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Passett, Barry A,; Parker, Glenn MNew Careers in Action.New Jersey Community Action Training Inst., Trenton.May 6924p,

EDRS Price MF-$0.25 HC-$1.30Adult Educators, *Careers, Indigenous Personnel,Motivation, Occupational Mobility, *ProfessionalTraining, Social Workers, *Subprofessionals*New Careers, New Jersey

This report on new careers training for the poordiscusses the feasibility of developing professional level careersfor persons with relatively little education and few credentials; andreviews, in testimony before the Senate Subcommittee on GovernmentReooarch, the efforts of the New Jersey Community Action TrainingInstitute (CATI) in trainee motivation and new careers development.It also relates how Rutgers University and various community actionagencies are using indigenous personnel to bring adult education toghetto areas, and describes the New Jersey Civil Service Commission'sefforts to use nonprofessional aides in public welfare agencies.Other recent CATI materials are listed. (This document is alsoavailable from: New Jersey Community Action Training Institute, Inc.,P.O. Box 2465 South Broad St., Trenton, New Jersey 08610.) (LY)

U.S. DEPARTMENT OF HEALTH, EDUCATION & WELFARE

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TABLE OF CONTENTS

FOREWORD 3

NEW CAREERSAN INTRODUCTION .. 5

by BARRY A. PASSETT and GLENN M. PARKER

CAN NEW CAREERS BE CREATED FOR THE POOR? 6

by GLENN M. PARKER

MOTIVATION AND NEW CAREERS TRAINING .. 9

by BARRY A. PASSETT

THE POOR BRING ADULT EDUCATION TO THE GHETTO .. 16

by BARRY A. PASSETT and GLENN M. PARKER

NEW CAREERS IN PUBLIC WELFARE .. 21

by GLENN M. PARKER

FOREWORD

Barry A. Passett is Director and Glenn M. Parket is AssistantDirector of the New Jersey Community Action Training Institute,Inc. The Institute, a non-profit corporation, provides a wide varietyof training and materials development services for people working inthe war against poverty.

From its inception in 1965, the Institute has given special attentionto new careers. In cooperation with a variety of human service agencies,job descriptions and career ladders have been prepared and pre andin-service training and education designs have been developed. Someof these programs are described in the articles in this pamphlet.

For further information please call or write:

NEW JERSEY

COMMUNITY ACTION TRAINING INSTITUTE, INC.

P. 0. Box 4078

Trenton, New Jersey 08610

(609) 888-4200

May, 1969

NEW CAREERSAN INTRODUCTION

by BARRY A. PAssErr

The concept of new careers first appeared in1965 as a strategy for resolving an ironical par-adox of the American economy: on the one hand,an acute shortage of skilled workers for the hu-man services; on the other, an acute scarcity ofjobs for the millions of under and unemployed.Pearl and Riessmani proposed that this gap beclosed with a nation-wide public employment pro-gram, whereby the poor would be hired andtrained to serve the poor in all health, educationand social welfare agencies. Such a program, theysaid, would not only provide the disadvantagedwith meaningful, dignified work; but would alsoimprove and expand the quality of the humanservices, and create a rich, new source of skilledand even professional--manpower as these newemployees acquired education and experience.

Although simply stated, the proposalif prop-erly implemented--signifies far-reaching and diffi-cult change. It requires that the jobs in a humanservice agency be redefined and restructured sothat the unskilled workers may perform the lesscomplicated tasks immediately on being hired;that the new workers be given time off from theirjobs for training and education specially gearedto their needs; that the professional staff mem-bers share some of their power, prestige andknowledge with the new workers; that inter-personal problems that may arise between theincumbent workers and the new personnel be re-solved to the advantage of both; that all learnto work with each other as well-integrated teams;that non-traditional routes to career advancementand education be charted so that the disadvan-taged workers may move rapidly to positions ofgreater responsibility without displacing incum-bent employees; that special supportive servicesand training in human relations for all workers beavailable. It calls for the cooperation and supportof the community and other agencies, and formuch skillf11 negotiation with policy-makers.

The new movement gained many adherents

and GLENN M. PARKER

quickly; but in the years that have elapsed sincethe seeds of the idea were first sown, no full-blown new careers program has yet developed.

The articles that follow discuss the impedimentsin the way of new careers, and rffer some sug-gestionsnone of them panaceasfor removingthese obstacles. The writers, staff members of theNew Jersey Community Action Training Institute,have strong commitment to the goals of the con-cept. The articles are based on their experiencesin working for its implementation. The Institutehas collaborated closely with federal, state andcity government representatives, and with a widevariety of human service agencies. The CATIstaff has served as consultants on policy, negotia-tion strategies, training methodologies, curriculumand materials development, and as trainers ofboth professional and para-professional staff.

The articles deal with the progress o; new ca-reers programs for relocation aides in Jersey Cityand New York, welfare and code enforcementaides in Paterson, New Jersey, and adult educa-tion aides in New Jersey ghettoes.

Each of these programs represented a departurefrom conservative employment practices, and canbe considered as a "breakthrough." While notdisparaging the great step forward that has beenmade, the writers believe much is left to be done.More commitment is necessary. Much morethought must be given to ways of developingbetter on-the-job training and education. Truecareer opportunities within hiring agencies stillmust be structured and made realistically ac-cessible to the under-educated as well as to theprofessionally trained. Otherwise, the promisingconcept of new careers will remain another un-fulfilled hope; another missed opportunity, an-other reason for continuing despair and anger onthe part of those who are abandoned on the banksof the American mainstream.

11Veso Careers for the Poor, New York Free Press, 1965.

CAN NEW CAREERS BE CREATED FOR

by GLENN

People throughout the nation have talked aboutbuilding new careers for the poor during the pastthree years. Some have done something about itby conducting experimental training programs.But how far have we come and where are wegoing?

The public is familiar with the negative incometax guaranteed annual wage proposals. But theyknow little about "new careers" an equallyradical anti-poverty concept.

As Pearl and Riessman put it: "the new careersconcept has as a point of departure the creationof jobs normally allotted to highly trained pro-fessionals and technicians but which could be per-formed by the unskilled, inexperienced and rela-tively untrained worker . . ."1 An additional butcrucial element is that "the job must be permanentand must be incorporated into the matrix of theindustry or agency."2 Most of these new jobscould be filled by poor people, hence, "new careersfor the poor."

The idea has popular appeal. The labor econ-omist, eschewing Fortune's Charles Silberman forthe moment, can look to the market and find blue-collar, private sector jobs disappearing rapidlyaccompanied by a substantial growth in the serv-ice areas. Government employment is also ex-panding, especially in the areas of education andhealth. Evidence abounds from the Labor De-partment and from many university economiststo indicate that this trend will continue.

New careers also appeals to the unorganized butnevertheless growing anti-social worker cult be-cause of the concept's emphasis on "hiring thepoor to serve the poor." It is probably fair to saythat every liberal element, especially those whosejobs have not been the target for the new careersthrust, favors the idea.

The essential ingredient in any such programis training: pre-service training to prepare for theentry level position and in-service training to in-sure opportunities for advancement. As a result,most of the demonstrations in the new careersarea have been training programs.

However, most of these demonstrations fail todevelop fully advancement opportunities in theinstitution or agency. And they do not involvethe hard-core poor.

M. PARKER

THE POOR?

New Careers . . . ?

Most of the so-called new careers training dem-onstrations have been programs that prepare non-professionals for entry or sub-entry level positions.Current examples: the Teacher Aide Program thatis coordinated by the Bank Street College of Ed-ucation, the Youth Employment Program of theNational Committee on Employment of Youth,and the Adult Education Aides Project conductedby the New Jersey Community Action TrainingInstitute.

The typical Federally-funded demonstrationruns for six months. Some run as long as a year.The biggest item in the budget is the stipends forthe trainees. It is clear that the stipends sig-nificantly increase the propensity of the agencyto accept the trainee. In at least one programthe agencies were also given a lump sum to coverthe cost of direct supervision of the trainees.3

These programs generally involve a pre-serviceorientation and training effort followed by place-ment in an institution or agency for an extendedperiod of time (a term or summer session in thecase of a teacher aide). The field training isusually supplemented by regular seminars withthe project director and, often, on-site supervisors.These follow-up sessions include a discussion ofon-the-job problems as well as training in areasnot covered in the pre-service program.

It is generally expected that the agency willhire the trainee at the end of the demonstration.Too often this act is marked as the "break-through" and the project thereby labeled a suc-cess. Indeed, in many sections of the country, itis probably true that the hiring of a non-profes-sional by an educational or social agency shouldbe called a break-through.

Shortsighted View?However, it should be clear that such a view

is at once short-sighted and, perhaps more im-portant, unfair to the trainees in the demonstra-tion. They have been led to believe that therewere really career possibilities for them with theagency. The agency usually can manage only onebreak-through each generation and, therefore, an-other poor person has been trained for a dead-endjob.

