PROBLEM
There is an enormous accumulation of research on the sociocultural characteristics of the poor'', 2. 3* 4 -b ) . Yet when one attempts to base an effective action program on this research, he is frustrated by the dearth of literature dealing with such action programs. This paper is about such a program-about how a group of field workers attempted to translate the accumulated research on poverty-stricken communities into effective action programs.
The setting for this endeavor was a small rural slum located in the northeast section of North America. It has been under study by a team of social scientists since the early 1950's and exhibited what Leighton") calls a pattern of "social disintegration" and Lewis(5) has referred to as "the culture of poverty." Briefly, this community (hereafter referred to as "Jonesville") was characterized by extensive material deprivation, unstable social conditions, lack of patterns of leadership and followership, a weak and fragmented network of communication, lack of a sense of community, and a super-abundance of hostility directed at those outside the culture and expressed among the members of the culture themselves.
Of the various features of poverty areas that researchers have noted combined with our own observations in Jonesville, four are selected for detailed discussion to demonstrate how awareness of them served as a platform for the planning of effective action programs. They provide the conceptual framework out of which the action activities were structured. The specific goals of the action program were to foster cooperation, to build a positive community image, to promote community power and to increase long-term planning abilities.
Social Characteristics
Antitheses that Further Vehicle for Promoting that Impede Positive Change Positive Change Positive Change Isolation Cooperation Community Club Community disparagement Positive community image Library Float Powerlessness Community power Movie Mirror Short-term motivation Long-term planning Community Garden
Schematically, this can be represented as follows:
Sports Activities
Methods
In general terms, in our approach to poverty area residents we began with the "felt needs" of the community. Resident students had spent time in the community ae participant observers, and their advice, along with that from area key informants, provided a general framework for outlining to us the motivations and interest patterns that still remained alive in the community. As expected, there were few "felt needs" of any substance expressed by the community; actually only one: a better education and life for the next generation.
Promoting activities designed to enrich the lives of children appeared to be one common sentiment uniting Jonesville residents. This wm a cue to us to promote *The work on which this paper is baaed waa conducted while the author was affilitrted with the Department of Behavioral Sciencea at The Harvard School of Public Health,