended to utilize students
more in the social and humanistic disciplines guch as counseling or working
in recreation programs involving young people and actual communities, A
typical example is an intern serving in the Emmaus House teaching children
trom deprived neighborhoods basic reading skills and education courses during
the summer. Another example involved ten students in a mentally retarded
childrea'’s camp enonsored by the Decatur-Dekalb YMCA,
This summer our operating budgets was approximately $200,000 broken down
as follows.
$52,900 Anprapeesthent from City of Atlanta
$20,659 Southern Regional Education Board
$13,000 Private Business Contributors
$75,000 College Work-Study Program (Grants from the Office
of Education through Individual Colleges)
$20,000 Private Public -interest Agencies
$20,000 Volunteers in Service to America
Approximately half, or 114 students, were spoasored under the College Work-
Study program, which is a federally sponsored program of the Office of Education
whereby the college pays 80% of the intern's stipend, with the agency involved
supplying the remaining 20%. The College Work=-Study program is available to
every public college and grants vary according to requests and needs of the
colleges involved. The student financial aid officer is in charge of these funds
of each campus and can allocate them as he desires to “off-campus non-profit
agencies" such as the Atlanta Urban Corps. This summer we were fortunate in
persuading financial aid officers to contribute heavily to the Atlanta Urban
Corps, and evidently this figure will rise apprecialby next year. Interns
salaries were $72.000 (1.80/hr) weekly for freshman and sophomores, $88.00
($2.20/hr) weekly for juniors and seniors and $100.00 ($2.50/hr) for graduate
students.
We received 880 student applications for the summer program giving a very
good indication that students are indeed very interested in participating in
summer internships and college-community involvement programs. We received
300 requests from city departments and public interest-agencies requesting interns
to serve as assistants during the summer. Unfortunately these position-requests
usually can't be paid for at full cost by the agency, hence, the need for private
donations for non-work-study interns. We have already received over 75 requests
for interns to serve during the academic program,
This summer the Urban Corps was administered by a student staff of 15 peo=
ple whose abilities and dedication are directly attributable to the program's
success. We started extremely late in the academic year and ended up with a
very substantial program involving numerous colleges and students. We were
fortunate that much ground work had been done in Atlanta and many of the organi-
zations whose resources were needed had been involved early in the planning and
understood the aspects of the program well. This was due to hard work done by
many students in Atlanta. from various colleges. A special note of thanks should
go to Dave Whelan, Mark Dash and Rich Speer, whose early work in contacting the
Board of Trustees and especially fund raising later proved beneficial to the Urban
Corps. We found that these students, through contacting various colleges, were -
primarily responsible for the high number of applications we received with little.
or no publicity.
This summer the Urban Corps has administratively operated under the City of
Atlanta and the Southern Regional Education Board, primarily for contractural
agreements purposes with the agencies and for legal contracts with the colleges.
A very large in determining administrative responsibility was in the
question of who served as the paymaster. The City was most cooperative this sum-
mer in absorbing a deficit spending situation whereby it absorbed the cost of
the student's stipend until colleges could reimburse them. Also, many agencies
were tardy in paying their share of the student's stipend. In some cases this
meant a debt of $60,000 which was carried over a three or four week period. This
is the primary problem in utilizing a group such as the Board of Trustees in hand=
ling administrative difficulties that arise in the Urban Corps. If the Board of
Trustees had a large bank account and could absorb tremendous deficits within a
short period of time, no difficulty would arise. Otherwise, the City must be re-
tained in some paymaster role or legal role for contractural authority, (In my
opinion, the Urban Corps as we know it today, should operate under its present
system through the summer of 1970 with the Board of Trustees taking ultimate con-
trol in September of 1970.) The financial and payroll problems incurred this
summer point to the need for extensive planning and lead time before the Trustees
+ Bi ca
take over the Urban Corps operation.
A special note of thanks should go to Dan Sweat, who helped us with space,
payroll problems, contractural problems, and staff expenses during the initial
summer program. Unfortunately, those elected officials at City Hall do not com-
pletely agree with Mr. Sweat. The City Finance Committee naturally closely
scruntinizes our monetary requests. From a purely financial point of view these
members of the Board of Aldermen do. not agree that we should have educational
counseling as they put no emphasis on the educational aspects of the program.
These financial people interpret the Urban Corps as a cheap summer employment pro-
gram for summer months only. This again is an indication that more input is needed
from the colleges and those “education’ spectrums of the community, Naturally the
more money that comes in from other sources the more autonomy we may have in making
expenditures.
From the first ideas of the Urban Corps to its actual implementations, there
has been a tremendous emphasis on student input. Presently, we have a high degree
of student participation in that ail of our staff members are students. In my
opinion, student repréaéntation’ should be included on the Board of Trustees, but
these students should come from the ranks of those who have served as Urban Corps
interns, rather than having student governments elect any interested student to
serve in that role, From operational experiences this summer, we have found that
the program is best administered by one individual reporting to a small group of
people rather than the original proposal of having two people head the organization,
one in the role of a student director and one in the role of the staff director.