Reproduced by special permission from the October, 1967 Training and Development journal. Copyright 1967 by the American Societyfor Training and Development, Inc. This article was selected by the American Society for Training and Development as the 1967award winning article in the category, "unique aspect of the training field."

6

Just as most trainers think last of evaluation,the director of a new careers training demonstra-tion usually thinks last about career aspects ofthe program. A quick review of the new careersprojects across the country indicates that it is nolonger necessary to demonstrate that non-profes-sionals can be trained to perform functions tra-ditionally in the domain of the professional.

Future new careers efforts should be linked toan in-service training program which allows anon-professional to proceed, for example, from anaide to an associate and on up to the status of aprofessional without additional college or otheracademic training. A trainee can learn the skillshe needs on the job under the supervision of anexperienced worker in such an apprenticeship pro-gram. It can be done. Brendan Sexton has notedin avenues of employment with no rigid profes-sional standards but with the need for professionalcapability at the leadership level highly qualifiedpeople lacking formal education often head majororganizations.

"Labor unions . . . have had to use the aca-demically untrained to fill professional and semi-professional jobs, but only rarely have they pro-vided educational programs through which theindividual could supplement his in-service train-ing experience. By middle-class standards, shopstewards, business agents, and union presidentsmay not measure up in manners or languageskills, but they have built and administeredsuccessful unions. If the term professional hasany meaning, surely George Meany, WalterReuther, I. W. Abel, David Dubinsky, PaulJennings, and thousands of experienced person-nel in labor are as professional as the routinePh.D.

Business leaders are regarded by many pro-fessionals as rigid and inflexible, but they aremore likely than is the professional to judge aperson by demonstrated capacity rather thancaste membership. Thus, General Motors Pres-ident James M. Roche could rise to that posi-tion though his formal schooling ended with thetwelfth grade, while a recent predecessor of his,Harlow Curtice, attended school for only aboutten years."4The task is enormous. It involves changing the

job specifications and certification requirementswhich are the hallmarks of the professional. Assuch, they will be defended with uncommon zeal.However, unless and until meaningful career op-portunities are developed for non-professionals,new careers will remain just an idea.

7

New Jersey ExperienceRecent experience in New Jersey with new ca-

reers projects is both instructive and interesting,Several participants in the New Jersey Com-munity Action Training Institute's project totrain non-professionals to design and administeradult education courses in poverty neighborhoodswere offered, and a few accepted jobs with publicschool adult education programs. However, noneof these positions effectively utilized the trainee'sskills and knowledge and none provided careeropportunities. Most of the graduates were hiredby community action agencies.

Another Institute new careers effort, a programto train non-professionals for work in city plan-ning, so far has turned up little. Although therewas general agreement on the need for more plan-ners, state and local officials would not create asufficient number of new slots for graduates of theprogram.

Repeated failure to convince adult educators touse non-professional instructors and programmedmaterials to reach New Jersey's 750,000 adultilliterates led to the so-called "Farmer Report"5which proposes using non-professional literacyinstructors in classes outside regular public schools.

Civil Service JobsThe New Jersey Office of Economic Opportunity

is beginning a major demonstration designed toopen state civil service jobs to the poor. It wasoriginally designed to provide new careerists inthe Department of Institutions and Agencies.However, the program's initial success has beenin creating the positions of Migrant InspectorAide and Draw-Bridge Operator. Although thecurrent career possibilities in these jobs seemslight, the future may be more fruitful. The pro-gram will assist various state agencies to meettheir manpower shortages by recruiting and train-ing the disadvantaged to qualify for chronicallyunfilled entry-level jobs. While some of these slotsmay not offer career opportunities, it is a start,and will encourage state agencies to create humanservice jobs for the poor.

The program suggests a strategy for effectivelyworking with state civil service. Career Develop-ment Specialists with the responsibility of iden-tifying or creating employment possibilities fordisadvantaged persons are assigned to variousstate agencies. Although the Specialists are paidwith project funds, they are under the direct su-pervision of the agency personnel officer. This ar-rangement tends to allay fears that changes willbe imposed rather than developed cooperatively.

. . . For the Poor?What is a new careerist? Is he a non-profes-

sional? Is he poor? Or unemployed? Is he simplyany poor person according to 0E0 guidelines?Does he have a high school diploma or is he acollege graduate who is underemployed and/orpoor? Originally all non-professionals 'were middleclass types: college graduates who did not haveenough social work or education credits for cer-tification.

It seems clear that the present new careersdemonstrations are not designed for the so-calledhard-core poor. The projects usually require somesophistication in oral and written communicationsand a high degree of motivation. Additionally,trainees are often selected for the assumed abilityto relate to the people to be served by the pro-gram. Thus, a Negro is chosen to work in the

'Negro community and a Puerto Rican to serve theSpanish-speaking zi-feawith little concern for thelevel of their income.

The nature of the work in most of the projectscombined with the natural desire for success onthe part of the trainer means that the trainees areusually a pretty sophisticated lot. This hasprompted one cynic to label the programs "newcareers for ringers."

This "creaming" in the early stages of the de-velopment of the concept is inevitable and prob-ably necessary. It would certainly be excused ifin the process these "ringers" were able to destroyor effectively skirt institutional barriers to careersfor non-professionals in the human services.

Prospects for SuccessSuccess will come not when someone in the pro-

fessional establishment accepts the value of hav-ing a friendly neighborhood face in the classroom,but when, for example, school officials are over-whelmed by the facts of the labor market. Gov-ernment support for the education and health in-dustries is creating a demand for staff which can-not be satisfied by the current level of college andprofessional school graduates.

A recent survey by the New Jersey Departmentof Education indicated that unless certain condi-tions affecting the supply side of the market arechanged, ". . . New Jersey will be short a totalof 2,000 well-prepared teachers per year by 1975."6

Turning to health, a joint research project ofthe U. S. Public Health Service and AmericanHospital Association found, ". . . that the nation's7,100 hospitals need 109,000 employees to fill exist-ing vacancies and require an added 166,000 to im-prove the quality of medical care."7

Trainers in the new careers field should be close

8

enough to the institutions and agencies in theirarea to know when the local market has createdthe conditions favorable to acceptance of the idea.When such conditions arise, the opportunity forthe initiation of a real new careers project wouldbe possible.

For the FutureOn the horizon are several encouraging items:. . . the Scheuer Amendment to the Economic

Opportunity Act provides training and employ-ment with career possibilities for non-professionalsin public service jobs.

. . . a program initiated in New York by Dis-trict Council 37 of the State, County and Mu-nicipal Employees will train nurses aides to becomelicensed practical nurses.

. . . the beginning of a new careers movementuniting professionals and non-professionals in aneffort to provide some political clout and gainsome publicity for the concept.

These and other programs emphasize careers notjust jobs. It has been demonstrated that non-professionals are needed and can be trained to per-form many tasks presently performed by profes-sionals. It is now time to develop career oppor-tunities for these entry-level positions.

For trainers, the implications are cleartheymust do the "dirty work" by encouraging potentialagencies to create new jobs for the poorandthen by negotiating with them on the terms andconditions of these new jobs. A review of newcareers projects indicates that there is no con-sistent strategy for agency negotiations8 but onething is certainit must be done if anything isto come of the grand dream.

REFERENCES1Arthur Pearl and Frank Riessman. "New Careers for the

Poor," The Free Press, 1965, p. 13.2Ibid.3Robert Pruger. "The Establishment of a 'New Career' Pro-

gram in a Public School," Contra Costa Council of CommunityServices, Publication 107, Mar. 1966.

4"Realistic Vistas for the Poor," The Progressive, Vol. 29,Oct., 1965, p. 32.

5Known officially as the Report of the Governor's Task Forceon Adult Literacy Opportunities. James Farmer served as a con-sultant to the Task Force.

60ffice of Teacher Education and Certification and the Officeof Statistical Services, State of New Jersey, Department ofEducation, "Imbalances in Teacher Supply in New Jersey," Dec.,1966, p. vi. It is interesting to note that the report suggests astepped-up teacher education and recruitment effort to meet theteacher shortage problem.

7Reported in the Wall Street Journal, Dec. 2, 1966. The articlementioned the potential for new careers in hospitals but foundbarriers in institutions as well as state licensing rules, rigideducational requirements and "the professional groups . . . (who)jealously guard their job prerogatives, often opposing the intro-duction of labor-saving aides. The ostensible objection is thatuse of inexperienced workers will lower the quality of patientcare but the more fundamental concern may be job security."

8See e.g. Robert Pruger, op. cit.; Jacob Fishman, et. a/, "Train-ing for New Careers," The President's Committee on JuvenileDelinquency and Youth Crime, June 1965, pp. 41-45.

MOTIVATION AND NEW CAREERS TRAINING*

by BARRY

Our next witness is Mr. Barry A. Passett, whois director of the New Jersey Community ActionTraining Institute in Trenton, N. J.

SENATOR HARRIS. We are very pleased that youare here this morning and we will be pleased tohear what you are doing at the Institute.

Statement of Barry A. Passett, Director, NewJersey Community Action Training Institute; ac-companied by Glenn Parker and Albert R. Flem-ing.

