Preschool children from poor families in a black Memphis community, who had shown considerable nutritional progress since a food program was introduced in 1969, lost some of these gains during the 1974-1976 recession. These losses can be attributed to inflation and the high rate of unemployment among the blacks in this community. The unfavorable…

This study investigated communities in 10 randomly selected states to determine the extent to which Local Public Works (LPW) funds, which were disbursed according to procedures intended to benefit areas of unemployment and provide assistance for the chronically unemployed, were actually received in targeted low income or high minority areas. The…

This report describes the activities of the Higher Education Opportunity Programs (HEOP) at the independent colleges and universities in New York State for the 1990-91 academic year. HEOP is a program that helps academically and economically disadvantaged students earn college degrees. Highlights of the report include the following: (1) in 1990-91…

Charles Murray's book, "Losing Ground: American Social Policy, 1950-1980," proposes the abolition of benefit programs for all working-aged persons for the following reasons: (1) it is logically impossible for the government to aid the poor by creating incentives for people to become poor; (2) since the mid-1960s the United States has so…

This question-and-answer format paper looks at some of the basic issues surrounding the chronically poor and initiatives and services designed to break the poverty cycle. A first section explores some of the myths and realities surrounding the characteristics of the chronically poor population and notes that this population is comprised of…

This book reports on a study of the urban poor in New York City focusing on the effectiveness of a model of service for this population. The project studied 160 families who were clients of the Lower East Side Family Union, an agency that aims to prevent foster care placement and to help clients mobilize their own coping capacities and to make…

The Family Development Research Program was distinctive in its omnibus conceptualization of program, providing a full complement of education, nutrition, health and safety, and human service resources to 108 families from the prenatal period of their children until the children reached elementary school age. All families had an income of less than…

The Low Socioeconomic Status and Minority Student Achievement Study is designed to investigate the overall impact of the Austin Independent School District's programs on low socioeconomic status (SES) and minority students' achievement and school leaver rates. This evaluation is designed to monitor low SES and minority student achievement on…

This study tested M. Deutsch's theory of cooperation and conflict resolution using an intervention project at an inner city alternative high school in New York City. The study was designed to test the theory by confirmatory structural modeling and by evaluating the intervention. The procedure involved a pre- and post-test procedure administered…

The Women's Educational and Vocational Enrichment program (WEAVE) has been conducted in two poor sections of Boston to help women move from dependence on welfare to gainful employment. Most of the women served by the program are black and most have not finished high school. About 42 percent of the women have never had paid employment, while most…

The Three-Tier Vocational Education Program serves economically disadvantaged and handicapped high school students in Duplin County, North Carolina. It is designed to assist these students in developing job-seeking, job-getting, and job-keeping skills in a partnership with high schools, James Sprunt Technical College, and the employing community.…

Conducted in Iowa and North Carolina, the experiment included 809 families randomly selected and assigned to a control group or to 1 of 5 experimental treatments. Eligibility required a family income at the experiment's beginning of less than l 1/2 times the official poverty line. Of the 809 families, 729 remained in the program for the entire 3…

Urban Head Start graduates were compared with comparably poor Pre-K graduates in this longitudinal study, in an effort to evaluate the long-term effects of the Head Start program. A sample of 227 children were included in an analysis of third-grade report cards, standardized Comprehensive Test of Basic Skills (CTBS) achievement scores, and a…

An analysis was made of the case histories of two Georgia State University (GSU) "cooperative models" for the delivery of career education and formal academic services to economically disadvantaged groups. One of the models served primarily black, primarily female Comprehensive Employment and Training Act (CETA) participants by providing…