Problems

SUPPLEMENTAL INFORMATION ON COMMUNITY SERVICE AND CONTINUING EDUCATION PROGRAMS-TITLE I, HIGHER EDUCATION ACT OF 1965

PROGRAM EMPHASIS

It is estimated that 85 percent of all programs funded in 1966 are directed toward the solution of urban and suburban problems and that some 35 percent of these focus on geographic areas that include urban, suburban, and rural communities. Such programs indicate a comprehensive approach to the solution of regional and statewide community problems. It is anticipated that the above percentages, 85 percent urban and suburban and 15 percent rural, will obtain in programs funded for fiscal years 1967 and 1968.

The Higher Education Act of 1965 identifies nine primary problem areas. The majority of the programs funded in fiscal year 1966 are clearly focused on specific aspects of these community problems. The following lists are illustrative of the types of people participating in these programs and the kinds of activities in which they are engaged. Participants in "Recreation" programs include

1. Volunteer citizens who are being trained to become assistant recreational instructors. These volunteers were identified by such organizations as the YMCA, boys' club, Chamber of Commerce, and mayor's office, the school board, and the municipal recreation association.

2. Subprofessional workers who are engaged in recreation therapy for elderly patients in nursing homes.

3. Interested citizens who are being instructed to provide leadership and skills necessary to work with groups such as Boy Scouts, Girl Scouts, and Campfire Girls.

4. Community center recreation leaders who are improving their skills, proficiency, organizational and administrative abilities.

5. Civic and community leaders who are being educated to be more sensitive to the social value, content, and structure of community recreation programs.

6. Lay citizens on recreation boards who are learning about the purposes, scope, and operational principles of municipal recreation.

7. Youth leaders who are improving their understanding of the problems of young persons.

Participants in "Housing" programs include—

1. Civic officials and groups, who are studying the various means of upgrading the vast amount of substandard housing, as well as the possibility of a method of developing new housing to alleviate the shortage that exists.

2. Groups and individuals requesting information about legal rights in housing, housing improvement, building code interpretation, and other questions relating to housing. A housing specialist and his staff are available for consultation, conference, and course instruction.

3. Selected enforcement officers of the local department of health, welfare, urban renewal, and housing who are being trained

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in sociological and psychological approaches to housing controls. Participants in "Poverty" programs include:

1. Nonprofessional agency personnel from groups such as the Economic Opportunity Commission, the United Community Services, the United Fund, and the Junior League, who are engaged in studying the poverty areas in which they will be working. 2. Social welfare workers who are being trained in the care of the family in the home in order to better advise their clients.

3. Indigenous welfare service center personnel, particularly individuals from the American Indian Center, who are being trained to analyze and participate in solutions to community economic problems affecting their ethnic or socioeconomic group.

4. The State department of public welfare, which is developing educational tools and techniques to be used by social welfare workers in stabilizing client family situations, thereby creating a stronger base for combating overall problems of poverty.

5. Organized civic, religious, and welfare agencies in selected counties who are developing and training potential leaders in isolated and disorganized social groups such as the illiterate, the poverty stricken, and the unemployed.

6. Cuban refugee adults who are engaged in vocational, language, and cultural training programs to develop their economic capabilities and aid in their assimilation into a new climate. Participants in the "Government" programs include:

1. Newly elected and appointed local officials who are being oriented to the skills necessary to their new occupations.

2. Local university faculty who are educating representatives of county governmental agencies in municipal government policymaking.

3. Governmental personnel at all levels who are engaging in a series of educational conferences on a statewide basis aimed at the improvement of local government services.

4. Municipal commissioners who are engaging in a series of conferences and demonstrations in relation to water pollution control.

5. Policemen, defense and prosecuting attorneys, members of courts, and representatives of citizens groups, who are studying and evaluating laws of search and seizure and of arrest, in order to identify and resolve problems of police-community understanding. Municipal police officials, who are developing criteria for use in the selection and training of future policemen. School board members who are being trained in the basic responsibilities and functions of their positions.

Participants in the "Employment" programs include:

1. Prison emigrants who are being counseled by a community correctional center in regard to outside employment and training. 2. Displaced workers who are being retrained and directed to available employment opportunities by school and employment security commission members.

