A decade's explosive growth in the scope, funding and complexity of national social policy has created serious problems in the United States. This first overview report notes that the Office of Economic Opportunity (now known as the Community Services Administration) has ceased to provide a focal point for national social policy. It was this state…

THIS ANALYSIS OF POVERTY IS PREDICATED ON THE VIEW THAT AMERICA IS DIVIDED INTO TWO SOCIAL CLASSES, THE AFFLUENT AND THE UNDERCLASS. THE "SUSTAINING CONDITIONS" WHICH RESTRICT SOCIAL MOBILITY FOR THE UNDERCLASS ARE (1) PUBLIC ATTITUDES TOWARD THE POOR, (2) THE EFFECTS OF PREVIOUS DEPRIVATIONS, AND (3) SUCH "INTERGENERATIONAL" BARRIERS AS RACE AND…

Significant changes in the diagnosis, study, and treatment of mental retardation are documented, and the long-range trend toward including mental retardation services in programs for all handicapped persons is described. Recommendations are made in three major need areas: residential care for the retarded, manpower for mental retardation programs,…

A consideration of nutrition and intellectual growth opens with a glossary of 12 terms and two reports on hunger in America, one by J.L. Frost and B.L. Payne, the other by the Citizens' Board of Inquiry into Hunger and Malnutrition. Included are articles on nutrition and intellectual development in children, by M. Winick; maternal diet, growth,…

The purpose of the study is to begin a detailed investigation of the low-paid work force and to focus attention on the determinants of low-wage employment, by dissecting the various forces that contribute to the determination of wage levels for full-time full-year workers. The question is whether low-wage poverty can be eliminated by upgrading the…

A workshop was conducted at which 13 papers were presented on problems of chronically depressed rural areas. Attendees endeavored to assess the existing knowledge with respect to these problems, to point out major gaps in this body of knowledge, and to suggest types of research needed to cope with the problems of rural poverty. It was determined…

After an analysis of 1990 Philippines National Statistics Office data showed a high incidence of illiteracy among women in the fishing villages, a project, Community Learning Approach (CLA), was developed to raise the literacy level. It was designed as an alternative delivery system of educating women in 24 villages for functional literacy and…

From 1994 to 1997, social welfare improved in Peru. Areas of improvement included decreased poverty and severe poverty rates, increased school attendance and literacy, and a healthier population. Most important among health improvements was reduced malnutrition among young children. Social improvements stemmed from the favorable overall economic…

The Neighborhood Jobs Initiative (NJI) began in 1998 in five cities (Chicago, Fort Worth, Hartford, New York, and Washington, D.C.) in 1998. The NJI targets high-poverty urban neighborhoods, attempting to connect residents to employment opportunities nearby and in the urban periphery by providing training, supporting interpersonal networks, and…

"Workfare" schemes that offer poor participants unskilled jobs at low wages have become a popular alternative to cash or in-kind handouts. Yet little is known about a key determinant of the cost effectiveness of such schemes in reducing poverty: the behavioral responses through time allocation of participants and their families. These…

There are many reasons for the large number of abandoned children in India. The children can be unwanted (mostly girls), illegitimate, or orphans due to diseases. The children have to be taken care of one way or the other. This study shows that there are different solutions to this problem, including orphanages both government and nongovernmental.…

The House Committee on Education and Labor recommends that the Human Services Reauthorization Act of 1990 be passed as amended. In reporting the bill, the committee proposes to authorize the Head Start Act, the Follow Through Act, the State Dependent Care Development Grants Act, the Community Services Block Grant Act, Community Food and Nutrition…

The Committee on Labor and Human Resources recommends that the Human Services Reauthorization Act of 1990 be passed as amended. The Act authorizes appropriations for fiscal years 1991 through 1994 to carry out the Head Start Act, the Follow Through Act, and the Community Services Block Grant Act. Titles I through IX of the Act concern Head Start…

This report discusses the results of a 1989 poll conducted by the Gallup Organization in which a representative sample of Americans were asked where they would set the poverty line. The poverty line in current use by the Federal Government was created in the mid-1960s, using data from the 1950s. Setting the poverty line involves a basic decision…

This brief booklet outlines the facts of the youth unemployment problem and details some strategies which have proven effective. In 1981 the unemployment rate was 17.3% for people age 16-21, well over twice the national average for the labor force as a whole. For Black youths the rate was almost 35%; for Hispanics, over 20%; but for Whites, 15%.…