In recent years, demand has increased for the development and implementation of a better overall human service delivery system for the United State's at-risk children and their families. Critics condemn the current system as being fragmented, too narrowly focused, beset with bureaucratic red tape and harmful restrictive regulations, difficult to…

This report, along with its supplemental volumes, assesses the welfare system and its successes and failures, describes the frustrations felt by the poor in the United States, and proposes a basic change in public assistance policy. America's state and federal governments spend more than $150 billion a year on programs to alleviate poverty, yet…

This report provides an overview of the current welfare system. The number and size of federal public assistance programs have increased during the past 25 years, with particular growth in noncash benefit programs, which now constitute about three-quarters of all means-tested assistance. From mid-1983 to mid-1984, more than 52.5 million Americans…

This Congressional report contains testimony concerning reauthorization of the Domestic Volunteer Service Act, which authorizes and provides funding for the various national volunteer antipoverty programs, including Volunteers in Service to America (VISTA), the Service Learning Programs, and Special Volunteer Programs. Included among those persons…

At the 1987 Winter Meeting of the National Governors' Association, the Governors adopted a policy program calling for a major reorientation and reform of the nation's welfare system. This document addresses how the welfare system can be reformed to better encourage the self-sufficiency of recipients and reduce their dependency, and how to use…

Between the summers of 1986 and 1987, the Coalition on Human Needs interviewed 202 low income people to learn about their experiences with employment, education, their families, and various government programs. The interviewees showed a higher level of participation in the paid labor force than was predicted. According to those interviewed, the…

This report presents the testimony of numerous expert witnesses who appeared at three hearings on the following topics: (1) Hunger and Related Nutritional Issues; (2) U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) Food Assistance Programs; and (3) Domestic Hunger and Related Nutritional Issues. The following major issues were discussed: (1) the number of…

All of the very poor have a certain potential for homelessness due to traditional economic reasons. This report on the homeless in Chicago (Illinois) presents an overview of a two-part project whose goals are to determine the following: (1) how to prevent homelessness; (2) how to relieve homelessness; and (3) how to reverse homelessness. The…

An analysis of data from the National Longitudinal Study (NLS) was conducted to determine whether marital disruption (by death, divorce, or separation) caused poverty in the early years after a marriage ends and whether the poverty was long-term or short-term. The study examined data on women who had experienced a disruption before 1967 and were…

The predicted incidence of poverty before and after government income transfers, the effectiveness of such transfers, and the distribution of children in one and two parent families are examined in this report on the trends in poverty since 1965. Included are a review of how the Reagan budget cuts will affect households with children and a…

Evaluation of the Expanded Food and Nutrition Education Program as an antipoverty strategy was undertaken in 1977 by examining activities of paraprofessional Nutrition Education Assistants (NEA's) in the Ozark Foothills area of Missouri to determine how they helped their clientele families become self-sufficient and integrated into the mainstream…

FROM JANUARY 1, 1966 TO APRIL 15, 1966 THE HEADSTART OPERATIONAL FIELD ANALYSIS IN CLEVELAND, OHIO PERFORMED 5 STUDIES. (1) SAMPLES OF HEADSTART (HS) AND NON-HEADSTART (NHS) CHILDREN WERE COMPARED AFTER 6 MONTHS OF KINDERGARTEN. FOUR OBSERVATIONS WERE MADE, USING 2 TEACHER RATINGS AND 2 OBSERVER RATINGS. THERE WERE 191 CHILDREN AT THE TIME OF THE…

Volume I of this 4-volume report contains the research instruments used in an 18-month project which was designed to understand the rural poor in terms of their information-seeking and information-utilization behavior patterns. Randomly divided into 3 groups, 840 families from 7 target counties in northwestern Florida were studied by a group of…

This report is an analysis of the problems facing urban areas in relation to their preschool programs for the disadvantaged. The main focus is New York City day care centers. Subjects include day care and preschool education, history of the origin and expansion of day care centers, New York City's day care, and educational issues encompassing…

The location, uses and changes of minority land resources are examined. The utility of an "expanded ownership" approach is demonstrated. Practical ways to implement a minority business development strategy utilizing existing minority-owned land as a base are considered. One idea in particular is discussed: the possibility of giving…