MR. PASSETr. Thank you, very much, Mr. Chair-man.

My name is Barry A. Passett, director of theNew Jersey Community Action Training Institute,which is a nonprofit corporation created to pro-vide training services for agencies and peopleworking in the war agaiiist poverty. Our cor-poration is not attached to any university or othereducational institution. Our strength comes fromlocal community action organizations.

Our responsibility for training under a grantfrom the Office of Economic Opportunity includesantipoverty activities in Delaware and New YorkCity as well as New Jersey.

The institute has a strong commitment to theprogram for new careers for the poor.

Yesterday, I attended the funeral of a man com-mitted to new careers and expansion and improve-ment of public services. Today I want to discussnew careers and its relationship to the motivationof the poor and the unemployed.

Other institute activities relate to the commit-tee's focus of concern, and I shall be happy toanswer questions on them.

I might note here that the tragic events of thepast week provide us as a Nation with a newopportunity to translate research into action, tobegin to implement the programatic recommenda-tions of the President's Commission on Civil Dis-orders, on which you, Mr. Chairman, did such acreative job, and particularly its recommendationfor 1 rriilhon'ipublic service jobs. -1 'will therefore'keep my remarks brief.

Barely in its developmental stages as an anti-poverty concept, new careers needs to be examinedas a strategy for motivating the hardcore poor.Briefly, new careers involves the creation of a widerange of new nonprofessional jobs in human serv-ice occupations. Most important, however, is that

It

A. PASSETT

the jobs must be permanent and the first step ina career track leading to the professional position.The same system applies in the private sector;but I am not convinced that that sector has thesame capacity to create the jobs and provide theincentives and training. Before turning to themotivational aspects of the concept, let me in-dicate its appeal to some of the other relevantfactors:

Labor market analysts see it shoring up thesupply side of the market for social workers,teachers, nurses, and other human service occupa-tions. The shortages now and those projected forthe future are well known. Since these nonpro-fessional aides will perform many of the routinetasks' of the professionals, it is suggested thatfewer professionals will be needed.

Social theorists view the added manpower as ameans of improving service. This is crucial since,especially in the urban areas, the poor will beprincipal beneficiaries of the better service. InJersey City and New York the institute recentlyparticipated in a program to hire and train reloca-tion aides to work in the urban renewal program.Their work made the difficult process of relocationfor black and Puerto Rican residents less painfulby carefully explaining the procedures and ob-taining needed services.

The new careers approach says give people realjobs immediately; then build in training, educa-tion, and counseling. This approach runs counterto established employment programs. Normally,we say to the unemployed "get yourself together,"and then we'll talk about a job. This means getyour education and training, understand the worldof work (supervision, punctuality, discipline) andmost important, "be motivated." MDTA institu-tional training is based on this concept.

This approach has not worked. People with ahistory of failure in school, work, and family lifeand with genuine belief that "the man" has neverpaid off on any of his promises are not likely torespond to a call of self-improvement in hopes ofgetting a job.

We need to createand I am convinced that wecan createhundreds of thousands of entry-levelsubprofessional jobs which can be performed bypeople with minimal education and training. Putpeople to work in these jobs, give them oppor-

*Testimony before the Subcommittee on Government Research of the Senate Committee on Government Operations, Honorable Fred R.Harris, Subcommittee Chairman, April, 1968.

9

tunities for advancement based on additional ed-ucation and training, and the motivation will sur-face.

The opportunity factor is crucial. For yearsin some human service fields, especially the healthoccupations, there have always been a large num-ber of subprofessional jobs. The work is usuallydirty. More important, however, is the lack of arational system for promotion to a more attractiveposition. There is, therefore, no hope, no

theout

of poverty. The person is forever among the work-ing poor.

In most hospital systems, for exam rile, a womancannot remain working as a nurse's aide and ob-tain the necessary education and training to be-come a licensed practical nurse. Poor people aresimply not in a position to give up a job in orderto enroll in a training program.

A recent project, by District Council 37 of' theAmerican Federation of State, County, and Mu-nicipal Employees and the Department of Hos-pitals in New York City, dealt with this problem.Under a MDTA demonstration grant, nurse's aidesare being trained in the skills necessary for pro-motion to practical nurse. This breakthroughmust be followed up to prevent a bottleneck atthe practical nurse level.

Here, therefore, is one solution to the motivationdilemma: There is serious manpower shortage inthe human serviceseducation, welfare, andhealth. We can create a large number of subpro-fessional jobs to relieve the pressure ark] improveservices. With minimal pre-service training andcounseling, we can put people to work in thesejobs. Further, the jobs should lead to other jobswhich, in turn, result in a career opportunity.Training, education, and other supportive serv-ices should be provided to make the opportunitya reality. The cost would be high. A commit-ment on the part of the public sector would berequireda commitment to new standards andvolume of service, and to new responsibilities forsupervisors. A program recently conducted by thetraining institute in New Jersey and by my as-sociates, Glenn Parker and Robert Moore, high-lights some of the problems in implementing anew careers program. It also suggests some solu-tions. And it has important bearing on the mo-tivation of the hardcore poor.

As part of a larger new careers effort, 15 adultmenNegro and Puerto Ricanwere recruitedfor positions as code enforcement aids to beplaced with the city's housing inspections division.All were unskilled and had unstable employment

10

histories. Several had police records and regu-larly got "high" on marijuana and wine.

When the institute entered the picture as thetraining resource, the aids lacked motivation andwere, in general, not prepared for a training orwork experience. They were "street wise" and,therefore, saw that no real opportunity existed.They were prepared tto take the program stipendand do little else. Their estimate of the situationwas correct. There were no job descriptions, noestablished career track for promotions, no super-vision, and no counseling and orientation. Theyresponded accordingly by arriving late, leavingearly, and refusing to participate effectively in thebasic education program. The program was asham; and, as a result, poor work norms wereestablished.

The institute was instrumental in establishingrealistic job descriptions, a rational career ladderleading to housing inspector, a system for in-service training and education; and a process ofsupervision by the housing inspections division.All of these changes were brought to the atten-tion of the aids through our training methodology,in the hopes of setting new norms.

This was done in the preservice orientation andtraining period which stressed self-awareness in-dividual goal setting, and group support. Theinstitute and the chief housing inspector coop-erated in this effort. The aids saw clearly thata real job existed and what they had to do toretain the job and take advantage of the careeropportunities built into the system. They saw,for example, that they would not be able to entermost homes to make an inspection if they had thesmell of wine on their breath. Result: a new worknorm was established. That change could nothave taken place had the reason for the normthe jobnot been firmly established.

Other work norms relating to appropriate de-meanor followed.

I am convinced that, given an opportunity andappropriate support, poor people can be motivated.I suggest that the new careers concept containthose elements.

Mr. Chairman, I have submitted for your in-formation through the staff several articles thatwe prepared on various aspects of this generalquestion.

SENATOR HARRIS. Good. Without objection,those will be received into the committee files.

I take it, Mr. Passett, that what you are sayingis very much the same as the National AdvisoryCommission on Civil Disorders said, and I quote:

"A sure method for motivating the hard-core

unemployed has not yet been devised, One fact,however, is already clear from the experience of theJob Corps and Neighborhood Youth Corps andManpower Development and Training Project,The previously hard-core unemployed trainee oremployee must believe that he is not being trainedfor or offered a deadend job."

I think, too, though, that it isn't quite correctto say, out of a desire to protect the good nameof the poor or disadvantaged, that they all willrespond to the offering of training or a job, be-cause we have so much experience to the contrary.

I think you and I would agree that the greatmajority of poor people have the same kind ofmotivation and desires that we all have today,and those percentages of the poor will respondwith alacrity to any kind of offered opportunity.But I don't think there is any way we can denythat there are a great many people from disad-vantaged or deprived backgrounds who have losta great deal of their motivation or their hope orself-confidence, and that thereby are limited some-what in their ability to take advantage of oppor-tunities.

I give you two examples that we have heardof in other hearings separate from these. For ex-ample, a building trades union local here in Wash-ington initiated an apprenticeship program, re-cruited actively, and paid stipends during thetraining period. There was a real job at the endof the period as an apprentice and then a journey-man in the local building trade union, but most ofthe trainees dropped out very early in the pro-gram before its completion.

Another is a Chicago business which decidedthat in being the last major employer in a veryrapidly deteriorating slum, they had to make someinvestment in the slum or else move away. Theyinitiated, without Federal funds, a training pro-gram with stipends, and a real job at the end.Yet most of their trainees dropped out before thecompletion of the program.

In addition to saying that the important thingwas that people know there was a career aheadand career ladder and so forth, and how thatchanged the success and experience of your pro-gram, you also pointed out that:

"This was done in the preservice orientationand training period which stressed self-awareness,individual goal setting and group support."

In other words, you felt in addition to just tell-ing the fellow that there was a real job, and areal opportunity for advancement, apparently hehad to do something else. It is that somethingelse we are particularly interested in.

