Program development grants enable communities to organize for community action and to prepare sound and effective programs which respond to local needs. These grants are used to hire a director and staff, to survey a community's needs, to study existing programs affecting the poor, to develop programs that meet the most pressing needs first, to involve the poor as active planners and advisers, and to survey local resources that might finance anti-poverty projects.

In fiscal year 1965, 315 program development grants totaling $11,254,520 were approved. These grants ranged in size from approximately $8,000 to more than $100,000 with an average value of $36,000. The differences in size of program development grants reflected not only the differences in communities and complexities of the problems to be solved, but differences in approaching the developmental task.

During fiscal year 1966, approval was given for 841 program development grants some of which were continuations of grants approved the previous year at a total cost of $21,763,322, with an average value of $26,000. The decrease in average grant value over the preceding year is indicative of the movement of community action into smaller and rural communities.

In fiscal year 1967, the projected growth in new community action agencies indicates a need for some 144 new program development grants, primarily in areas of concentrated rural poverty and urban concentrations of poverty not yet served. Approximately 96 supplementary program development grants will be given to communities that received prior grants but have encountered special problems, in order to plan and program their activities more extensively and for a longer period of time. It is also estimated that between 50 and 100 community action agencies will drop out by being terminated or merging with adjacent community agencies.

Justification of Estimate

Program development grants in fiscal year 1967 will average $25,000 in value, reflecting the extension of program development to generally smaller communities not yet funded for community action programs. These smaller communities require less funds and therefore the fiscal year 1967 estimate is substantially lower than fiscal year 1966.

Conduct and administration grants enable communities to carry out a
variety of activities aimed at alleviating and eventually eliminating
poverty. These programs may provide wholly new opportunities and services,
extend existing services to more people, alter current activities so that
they afford new opportunities or educate and motivate the poor to use
services and facilities which they have not known about or have been
reluctant to use.

Few, if any, communities can make maximum progress in fighting poverty
by limiting their efforts to attacking one aspect of a complex problem.
The gains made through improved educational opportunities can be nullified
by wholly unsatisfactory and unchanged home environment. The values of
fresh motivation and new skills can be drained away by poor health and
inadequate nutrition. Thus, a well-planned and integrated effort on several
or many fronts is the key to effective community action against poverty.
The development and coordination of program components is the means to
purposeful and integrated action. These components cover a wide range of
economic and cultural needs in the categories of:

Health Services
Legal Assistance
Consumer Action

Adult Literacy

Manpower

Library Facilities

Housing Services

Remedial and Tutorial Programs
Guidance and Counseling
Sanitation

Homemaker Services

Neighborhood Rehabilitation
Family Planning, and many

others

Neighborhood Centers

At the present time, it is estimated that about 70 percent of the poor live in areas served by Community Action Agencies. A number of specific programs are encouraged nationally and will be treated separately on the following pages.

In fiscal year 1965, 313 conduct and administration grants totaling $104,680,961 were approved for action programs carried out by local community action organizations, and 2,398 Project Head Start, these local programs were not identified as part of national emphasis programs. However, the funds approved during fiscal year 1965 porvided for a variety of programs

in the categories of education, early childhood development, program direction, multi-purpose service centers, cultural and recreational activities, physical health, guidance and counseling, job and vocational educational and training, neighborhood participation, job opportunity, housing and management services, legal assistance and mental health.

During fiscal year 1966, over 5,000 grant components were funded at a cost of $303,542,762. Head Start grants added an additional $179,781,522 for a total of $483,324,284 approved and funded components during this fiscal year. In addition to Project Head Start, the following programs, which will be treated separately in this justification, were funded:

In fiscal year 1967, a total of $750,000,000 will be required to renew existing conduct and administration programs and to broaden and extend the scope of Community Action Agencies. An estimated $306,000,000 will

be approved for Head Start grants and $444,000,000 will provide for the continuation and expansion of those programs funded in fiscal year 1966 and for new programs such as the Community Employment program. During this fiscal year, an estimated 8,000 components will be renewed and approximately 1,000 new components funded.

Children living in poverty are subject to various risks to their health, education, and welfare. Poverty has its impact on the growing child from the time of conception. During the pre-school years the toll becomes more apparent. Health services are usually inadequate, immunizations are frequently incomplete, and physical problems may go uncorrected, thus handicapping the child in his adaptation to school.

In addition to physical problems, children of the poor often show learning and adjustment difficulties as they approach school age. Because their experiences have been limited, they often are handicapped in their ability to communicate--especially through speech. They may be lacking in knowledge of the world about them. Often they have had little opportunity to learn to enjoy art, music, and reading. In addition they may see people outside the family as strange and threatening. By the time they reach school age, repeated failures may have been experienced and they may feel a lack of confidence or self-worth. Motivation for learning is often limited.

It is apparent that efforts to interrupt the unfortunate effects of poverty on the developing child will require community efforts to supplement the family's resources in caring for the child. Toward this end, Project Head Start offers resources with which communities may develop programs for pre-school children designed to prepare them to meet the challenges of school and to learn to succeed rather than to fail.

Project Head Start is a two-part program: First, a year-round program for children between three and five years of age; second, summer programs for those not participating in the year-round classes. In additon, Project Head Start sponsors intensive training programs for teachers and other employees of Head Start centers. The OEO also sponsors research into new methods of instructing culturally deprived children as well as evaluation of their progress and benefits of the program.

In fiscal year 1965, 561,356 children were enrolled in Project Head Start summer programs, conducted in 13,344 centers and administered by 2,398 Community Action Agencies or single purpose agencies. The

total cost was $95,049,171, of which $12,000,000 was spent for training.