The document considers several unfortunate cycles: (1) belligerent students cause desperate teachers, who cause more belligerent students; (2) ineffective parents cause bewildered youth who never take advantage of existing opportunities and who create, in turn, more bewildered children; (3) browbeaten tenants cause callous landlords to neglect buildings, where more browbeaten tenants are created. Attitudes (largely negative) of poor people in East Harlem toward community conditions and existing poverty programs are surveyed. Five detailed East Harlem block profiles are presented; they stress the field activities of block worker trainees and the involvement of youth in discussion and problem solving. Elements of training for Block Communities, Inc. trainees are also described separately in greater detail. In addition, the role of community development in preventing drug addiction is briefly examined. (Compiler/ly)