11

MR. PASSET1r, I agree quite wholeheartedly,Senator, that there is something else. The reasonI stress the point so strongly is that we have along tradition of making people get set for em-ployment and ready for it, and then the job comesat the end of the road, I was stressing verystrongly the fact that if the job is there first, thenthese other programs that we engage inandthey include training, counseling and other thingswhich I think we know quite a bit aboutcantake, can become a lot more effective, and a lotof the things that we do know a whole lot aboutsuddenly begin to work, or they at feast shouldwork.

SENATOR HARRIS. I wonder if we do know verymuch about it. I mean, we all agree that firstyour hope must be real, and that is the problemabout so many of the training programs in Amer-ica todaythey don't lead anywhere. We trainpeople to get ready, to get motivated and to gettrained and then there is no job. I think that isa major thing you have said, and one with whichI certainly agree. Hope must be real. The train-ing and counseling must obviously lead to some-thing.

But past that, I wonder if we do know muchabout the motivation and the many other factorsinvolved.

You know, I think there are a great manypeople in America, and I am not talking justabout Negroes, I am talking, for example, aboutpoor whites in eastern Oklahoma who, if you wentthere with a loudspeaker and said, "There is a realjob if you will just sign up with this program,"I think would still hold back.

MR. PAssErr. Absolutely. Normally we pickpeople up at the point where they have been en-rolled by some sort of outreach process in newcareers programs. Both in New York City andin New 'Jersey, where local community actionagencies or community corporations in the NewYork experience, have had a good deal of successin their outreach. They have been able to bringpeople in. They have had a much more mixedsuccess in being able to hold them in programsas you describe to the point where the job reallytakes.

What we have been trying to provide is thatglue between the outreach and the more perm-anent setting in the job situation. That involvesa strongly process-oriented kind of training, whichis designed to (1) increase their self-awareness,(2) to help them set their own goals, and also,very significantly, (3) for the group to support allits members, and to support individuals in the

kind of goals they are setting for themselves, andhelp them keep those goals extremely realistic.

SENATOR HARRIS. Can you describe those in anymore detail. How you go about that?

MR. PASSETT. Well, I should at this point turnthis over to the people who actually did the Pater-son Code Enforcement Aide project.

SENATOR HARRIS. Are some of them with you?MR. PASSETT. Yes.SENATOR HARRIS. If you would like to call them

up, it would be fine. Just call them up and identifythem.

MR. PASSETT. Glenn Parker, who was the train-ing chief on the Paterson project is here with me.

Why don't you just go through the early partof the curriculum and that program?

SENATOR HARRIS. Tell us what you did, for ex-ample, with respect to self-awareness?

MR. PARKER. Well, before we started any kindof training, we met with the enrollees, got to knowthem, and talked with them about the program,I think what we tried to lay out for them was:Here are the steps. Here are the things that youcan do. Here is a job as a code enforcement aide.Here are some of the requirements for the job.Let's look at some of the things you are going tohave to do.

We looked at that in some of the training. Thisis a job that requires public contact. You haveto go into people's homes. You are going to haveto be admitted to those homes to make inspec-tions, to enforce the code. Then we did some roleplaying of those kinds of situations. We did somerole playing where a housewife was called upon ata home at 10 or 11 in the morning. And you haveto be admitted voluntarily to the home to makethe inspection.

SENATOR HARRIS. Doesn't a lot of that have todo with self-confidence?

MR. PARKER. That is correct. And I think theysaw that their appearance, how they dressed, howthey comported themselves, what their generallook was was going to make some difference asto whether they were admitted to that home ornot. And then in the role playing of these situa-tions, that was highlighted to the enrollees. I thinkthat brought it home to them. They realized thatthey would be working not only in their ownneighborhoods, the black and the Puerto Ricanneighborhoods; but they would also probably haveto be making inspections in white neighborhoods,and they were black, and they were Puerto Rican,and the difficulties of making an entry into a homein those neighborhoods.

12

SENATOR HARRIS. How did you learn to dealwith the questions of self-confidence and self-awareness, or did you just have to make up yourphilosophy as you went along about the methodsyou would use? For example, what is significantabout the method of role playing?

MR. PARKER. Well, the role playing is an in-tegral part of most of the community actiontraining that we do. It is one variation ofvarious kinds of simulations of real experiencesthat the trainees are going to encounter, and wetry to make that kind of training as realistic aspossible. Now, the classroom training, includingthe simulations, was also combined with field ex-perience, where the enrollees were teamed up withregular experienced housing inspectors, and wentout in the field as kind of an apprentice inspectorand learned to do an inspection in the field witha regular inspector.

SENATOR HARRIS. Did you develop these meth-ods yourself or did you get them from books, ad-vice, or what?

MR. PARKER. Well, the methodology of roleplaying has been used for a number of years inadult education and in training, both in industryand in government, and what we do is we developsituations that are relevant to the particular train-ing that we are doing.

For example, when we came across this questionof what kind of difficulties would you encounterin entering a home, we, on the spot, developed asituation with a woman who was a member of thestaff acting as a housewife, reluctant to open adoor to a stranger who was trying to make aninspection. And she commented on appearanceand other factors as to whether she would be will-ing to allow someone to enter her home.

MR. PASSETT. A lot of this seems to be veryunusual. We are constantly told that our trainingtechniques are very unusual or very revolutionary.Really they are not. They are in the mainstreamof the more advanced adult education techniquesthat are being used or have been developed atleast over the last 10 or 20 years.

SENATOR HARRIS. It seems to me, Mr. Passett,and that is one of the purposes of these hearings,that they are not being used.

MR. PASSETT. Yes. Big industry has been ableto afford to use them, but public programs havenot.

SENATOR HARRIS. For example, the businessagents of the carpenters union says, "Look, we hadthis program and we were paying these people tocome to the training program and we were going

to teach them to be first-rate apprentices in thecarpenter trade, and they could move right onup and become journeymen, and they all droppedout, so it is hopeless, Why should' we just keepon? There isn't anything we can do about it. Theyjust are not interested, They don't want to work,and therefore we are just not going to try it anymore.),

My point is that we need more programs, withthe kinds of experiences that you have had, whichdo a little more than teach this fellow how to bea carpenter, He comes with a certain kind ofspecial problem that we have to deal with, Justas he doesn't have any knowledge of how to bea carpenter, he also lacks social skills in how tolive in society, in a modern society.

I think that isn't generally understood, and thatis the essence of these hearings.

MR. PASSETT. I was going to say that the onedifference or the significant difference, and thiswould apply to the carpenter as well as the codeenforcement aide, is that all of our training beginswith where the trainees are, and with their needs.

One of the problems in the educational systemis that it always starts with where the system isand where it wants to go. Now, any first-graderis going to start with whatever the first-gradereader is for that class, no matter what his needsare, and it is the same, I would suppose, in thecase of the carpenters. The group of people aregoing to be taught what the chief carpenter wantsthem to know, without any relation to their ownneeds. What we have learned comes out of theexperience of dealing with people taking on whollynew jobs in the field of community organization,which is new in the American experience. Youhave to start with where the group of trainees is,what are its needs, its aspirations, and goals, andthen work from there to develop the curriculumthat is a compromise between the goals of thegroup and the goals of the system into which thegroup is trying to integrate itself. And the codeenforcement project is a good example.

We have done the same with adult educationaides and. relocation aides and people in welfareand education subprofessional positions as well.It is extremely important to start with wherethey want to go, and then look at where the sys-tem wants them to go, and then try to have themmove step by step across a lattice, in a sense, asthey go up and learn more skills. The same systemshould be utilized in working with top managerslike superintendents of schools or welfare directors.

SENATOR HARRIS. What I want to try to extractfrom these hearings is what it is that you can

13

write down and tell people that they can do. Evenif, say, they are not the most dedicated teachers,if you could refine the methodology you use, youwould have something. Of course what is hap-pening now in lots of places, projects are basedalmost entirely on dedication.

For example, in the firm I was talking about inChicago, 92 out of 100 of their trainees droppedout, a lot of them left on coffeebreaks. They feltthey were in prison. When the coffeebreak came,they just left and never came back. A lot ofpeople I think would have done what this build-ing trade local I was talking about did. They justsaid, "That just shows you there is nothing youcan do with these people. We are paying goodmoney, we are paying them a stipend and wehave a job for them and they are just not goingto do it. So it is hopeless."

What that company did was to decide that theywere going to try it one more time, "There mustbe something that we can do other than just putthe fellow out there on the line and try to teachhim the job that might keep him in," And nowthat is working. But it is working really just onkind of muddling through. They don't know ex-actly what they are doing, but they have takenthe large group and have broken them down intosmall groups of six apiece and use a kind of buddysystem. It seems to be working, but they don'tknow exactly why it is working, except that theyare trying to do more and take more interest inthe person as a human beingmore than just toteach him how to run a lathe or whatever.

Well, that is what particularly interests me.Something else is involved. That is why I aminterested in what you are doing in that field, be-cause of your successes, Did you want to saysomething further?

Why don't you identify yourself for the recordhere?