3. Community leaders in selected communities who are being assisted in creating a labor supply capable of participation in a

modern industrial society. Workshops on employment trends and occupational counseling are featured."

4. Women who are being educated in the needs of the labor market in order to secure employment beneficial both to the community and to the individual.

5. Recruiters and counselors of individuals from an economically depressed core region of a large city, who are being trained in the employment needs and opportunities available to those individuals.

6. Institutions of higher education, the State board of higher education, and the State department of instruction of a Midwestern State, who are inventorying and identifying vocational and social problems of youth in the State.

Participants in "Youth Opportunity" programs include:

1. Social welfare workers who are attending conferences designed to give them a better understanding of children's needs and problems.

2. Volunteers who are being trained to work with youth-service agencies. The program will develop their skills in understanding the individual youth of poverty, in the productive use of social group work methods, and in dealing with conflict.

3. Experts in education technology, teachers, supervisors, planners, and administrators who are being brought together to stimulate pilot projects in the school system which will appraise the capacity of the latest educational technology to accelerate the learning process among children from deprived homes and backgrounds.

4. Bureau of Rehabilitation which is preparing a series of 10 "crisis films" to be used nationwide in training professional and subprofessional workers for guiding parents and adolescents in the relationships in the world-of-value behavior in a technological age.

Participants in "Transportation" programs include:

1. Technicians responsible for installing and operating community transportation facilities who are being trained in new technical developments in the field.

2. The staff of a university transportation and research institute who are consulting with rapid transit personnel and city officials concerning implementation of a flexible, lightweight transit system in urban areas.

3. Local school systems and civic authorities, who are establishing drivers' education programs in high schools. Participants in "Health" programs include:

1. Parents, school personnel, and social agencies who are being encouraged to attend seminars on childhood neurological impairments.

2. Pharmacists, particularly in smaller communities, who are attending seminars designed to keep them abreast of new developments in their field.

3. Community leaders, clinical facility staffs, and local college representatives who are participating in conferences which demstrate the need for the establishment of nursing programs.

4. Lay citizens who are being trained to serve as clinic assistants in public health nursing agencies, maternal and child health clinics, and in school health clinics.

5. Practicing pharmacists who are serving as members of a speaker bureau to educate the public with regard to the use and abuse of drugs.

6. Mental health clinic and center directors who are being provided with the knowledge and skill required for their roles as planners of community mental health services.

7. Hospital administrators who are being taught the basics of hospital management, personnel, public relations, and government program administration.

8. Professionals and subprofessionals in county health departments, welfare departments, medical societies, mental health societies, hospitals, and schools who are taking courses dealing with problems in mental retardation, geriatrics and gerontology, child care and development, population control, and venereal disease. 9. Secondary school driver education teachers, police officers, probation officers, clergy, nurses, and counselors of social and welfare agencies who are being educated with regards to the health problems of alcoholism.

Participants in "Land Use" programs include:

1. Community officials of a small town, such as the board of supervisors and planning commission, the zoning commission, and the county planning commission, who are engaging in consultations and conferences with faculty members from the Institute for Community Development at the local university, to evaluate competing claims of residential and industrial interests to available land.

2. Specialists in economic and legal aspects of land use, who are evaluating alternatives in land use planning along the Atlantic coast, as well as educating the public in the problems involved, and possible solutions.

3. Elected and appointed officials and professional and technical personnel who are being trained in wise land use planning on urban fringes of the larger population centers.

4. Experts at the Cooperative Urban Extension Center who are conducting conferences and training programs in social and physical planning for an expanding region.

OTHER PROBLEM AREAS

In addition to the problem areas outlined in the act and regulations, a large proportion of States have identified areas of concern which do not fit neatly in the outlined categories. Such areas as the need for training adult educators—both professional and volunteer— have been accurately assured.

Intergroup relations, family life, special problems of the aged, and the culturally deprived have been identified and programs mounted by the institutions of higher education. The need for citizen and governmental involvement in the application of sound theory and tested knowledge to the complex problem of urban and regional development have received attention from the several States.