Community organizing for school reform is a growing national phenomenon, as young people, parents, neighborhood residents, and faith-based institutions struggle to improve the quality and equity of public schooling, particularly in urban school districts. Now a decade old, community organizing projects are influencing local public schools in…

Utilizing primarily interview data, one midwestern War on Poverty agency is examined with respect to the alternative, often conflicting ways it was perceived by various types of program participants and interested observers. The relationship of the local agency with the Office of Economic Opportunity is surveyed, reasons for conflict both within…

Results are presented of a study on the economic development efforts of ten rural community action agencies (CAAs). This report describes the role played by the various CAAs in the economic development of their communities: the problems faced by the different agencies, the program approaches tried and how these approaches were developed, what the…

The Emergency School Aid Act (ESAA) of 1972 authorizes grants or contracts to nonprofit organizations (NPOs) and local education agencies (LEAs) to support the LEAs' efforts to desegregate or to reduce minority group isolation or its effects. The NPO program is a small component of ESAA which provides financial assistance to community…

This monograph is devoted to the first Ford Foundation Gray Area Project in Oakland, California. In 1961, the Foundation granted $2 million for an interagency project whose goals were to: (1) reverse the process of social disorganization, (2) accelerate the integration of newcomers, (3) salvage and improve human resources, (4) preserve a…