The handbook is comprised of materials related to the implementation of Operation COPE, a Washington, D.C., demonstration Adult Basic Education (ABE) project for low-income young mothers who are heads of households, developed by the National Council of Negro Women (NCNW). The project featured a curriculum which integrated coping skills with Adult Basic Education; a method of inservice training for professionals and paraprofessionals in ABE programs; and a model of an advisory committee for ABE programs. The handbook reveals the work processes by which Operation COPE intervened in the cycle of poverty, functional illiteracy, and deprived family life by involving the mothers in diagnosing their own needs and in planning, conducting, and evaluating their own learning; by involving them in parent and citizenship training and enrichment activities; by providing participants with the added support of NCNW's network of volunteers; and by establishing opportunities for them to acquire needed services through the project's linkages with other community agencies and organizations. The young mothers, interested in acquiring job skills, requested typing, sewing, and crafts classes; reading, mathematics, parenting, home economics, and other skills were introduced only as the mothers perceived needs for them. Sample instructional materials and participant data are among the materials included in the document. (Author/AJ)