MR. FLEMING. I am Al Fleming, also of thetraining institute.

I think, Senator, that part of the methodologyhas to be involved with the trainee himself in thewhole process. I think a lot of our success is basedon this, that we do in this initial step in the pro-gram development stage sit down with the traineeand have him help us develop a curriculum, sothat he feels he is a part of the process, and thathe can move up, on a step-by-step basis as theprogram progresses. He can then recognize thathis expectations, what he told us in the beginning,are being met in the program, by us, by his peers,by himself.

SENATOR HARRIS. Let me ask you this. I am

trying to find some universal principles here whichmight be important not just for your type of pro-gram but, say, for the public school system.

By that kind of approach, perhaps one of thethings you are doing, and Dr. Kenneth Clark andothers have found is often not present in a ghettoschool, is that you are saying, "I believe you canlearn. I have faith that you can learn," And often,as Clark and others have found, teachers in theghetto schools don't believe they can learn, andthey oblige.

It is that kind of principle that we are par-ticularly looking for,

Another may be the type of relationship withthe teacher. Some of us can learn without anyclose relationship with the teacher; that is, in apurely authoritarian situation. Others may needto be asked to take a part in the learning processthemselves, to be involved in deciding what sortof course they will have, and may necessarily haveto have some kind of close, warm, and personalrelationship with the person that is attemptingto do the teaching. That may be a principle alsoinvolved in what you are doing. Do any of youhave any comment on that?

MR. PARKER. Yes. One example from thesecode enforcement aides that we have been re-ferring to. When they first reported for work, thefirst day they came at 9 o'clock to the city housinginspections division, and they discovered thatthere was nothing for them to do. They weresupposed to begin in their on-the-job trainingphase, to be going out, as I said, in teams withexperienced housing inspectors. Well, between 9and 10 in the morning the inspectors set up theirappointments for the day to go out into the fieldand make inspections. At this time the aides hadnothing to do.

Well, by Tuesday or Wednesday they were com-ing in at 9:15, 9:30, or closer to 10. What theywere seeing was that there was no work for them,so why come in on time. The chief inspectorsimply applied some intelligence and some con-cern to this situation. Since he was not involvedin making these appointments, he said, "I willmeet with you between 9 and 10 and we will talkabout what you did yesterday in going out intothe field."

Well, that is employing some intelligence, butalso some concern, and he said to them, "Be hereat 9 o'clock. I will be here at 9." And they cameat 9, and I think that is significant.

SENATOR HARRIS. Very good. I think it is, too.When I was in Harlem recently, I visited withsome people about various kinds of programs.

14

,IMMMIIIMINI=MITINIMININWIMMIMMININMINNIPPWMINIn

One man, a very good man, who is active inseveral human resources development programsthere in Harlem said, "I wish we could abolishthe local Neighborhood Youth Corps program andstart over." He said, "It does this one thing, Itdoes put some money in the hands of families whoneed it. But I am afraid that the long-rangeeffect of what we are doing is destructive, becausethese kids just really arc involved in a sort ofplaying at work. They know it. The people ad-ministering the program know it. And it reallyprobably is more destructive than it is helpful."What you are talking about fits in with that alittle bit, that is, to know that the trainee reallyis going somewhere, and that what he is doinghas some meaning for him individually. We donot just want to carry out a program that helpsget money in somebody's hands. Does that haveany parallel with what you tried first and whatyou did second?

MR. PARKER. I think very, very directly, be-cause it is probably the case that most Neighbor-hood Youth Corps jobs don't lead to anythingpermanent. If they do, they lead to jobs whichdon't have any kind of opportunity for advance-ment. I think that the kind of new careers, sub-professional jobs that we are talking about dohave that built in, if they are good programs.They do have that built in, that a person canmove from an aide to an assistant to an associate,and perhaps to a professional position, with addi-tional training, with additional counseling, withadditional educational opportunities which shouldbe arid need to be built into the system, so onecan get a high school equivalency, one can get alicense or one can begin college, in order to getthe credentials necessary in order to move up, butalso to get the experience and the knowledgenecessary to do the job. I think that is crucialto this program.

SENATOR HARRIS. Very good.Anything further?MR. PASSETT. You were reaching, Senator, to

a point before, regarding the relationship betweenthe trainer and the trainee that I thought wassomewhat important, in light of your earlier pointconcerning the school system. Just an additionalemphasis on the fact that it is extremely usefulif the trainees can identify in some way with thetrainer. It multiplies the efficiency of the trainingprogram significantly if, for whatever reason, theycan feel that the trainer, through this process ofdeveloping a program with them, is identifyingwith them without, as was stated in previous

testimony that I heard this morning, withoutgoing too far in that identification and therebylosing the thread of the entire process that he isinvolved in. Once again, it has been our abilityto hire people for their competence, their abilityto identify with and, therefore, motivate the dis-advantaged, and their commitment to social jus-tice that has been our strength. If we had toworry about degrees or publications or other ir-

15

relevant paper considerations, we probably couldnot have done the job, It seems that only OE()has been willing to subsidize efforts like ours, out-side the mainstream of the educational system.If more such training programs could be devel-oped, we could be more helpful to your inquiry.

SENATOR HARRis. Very good. A very stimulat-ing discussion.

Thank you very much.

THE POOR BRING ADULT EDUCATION TO THE GHETTO

by BARRY A. PASSETT and GLENN M. PARKER

Training made it possible for 24 poor peoplemost of them unemployed or on welfareto pro-vide educational experience to move than 70()adults living in six urban ghettoes of New Jersey.As adult education aides, non-profmionals couldget to an adult poverty population that had notbeen reached by the school system.

The training was provided in a demonstrationthat was designed to: (1) develop new careeropportunities for non-professionals in adult educa-tion programming; (2) test new methods ofbringing adult education to residents of low-income neighborhoods, and (3) test the capabilityof three training resources.

Some of the trainees had high school diplomasbut many were dropouts. They had no ex-perience in developing, administering or eval-uating adult education courses of any kind. Bythe end of the demonstration, the trainees haddesigned and were conducting more than 50 dif-ferent adult education courses for disadvantagedpeople in their own neighborhoods. The coursesincluded housing problems, sewing, typing, short-hand, Social Security benefits and many othersubjects,

One enterprising aide in Camden could not gettarget area residents to sign up for a history class.To get people interested, one night he held athree-hour session on the History of Jazz. Twenty-three people attended and 19 decided to continueparticipating in classes on the history of the Negro.And a visitor to an afternoon shorthand classfound every seat taken and had to stand in therear of the room until the session ended.

The pilot project provided non-professionalswith on-the-job training experience on how tosurvey a disadvantaged neighborhood to find outwhat kind of adult education courses the peoplewanted and needed. Then the aides were trainedto use local resources to determine the coursesthat should be taught, to plan an adult educationprogram, to recruit teaching staff, to assist in ad-ministering the program and to help mobilize thecommunity.

Adult education is an uncharted area for the"new careers" concept. Even the adult educatorhimself is a newcomer to the ranks of the profes-sional. Only a few universities offer graduate de-

Reprinted from ./dull Leadership, March, 1968, pp. 326-328, 348.

16

grees in adult education and most of those areof recent origin. The director of a public schooladult program usually begins his career by teach-ing a few courses in the evening while filling afull-time teaching job at a public school. Grad-ually, he moves into the adult program. He thenmust compete with the groups outside of publiceducationlabor unions, churches, civic groupswho have taken upon themselves the responsibilityfor programs of adult education.

This situation has made it impossible to defineclear career ladders for a non-professional in thearea of adult education. There are, in fact, veryfew permanent jobs for non-professionals in theentire fieldand most of those were created withTitle 11-B Economic Opportunity Act funds. How-ever, the New Jersey effort has proven that theneed for non-professionals in this area is signif-icant, particularly as the number of programs in-crease and as they try to reach more people ineconomically deprived neighborhoods.

The training program was conducted by theNew Jersey Community Action Training Institute.To obtain the freedom necessary for a demon-stration, it was agreed that for the duration ofthe projecttwo of the programs ran for five (5)months, one for six (6) months the traineeswould be employed by community action agencies.The participating agencies were Middlesex CountyEconomic Opportunities Corporation, Jersey CityCAN-DO, Camden Council on Economic Oppor-tunity, Community Action for Economic Oppor-tunity (Elizabeth) and Atlantic Human Re-sources.

One hall of their stipends was funded by theTraining Institute and the remainder was pro-vided by the CAA. The stipends ranged from$300 to $333 per month depending upon the salaryscale of the Agency. All the participating CAAsmade commitments at the outset to hire thetrainees at the end of the demonstration. (It wasmade clear that attempts would be made to de-velop jobs in the school system for the trainees.)However, because of cutbacks in the CAP funds,not all of these commitments were met.

The TraineesThe trainees were recruited from target neigh-

borhoods by the community action agencies. The

following selection criteria used by one of theprograms is typical:

I . I residencecandidates were required to beresidents of indigent communities in thecities in which they lived.

