The focus of this paper is on the program authorized in the Economic Opportunity Act of 1964. It is noted that the intent of the legislation was to develop strategies for change at the local level by involving local populations in the planning and implementation of programs tailored to meet their social, economic, and educational needs. In Part…

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…