My suggestion for continuing the student input is to make sure that the Director
is a young person, preferably a graduate student himself and that the Board of
Trustees function more closely to the Urban Corps.
Presently, the Atlanta Urban Corps, Iinc., exists only on paper. The Internal
Revenue Service has granted the Atlanta Urban Corps, Inc., a tax exemption
status. The next step for the Board of Trustees is to make the by-laws more
specific. Also, the membership of the Board of Trustees should be revised to
make sure that all sectors of the community are equally involved and that no
sector is overweighed, specifically in reference to the resources needed to
operate the Urban Corps. .
I am leaving-to attend Graduate School at Harvard University, but have
found a replacement who is very interested in the Urban Corps and knows a
‘lot about it from his experience this summer. This student was recruited
end: inéersiawed by myself, Bill Ramsay, Dan Sweat and others intimately in-
volved in the Urban Corps.
Mr. Ken Millwood is a graduate of’ the University of Georgia School of
Journalism and is-presently pursuing -a-Master's Degree in Georgia State's
” Night School. Ken was Urban Corps Public Relations Director this summer and
did an excellent job as you probably ‘know if -you saw news clippings about the
Urban Corps this summer. The present plan of the Urban Corps is to administ-
ratively report to the City and the Southern Regional Education Board as we
‘have done in the past.
There are many possibilities on the hortzon for future operations as far
~ae finance and other resources are concerned,. The Urban Observatory, a college
affiliated research group of the Mayor's Office, has asked for a grant of
$30,000 to be given to the Urban Corps for operational expenses. This grant
has not yet been approved by HEW. The-United. States Commissioner of Education,
Mr. James E, Allen, Jr., had indicated véry strong support from HEW to the Urban
Corps and other internship programs. _Mr. Allen made a statement recently to
Urban Corps interng saying that roughly half-of the college work-study allocat-
‘dons should be spent in such involvement programs between the college and the
and the community. The Office of Education is presently implementing this
guideline which means that next year the Urban Corps in Atlanta will absorb
approximately $700,000 of College Work-Study funding. We anticipate roughly
1,000 summer interns next year and 100 interns during the academic year. We
are also working closely with colleges in trying to persuade them to grant
academic credit with guidelines to insure that educational experieace is in-
deed received. We are running into quite a bit of difficulty in the area of
academic credit and welcome help from the members of the Board of Trustees.
A very unique part of the Atlanta Urban Corps is its Field and Education
Staff. This summer this group of students staffers has structured seminars
and visited with interns discussing urban problems as well as personal difficul~
ties that may arise on the job. The Field and Education Staff should be an
integral part of the Urban Corps from now on, since it has proved so beneficial
for the summer operation. Typical examples of seminars have ranged from speakers
such as Joe Boone, Civil Rights L@ader in Atlanta; to Members of the Mayor's
Staff working on Urban problems, We have tried to pick -people from all spectrums
of the urban scene to give interns a good idea of what our problems are in Atlanta
and what is being done and what should be done about them.
As an integral part of the internship program this summer, each student
submitted a final report detailing his experiences and recommendations about
the Urban Corps and about his agency of city department. These reports have
been used by agencies and city government in obtaining grants and reviewing
their administrative and program operation. Other reports have given the Board
of Aldermen plans for urban renewal in Plunkettown and many private agencies
have used these reports in raising funds and improving their operation. A cata-
logue of these reports is available for those persons interested and each report
is on file in the Urban Corps office,
The Atlanta Urban Corps has attained national prestige this first
year due to the many people in Atlanta who were interested in its success.
We have received unanticipated amounts of publicity from the local press
to the nationally syndicated newspapers. We are the only program of our
type which has been able to obtain support from the business community, ed-
ucational community, the government, and public service community. The greatest
factor for success now rests with the educational and governmental sector. I
urge those members of the business group on our Board of Trustees and other in-
fluential members to try to persuade the new Mayor to support the Urban Corps as”
much as Mayor Allen has. Also, we are in desperate need of funds as usual. Mem-
bers of the business coummunity should help our student staff members in raising
these funds.
The Urban Corps has proven that students can indeed contribute to solving
‘the urban problems of Atlanta. We hope this is only the beginning and that fur-
ther and more sophisticated cooperatidn can become evident between the college
and its community in the near future. Mr, Ken Millwood, the new Director, will
be in touch with you a later date to outline specific plans and progress reports
of the Urban Corps. We welcome any of you to visit our office at any time. We
are located upstairs in the Old City Auditorium:
The Fall Program of the Atlanta Urban Corps is now in operation. Fifty -
five (55) to sixty-five (65) interns will be placed this fall. As in the past,
the sponsorship of Atlanta Urban Corps is shared by SREB and the City of Atlanta.
The internships are to begin September 29, 1969, and run for twelve (12) weeks
until December 19, 1969.
SomVi thane
Sam Williams
Director
Atlanta Urban Corps
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