. . economic status--candidates had to meetthe federal poverty guidelines.

. . . demonstrated leadership ability.. . involvement in community activites.. . chronic unemployment or underemploy-

ment., . . interest in adult education.. . . ability to read and communicate.. . . general appearance.The background of the trainees selected for the

program is significant. Of the twenty-four whocompleted the program, one-half were welfare re-cipients or unemployed when selected. The re-mainder were employed in low-wage jobs such ashospital attendant, factory operative and waitress.The educational attainment of the trainees rangedfrom six who had not completed high school tothree who had completed college but were unem-ployed because of physical or psychological handi-caps. Fifteen trainees had completed high school.There was no significant relationship between ed-ucational attainment and success in the program.

The demonstration began with 30 trainees. How-ever, six aides were lost to the program for avariety of reasons: accepting more gainful em-ployment, alcoholism, illness, and disagreementwith the CAP agency over the use of the aides.

The TrainersThe program was conducted under contract by

three agencies, each with a different trainingstyle:

I I I The Bureau of Community Services, a partof the Extension Division of Rutgers-TheState University, provided ten trainees inJersey City, Camden and New Brunswickwith a traditional university adult learn-ing experience.

. . . A private consulting firm, Scientific Re-sources, Inc. (S.R.I.), emphasized sensi-tivity training and other laboratory ed-ucational techniques in a program con-ducted for six trainees in Elizabeth.

I I Atlantic Human Resources, Inc. (AHR),the community action agency for Atlanticand Cape May Counties, made adult ed-ucation a part of its total anti-povertyeffort in a program for eight trainees.

The total cost of the three programs was ap-proximately $100,000. Rutgers and SRI received

17

the largest grants because of higher overhead andadministrative costs. However, it was assumedthat the projects would benefit from the otherresources which the university and consulting firmcould provide in the way of assistance to theprogram.

In format the Rutgers and AHR programs weresimilar. The Rutgers program began with a weekof classroom training after which the aides wereplaced under CAP supervision in the field forfour days each week. One day a week they re-turned for further classroom training and a dis-cussion of on-the-job problems. The AHR pro-gram differed only in that it began with two weeksof class work.

After three days of orientation, the SRI aidesbegan a process which involved dividing theirday between classroom training and field work.This was possible since all of the trainees in thisgroup worked in Elizabeth while the other twoprograms included trainees from several widelyscattered cities.

The Training ProgramAlthough as outlined above the approach of the

trainers differed considerably the basic goals ofthe three programs were similar. Specifically, theaides were trained to and did perform the follow-ing tasks:

Survey a Low-Income Neighborhood Thepremise of the program was that every course setup should be based on the expressed needs of thepotential students. It was based on the assump-tion that one of the reasons that poor people werenot utilizing existing adult education programswas that they were not related to their needs.In addition to being a crucial prerequisite for theestablishment of the courses, the survey providedvaluable field training for the aides.

Survey of Community Agencies and Organiza-tions While surveying the low-income neigh-borhood, the aides also determined what re-sources in the community might be helpful to theprogram. In addition to the public school adulteducation director, they contacted churches, civilrights groups, public officials and other commun-ity groups and leaders who might provide theaides with information on programs to which theycould refer people who could not be accommodatedby their program.

Establish an Adult Education Course Uponthe completion of the survey each aide establisheda course. The course dealt with the subject mostneeded by the people interviewed in the survey.It was held at a time which the survey indicated

as most convenient for those wishing to take thecourse. The courses set up included typing, short-hand, basic education, preparation for the highschool equivalency test, Negro history, and sew-ing, among others. Approximately 7(X) peopleparticipated in the courses run by the aides inthe three projects.

Arrange for the Classroom Facility The aideshad the option of using any facility that wouldmeet the test of convenience for the students. Asa result only a few classes were held in schools,Most were located in such places as churches,neighborhood centers, community rooms of hous-ing projects and in homes. In every case, how-ever, it was the aide's responsibility to obtain thefacility.

Arrange for the Instructor No criterion otherthan ability to do the job, was used to select theinstructor. As a result, both professional andnon-professional instructors were used. In manycases the aides taught the course. For example,several women taught sewing while other aidestaught basic education with programmed ma-terials. In some cases the project staff and othersin the community assisted the aides in locatingan appropriate instructor.

Recruitment of the Students After thecourses were established, the aides went back tothose who had indicated interest in the courseduring the survey. This group provided the nu-cleus for each class. Enrollment was increased by(a) direct recruitment by the aides on a door-to-door basis, (b) door-to-door recruitment bythose already interested in the course, and (c)publicity by community organizations.

After the class began the aide's job turned toretention of the students. When a student failedto attend a class, the aide made a home visit todetermine the reason for the absence and to en-courage return to class. This expression of con-cern was a unique feature of the program.

Evaluation of the Course At the end of eachcourse, the aides were responsible for the conductof an evaluation. The methods of evaluationdiffered in the three programs. Some used a stu-dent opinion and attitude questionnaire. In somebasic education classes, reading and arithmetictests were administered prior to and at the end ofthe course to determine progress.

The Goals of the ProjectSome Conclusions and Recommendations

1. Non-professionals lacking training and ex-perience in adult education programming can betrained to perform on a limited basis many tasks

18

now conducted only by professionals, While it isclear that the aides in this demonstration couldnot manage a total program offering a variety ofcourses they were able to carry through the pro-cess with one course. The key to the program wasthe field training which provided the trainees withthe opportunity of performing all the steps in-volved in the development and conduct of acourse. In fact, the procedure which they em-ployed is considerably more elaborate than isgenerally followed in public school programs,

2. At the outset jobs with the CAP were as-sured for all the aides. All the participating CAPsagreed to include these slots in their succeeding0E0 grant application. However, the cutback inCAP funds for 1967 meant that in some casesthese jobs were not available at the end of thedemonstration. Nevertheless, only three of theaides who wanted to work are unemployed as ofthis writing. Two other aides did not seek workbecause of family obligations.

Since there appeared to be jobs available forthe aides upon completion of the demonstration,the project directors paid little attention to jobplacement until the last month of the program.However, five aides were offered jobs as aides withthe school systemand three accepted these posi-tions. The other two took positions with CAPprograms offering higher salaries. More could havebeen done to develop other jobs with public schooladult programs.

The offers of employment came about as a resultof close cooperation between the aides and theadult educator directors in Camden and NewBrunswick. The directors knew of the aides' workand wanted to have them continue their efforts inthe city. It is probably true that a conscious effortalong these lines in other cities would have re-sulted in the development of more non-CAP jobs.

Nevertheless, in addition to the three aides whowere employed by public school adult programs,one took a position as a special education teacher,one was hired by SRI, and one by the TrainingInstitute. The others went with CAP programs.All but three received salary increases in theirnew jobs.

3. It is clear that the success of the courses wasdirectly related to the effectiveness of the survey.A good survey meant that the courses establishedwere relevant to the needs of the students. Ofthe three training groups, the Rutgers traineesconducted the most thorough survey and theyexperienced the least problem with recruitmentand retention of the students. This was true de-spite the fact that the courses were held during

a summer heat wave in facilities lacking air con-ditioning. Attendance problems in the other twoprograms can be attributed in part to a surveythat lacked scope and depth. It is vital to baseprograms on the needs of the people.

The Rutgers survey also indicated that the poorpeople involved did not see basic education, as itis currently defined by the school system, as beingjob or income related. It is viewed as a somethingwhich is "nice to know" but unrelated to theirimmediate need which is "bread." Thus, theyopted for typing, shorthand, GED preparation,sewing and tenant rightscourses which couldlead to a job, help stretch the family income orimprove their living conditions.

4. Use of non-school facilities proved to be 4successful innovation. The public school was oftenviewed by the students as a place of past failureto which they did not want to return. Addi-tionally, in some cases, it was not within easyaccess of their home. The most radical departurein classroom facility recorded in the program wasthe moving of one class to a neighborhood barwhen attendance declined at an original class loca-tion. A few New Jersey public school adult classesare held now in non-school facilities. More move-ment in this direction is needed.

5. The demonstration did not have a structuredcomparative evaluation of the three trainers. How-ever, each project submitted an evaluation reportand the Institute project manager maintainedregular contact with the agencies and frequentlyvisited the programs.

In relation to the potential, access to the uni-versity contributed little to the Rutgers program.The sense of being part of a major university fora brief period of time may have had some mo-tivational benefits but no significant tangible con-tribution was made by the university. SRI, onthe other hand, brought in several members of itstraining and materials development staff to assistthe project staff at various times. AHR also con-tributed both staff resources and facilities of itsproject and integrated the efforts of the aides withthe other components of the agency.

In terms of personal development of the aides,SRI clearly did the best job. Their sensitivitytraining and other laboratory techniques resultedin considerable personal growth and motivation.However, they failed to provide the aides withthe knowledge and skills necessary for adult edu-cation programming. The Rutgers and, to a lesserextent, the AHR programs did a more effectivejob of training the aides to design and administeran adult education course. Their survey prior to

19

the establishment of the course was also betterAs a result more low-income people were reachedby the programs. It is, therefore, fair to concludethat the program would have been better servedby a training curriculum which included bothapproaches.

6. Cooperation between this demonstration andon-going public school programs was uneven. Insome cities effective cooperation was achieved andit clearly helped the program. Resources and as-sistance were provided by the public school staffand, most important, they received a clear pictureof the program's results. It is significant that inthe two cities where the best cooperation wasachieved, the trainees were offered jobs with theschool program. One of the major shortcomingsof the project was the failure to involve the publicschool adult educators more effectively, bothlocally and at the State level. As a result thedemonstration was viewed by some professionalsas a threat. It should be noted, however, thatNew Jersey Community Action Training Institutehad cooperated with Rutgers University in a week-long seminar for two dozen adult education supervisors. The seminar was focused on the needs ofthe poor.

7. Involvement of the CAP also varied con-siderably. The CAP conducted the AHR projectand it was fully integrated into AHR's totaleffort. Trainees in the other programs exper-ienced the problem of serving two masters theCAP and the project staff.

As the Rutgers Project Director put it:The CAP was responsible for supervising the

Aide on a daily basis and the project staff inall matters related to training. This arrange-ment proved to be extremely difficult becauseof the confusion created for the Aides. Theywere asked to serve two bosses and it is notpossible to do this effectively.

A complicating factor was that each super-visor had ultimate objectives that were some-what different. The CAP Director was in-terested in his organizations and in initiatingas many different programs as possible. Thiswas certainly a reasonable objective for a CAPDirector. Just as reasonable, however, was theinterest by the project staff to try as manydifferent techniques as possible on an experi-mental basis.A somewhat different but related problem was

reported by SRI:The full potential of communication between

the Aides and CAFEO (CAP Agency) was notreached because:

a, of the demand placed on the Aides' time bythe training curriculum and

b. the fact that due to lack of space the train-ing facilities were separated from CAFE()headquarters. This resulted in the Aidesbeing viewed as a separate entity insteadof an integral component of CAFEO. Theywere in fact often referred to as the "SRIgroup."

The failure to fully integrate the work of theAides with the on-going programs of the CAPmust be assumed by the project staff and theTraining Institute. A much better job of orienta-tion initially and of continuous contact through-out the program with the CAP staff could havebeen done.

Demonl;r?tions succeed only in so far as theyimpact established programs. The anti-poverty

program, in New Jersey and elsewhere has beencriticized for the scarcity of programs for theadult poor. Professional adult educators, in turn,have been criticized by anti-poverty workers fortheir failure to reach a sizeable number of thepoverty population. The ideas emanating fromthis demonstration suggest some remedies for thosecomplaints.

The project took 24 poor peoplemost of themunemployed or on welfareand gave them anopportunity for a job and perhaps a chance for acareer. It did bring some fresh ideas to adulteducation programming and reach more than 700low-income people with its courses. And it diddemonstrate that nonprofessionals can be trainedto perform many of the tasks of the professionaladult educator.

20

NEW CAREERS IN PUBLIC WELFARE

by GLENN M. PARKER

"Outmoded and in need of major change" wasthe way President Lyndon B. Johnson describedthe welfare system in 1967 when he established aPresidential Commission on Income MaintenancePrograms. The Commission was directed to studysubstitutes for welfare such as the guaranteedannual income, negative income tax and familyallowance.

Complete elimination of the welfare system isprobably a long way off. Meanwhile, one methodof improving the quality of service under thepresent structure may be the successful utiliza-tion of nonprofessional aides in public welfareagencies.

The New Jersey Civil Service Commission re-cently created the job title "welfare aide." Sinceall counties in the state are covered by civil serv-ice regulations, the county welfare boards maynow hire nonprofessionals and give them civilservice status. Almost simultaneously several localcommunity action agencies have received ScheurerAmendment grants to hire and place nonprofes-sionals in public employment. Many of theScheurer job slots are slated for city and countywelfare departments.

Initially, the trainees will not be permanentemployees of the welfare department since mostwill not have sufficient education or experienceto qualify for the entry-level welfare aide position.They will be paid stipends from the Scheurergrant. However, the goal is to have the traineesqualify for civil service status and transfer to thewelfare department payroll.

It seems clear from an examination of thewelfare aide job description that vestiges of earlierthinking on the nonprofessional in social work stillremain. About ten years ago, a new careerist ornonprofessional was someone with a college degreebut lacking sufficient or appropriate credits forcertification. Social workers were primarily re-sponsible for this definition.1 A number of dem-onstrations designed to test the effectiveness ofthis kind of nonprofessional have been conducted.2However, because of the educational requirements,none of the participants were from the populationserved by the poverty program.

The work of Frank Riessman and others haschanged considerably the thinking of many onthe use of nonprofessionals.3 Yet more work mustbe done if the New Jersey welfare aide positionexemplifies the current state of thinking. Althoughthe establishment of this classification is clearlya breakthrough for "new careers," further think-ing, and, indeed, some action is necessary.

Having made considerable reference to the wel-fare aide job description, it might be instructiveto outline some of its salient features:

Definition: Under direction, performs clericaltasks and makes preliminary fact-finding in-vestigations of financial and other resources ofapplicants and their families . . .;

Examples of Work: With minimal client con-tact, makes preliminary field investigations ofapplicants for public assistance and related wel-fare services in order to collect authenticateddata concerning financial status, work histories,residence histories, the names and addresses oflegally responsible and other relatives, and otherinformation required for the determination ofeligibility . . .;

Requirements: (1) graduation from HighSchool or Vocational High School or possessionof an approved High School Equivalent Cer-tificate; (2) two years of experience in workinvolving the investigations of personal financialmatters, credit, or other investigations.

Note: Full time attendance at a college oruniversity of recognized standing may be sub-situted for the above experience requirement ona year-for-year basis.With this as background and with serious at-

tempts being made to use low-income nonprofes-sionals as aides in public welfare agencies, anexamination of some of the creative possibilitiesand some of the problems seems appropriate.

Crea.tive PossibilitiesOne of the traditional arguments for the use of

nonprofessionals is the need to meet the man-power shortages which face all human serviceoccupations, including public welfare. While thisis still very much true, equally compelling is the

Reprinted from Public Welfare, Vol. XXVII No. 2, April 1969, pp. 112-116 with the permission of the American Public WelfareAssociation. The central ideas for this paper were first presented at a seminar held in October 1967 in Asbury Park, New Jersey.The seminar was cosponsored by the Institute and the New Jersey Division of Public Welfare for County Welfare Directors andCommunity Action Agency Directors. The author wishes to acknowledge the assistance of Robert L. Moore, Executive Director,Camden Council on Economic Opportunity.

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need to retain the current staff of caseworkers.Thus, it is quite possible that relieving caseworkersof many routine tasks and thereby allowing themto concentrate on the more creative counseling-helping aspects of their job would encourage themto remain with public welfare agencies.4

It is well known that after a few years of ex-perience, many caseworkers leave the welfare de-partment for jobs which not only have highersalaries but offer better opportunities for use oftheir skills.

Most important, however, are the possibilitiesof improved service for the welfare client. Thewelfare aide can make some significant contribu-tions toward the achievement of this goal. Theaide can relieve the caseworker of much of thefact-finding investigations of the financial andother resources of the applicants needed to deter-mine eligibility.

As a result the caseworker will have more timeto devote to those families in his case load witha wide range of serious problems requiring sig-nificant input of his time and skill. However,limiting the aide's job to simply investigationdoes not reflect the thinking of progressive socialtheorists who see a movement in welfare from anemphasis on investigation to a focus on socialservice.5

Additionally, this investigation emphasis is im-practical because (a) nonprofessionals can per-form other tasks which will improve service tothe recipient and ( b) for career development pur-poses the aides need to learn the more positivehelping aspects of the profession. At first, thesetasks might involve working with families whodo not have the more serious problems, but who,nevertheless, need various types of services. Inthese cases, the social worker often makes re-ferrals to other community agencies which providethe needed service. However, lack of time oftenprevents follow-through by the caseworker to in-sure that the person reached the agency and ob-tained the necessary attention and service.

At this point the welfare aide enters the picture.He can provide the necessary assistance which getsthe person to the service, i.e., baby sitting, trans-portation, appointments. He might also take theperson to the agency, and, if necessary, act as his"advocate" to insure that the service is obtained.The aide should also followup with the recipientto determine the value and effect of the service.The task of follow-up for the caseworker could beapplied to other areas as well.

It is extremely important that the aide learnto work with the families in such a helping fashion

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if this is indeed to be a career and not just a job.Only through this kind of experience can the non-professional learn the key elements of the case-worker's job: helping people.

In other human service agencies, considerableemphasis has been given to the use of nonpro-fessionals as a link between the agency and thecommunity. This is equally important for publicwelfare in providing feedback and communicationsin a new and probably more effective manner.As a resident of the low-income community theaide is "accepted" and can move more easilythrough the neighborhood than can many pro-fessional social workers.

Additionally, the aide's knowledge of the neigh-borhood can be of more direct service to the re-cipient. With training, the aide can advise re-cipients on how and where to buy food, drugs,clothing, furniture and other items at reasonableprices. He can also organize self-help groups ofwelfare recipients, i.e. baby-sitting cooperatives.

Gertrude Goldberg has reported on a programwhich uses nonprofessionals in this manner.°

Fifteen neighborhood women were employedby a social agency as visiting homemakers whosejob was primarily to teach low-income familiesgreater competence in home management. As-signed to homes for several full- or half-days aweek, homemakers would help mothers to im-prove their skills in such home-managementtasks as shopping, cleaning, sewing, budgeting,taking care of their children, planning their time,and cooking.

In addition to home teaching, homemakersdid a variety of other tasks, several of themindirectly educational. They offered some serv-ices traditionally done by case aides such asescorting persons to clinics and helping them toestablish eligibility for public assistance or pub-lic housing (which were often efforts to teachthe use of community resources). Like caseaides they also provided companionship or psy-chological support as part of a casework plan.Homemakers maintained a baby-sitting centerwhere mothers could leave their youngsterswhile they did errands or kept appointments.Finally, they performed the mother-substituteor mother's helper type of assignment usuallyassociated with homemaker programs when itbecame necessary to complement existing city-wide homemaker services.

Some ProblemsOne of the major problems is the difficulty of

developing a realistic career ladder which allows

a person to move from aide through a series ofsteps to caseworker. Simply creating the positionof welfare aide as was recently done in New Jerseyis not enough to satisfy the requirements of anew careers program. Several job levels betweenwelfare aide and caseworker must be created andpromotions based on added experience and train-ing. John E. Hi land, Jr., Staff Associate, Amer-ican Public Welfare Association, has suggested theladder of social work aide, social work assistantand social worker.? We need to examine thesocial worker's job to see how it can be fractionedand a career ladder established for nonprofes-sionals. Perhaps two nonprofessional slots aresufficientperhaps more are needed. And it mayvary with the size of the agency.

The need to provide for careers rather thansimply job opportunities has been treated exten-sively in the literature of new careers. Given thepresent system, it is extremely important, there-fore, that opportunities for further formal educa-tion be made readily available to the nonprofes-sional. This means preparation for the equivalencycertificate for the non-high school graduate andcollege training for those with high school di-plomas.

In New Jersey the new Chancellor of HigherEducation is seeking ways to bring college educa-tion to the State's disadvantaged population. Thenotion of college credit for field work experiencelong accepted by several progressive privatecolleges for middle-class studentsis one possibleanswer. The rapidly expanding community col-lege network should be the principal vehicle al-though recent innovations by Fairleigh DickinsonUniversity appear more promising. In coopera-tion with the New Jersey Community ActionTraining Institute, Fairleigh Dickinson developeda model for the translation of field experience andtraining into college credits in its Nursery Educa-tion Program. The model was successfully testedin a six-month field training program conductedfor the nonprofessional staff of ti e Newark Pre-school Council.

Other restructuring of university education mayalso be necessary. Nadine Felton has proposed aCareer Incentive Plan in which a non-professional's

it.. life experience (his knowledge of the dis-

advantaged environment, and his ability tocommunicate with the disadvantaged) and hiswork experience in the . . . field be consideredas partial accreditation toward the completionof course work for a B.A. degree . Further,to make it possible for him to continue workingat his job . . . the plan proposes that one-fifth

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or eight hours of the aide's working week beset aside so that he can attend college coursesat the job site, if possible; or at special centersfor such instruction, or at a nearby cooperatingcolleges"

We may also have to think about a Federal pro-gram of scholarships for nonprofessionals seekinghuman service careers and who can only attendcollege on a part-time basis.

Frank Riessman has outlined some of the prob-lems involved in the use of nonprofessionals. Manyof them are relevant to public welfare work.°However, special attention needs to be given tothe role of the aide and his relationship to thelow-income community.

In many urban areas the people who are mostknowledgeable about the welfare system are re-cipients who are active in welfare rights groups.Both as recipients and as activists in battlesagainst the welfare department they have learnedmuch of what a welfare aide needs to know toperform his job. Thus, they become the bestcandidates for these new nonprofessional jobs withthe welfare department.'°

If these activists are hired as welfare aides thequestion of how best to use them is crucial. Theirunderstanding of the welfare system, the day-to-day problems of welfare recipients and their "out-reach" to low-income communities must be util-ized. The welfare department must begin withthe assumption that these ideas can improve thedelivery of service not only through their per-formance of the caseworker's routine tasks butby serious consideration of and action on sugges-tions based on the aides' experience.

It should be clear that the community's viewof the aides will surely change once they are hiredby the department. Some of their neighbors maysay that they "sold out." Such reactions are in-evitable but can be overcome if thoughtful useof the aides is practiced.

The aide must not be seen exclusively as "theman:" While he may be making good suggestionsto the department some of which may result inimproved service, his neighbors and others in thecommunity may see him only in what they viewas a negative nonhelping role. Thus, it is impor-tant that the welfare aide be given other service-rendering and helping tasks which present a morepositive view to the community.

Problems may also be created by the low salariesof caseworkers in some areas. This makes it dif-ficult to create three or four nonprofessional jobslots below the caseworker; set the entry-levelsalary at something above the poverty line and

establish meaningful salary differentials betweenthe several job levels, For example, in about one-half of the New Jersey county welfare depart-ments, the starting salary for a caseworker is lessthan $5,500 a year,

Important, too, is the relationship between thecaseworker and the aide. Caseworkers may seethe introduction of aides in the department aspresenting more problems than assistance. Thenotion that the aide may represent a threat to thestatus of the professional has been treated else-where by others and will not be considered here.

The caseworker, already underpaid, may resentthe additional supervisory and training respon-sibilities which he acquires with the employmentof aides. This is crucial since one of the essentialingredients in a new careers program is effectiveon-the-job training. The bulk of this trainingmust be provided as part of the regular super-visory process,

A related problem is the possibility that theaide may be better liked by the recipients. Com-ing from the community, the aide may be ableto develop rapport based on similar life exper-iences. Additionally, "social workers simply can-not so easily attend weddings, family gatheringsand funerals as can neighborhood people."11 Theaide may use his "in" with the neighborhood toenhance his status in the agency while the case-worker may resent the aide's favored positionwith the recipients. The result is a destructiverelationship.

It would appear that the possibilities for crea-tive use of nonprofessionals in public welfare areequalled by the number of attendant problems.Our experience in New Jersey indicates that most'of the problems can be overcome by adequateadvance preparation. Unfortunately once theagency agrees to hire the aides, most programsfail to lay the proper groundwork in their hasteto get the aides on the job. However, it is just

24

this preparationthe development of realistic jobdescriptions and career ladders, opportunities foradditional education, the preparation of the exist-ing agency staff, especially the aides' supervisors,and some thoughtful preservice training for theaideswhich will result in successful utilizationof nonprofessionals.

REFERENCES

1The term "Social Work Associate" refers to a person with acollege degree. See Bertram M. Beck, "Wanted Now: Social WorkAssociates," Social Welfare Forum, Official Proceedings, 90th An-nual Forum, National Conference on Social Welfare, Cleveland,Ohio, 1963 (New York: Columbia University Press, 1963), pp.195-205.

2See Freeda B. Taran, The Utilization of NonprofessionalPersonnel in Social Work: /1 Review of Relevant Studies (NewYork: Mobilization for Youth, October, 1963), (Mimeographed.)

3See e.g. Arthur Pearl & Frank Riessman, New Careers forthe Poor (New York: The Free Press, 1965).

4Cf. Sidney A. Fine, Guidelines for the Design of New Careers(Kalamazoo, Mich.: The W.. E. Upjohn Institute for Employ-ment Research, September, 1967), pp. 1546.

51n New York City, for example, the new name of the welfaredepartment is the Department of Social Services and they areexperimenting with a program of simple declaration of need inlieu of extensive investigations to determine eligibility.

°Gertrude Goldberg, "The Untrained Worker in Social Work"in Arthur Pearl and Frank Riessman, New Careers for thePoor, op. cit.

%John E. Hi land, Jr., Employment of the Poor as PreProjes-sionals, Technical Assistance Project, American Public WelfareAssociation, 1968. (Mimeographed draft, 1967.)

°Nadine Felton, Career Incentive Plan for Higher Educationof Nonprofessionals (New York: New Careers Development Cen-ter, New York University, August, 1967). ( Mimeographed), p. 4.

9Need to understand rules of confidentiality, over-identificationwith the agency, resentment toward authority, and over-optimismturning into defeatism. See Frank Riessman, "The Revolutionin Social Work: The New Nonprofessional," Trans-Action (No-vember-December, 1964).

toAlthough they are not likely to be hired in New Jersey for anumber of reasons, not the least of which are the requirementsof both a high school diploma and two years of credit investiga-tion experience.

11Frank Riessman, Trans - Action, op. cit. p. 14.

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