The hills and valleys of Central Pennsylvania.

A good background for the Pennsylvania parade.

I'm PJ O'Connell.

And on this edition of Pennsylvania Parade, we'll look at a problem that we first examined in 1971 and which is still with us.

In fact, it's a problem with biblical roots.

Poverty.

The poor you always have with you is a residual human condition, sometimes better or worse but never fully resolved.

That has seldom stopped concerned individuals and organizations from devising projects and programs that would remedy poverty conditions.

The results have always been mixed and never final.

Notes on an Appalachia County was our effort here at Penn State Public Broadcasting to bring poverty to the forefront of public attention, if only for a little while.

The five-part series examined public attitudes, life on welfare, community action programs, a housing program, and a consciousness-raising effort directed toward community leadership.

Some things have changed since 1971.

You may not be surprised, however, to find that some things, namely the conditions of poverty and the attitudes of the community, sound quite familiar.

It does appear that the poor, along with efforts to rescue them, shall always be with us.

The first segment will review details the action of the Community Action Program in Blair County, Pennsylvania, the location for Notes on an Appalachia County.

NARRATOR: Blair County, Pennsylvania, if not poverty-stricken, at least has a sizable number of people who are statistically poor.

17% earn less than $3,000 annually.

Is anything being done about it?

There are a number of public and private social welfare agencies operating to assist people in need but with uncertain results when it comes to the larger question of eradicating poverty.

One of the most ambitious attempts has been the war on poverty.

Blair County has been part of the battleground and has provided a few little victories.

The first major obstacle we have is the philosophy of the county.

Generally speaking, they believe that these two mountain ranges which run along here keep everything out.

And we plan our programs-- NARRATOR: James Pritchard, executive director of the Blair County Economic Opportunity Council Incorporated, introduces his agency to a group of area clergymen.

Basically our philosophy is let's get them back in, or if they've never been there, let's get them into the mainstream.

Let's give them the advantages of the other part of the society.

And we do this only by people's participation.

We do not tell them what they need because we feel that this has been done too much, and this is why we have so many problems.

We allow them to identify their needs and the method in which they want to solve them, and we go with them.

And it's just a move to make what we supposedly have learned and been told about our lives about democracy.

We're just trying to make democracy really work for all the people.

Everything we are really doing that's long term is commitment to community organization, to organizing low income people, to community education, so that the low income people themselves know how to go about getting whatever it is that's needed to solve their individual problems or their community problems.

Kay is the coordinator of Community Action of Pennsylvania, correct?

Try Blair County.

Blair County.

OK.

But it's CAP.

Right.

OK with the OEO.

And she's going to speak to us around the issue or about of community action and the part that group process-- NARRATOR: Kay Maloney, community Development coordinator of the Blair County Economic Opportunity Council, meets with the class in community development at Penn State University.

Clear back about three months after we started having people in the field, which would mean like in August of '67.

We were having our first confrontation about what was our role in the community with members of our own board.

One of the men who had been most instrumental in establishing the Blair County Economic Opportunity Council, the nonprofit corporation for which I work, was suddenly all upset.

He was secretary of the borough of [indistinct].

And he had envisioned our field workers coming in there and doing nice little things like taking people down to the well-baby clinic and limiting activities to this kind of thing.

And when he heard that our field worker was out talking to the people in the area where the highway was about to go through and learning what their problems were, their terrible fears, the man got very upset, called up our office, enraged, and said, what business is it of yours to be doing this in our community?

You're supposed to be helping people, not interfering with the borough.

What steps are being taken in the community to try to improve the economic opportunity?

Well, we have as a goal the creation of 15 new jobs that are really meaningful jobs that didn't exist previously in Blair County.

You don't begin to cope with the total problems with $100,000 program.

That takes time to come.

You know, when you look on it, look at this whole thing on a few days at a time or a few months at a time, progress may be very minimal.

And certainly, the community at large does not accept the group functioning as a justification for the funding that we receive from federal funds.

Federal funds are suspect in a conservative area like ours anyway.

If we can demonstrate in a year though that we've helped four families make a permanent change from a welfare dependent status to a secure independent status, we can probably write off the money that costs our agency for that year, and anything else we do then is an additional benefit to the community.

Part of my job is to work with field workers, and two of these people are here with us today.

The first is Helen Baur.

And the other person here is Lillian Wineland, who's known as Dolly.

We always think that's really a fitting nickname.

Well, as Kay was telling you, I work in the rural area.

And in the area that I work, there's a population of about 3,500 people.

Ski Gap is comprised of, I would say, roughly 300 families.

And most of those families that live up there, their fathers and mothers, their grandfathers before them lived in the area.

There is no industry in the area.

The children all are bused to school in Claysburg.

There is no stores in this area.

In Ski Gap, there's a need for better houses, but there aren't any industries much for the people to work to try to make changes in the housing situation.

I think there is a hope for companies or industry to move into the southern part of the county, which will help the economic situation for more jobs and better jobs for the people.

Of course, this is all in the future, but you have to work for it.

A lot of people, as far as my job is concerned, they wonder, they ask me what I do.

And sometimes, it's hard for me to explain to them what I do.

Well, if you have a job that you're working and making pretty good wages, and you have a fairly nice home, and a nice car, and nice clothes.

When somebody tells you that you're working with people that live in a real bad housing situation, and they don't have any water in the house, and they don't have any bathroom in the house, and maybe they're driving a 1955 car.

Well, they look at you like they think you're nuts.

They wonder, what in the world can you do for somebody like that?

It's the old story.

A poor section is always looked down on by the people surrounding it.

They don't give them a break.

They just don't give it a thought that maybe those people have a desire to be better off too.

So you're getting your check all right.

And what are you doing with all your money?

Oh, I'm getting clothes off it.

LILLIAN WINELAND: Are you?

Are you getting-- Groceries.

LILLIAN WINELAND: Groceries?

Lots of groceries.

Lots to eat.

Yeah.

I got deer meat, yep.

They shoot deer out in the woods.

LILLIAN WINELAND: You got deer meat beside all your groceries.

Out there, you don't even pay for deer meat.

They just give it like that.

Just come from buck hunting, buck season, yeah.

LILLIAN WINELAND: That's right.

Sure.

These two gentlemen is an uncle and a nephew that lived together in a little two-room cabin.

And they cut wood, were woodsmen.

And that's all they've ever done for a living.

And they didn't have any work at all or no income.

They were dependent on just the people around to give them their groceries or whatever they needed, their livelihood.

So I took them in to the welfare office, and they signed up for assistance, which they do need very badly.

They have no income whatsoever.

Really, just to be there I think is important to be in a community and learn to know the people, and I feel that I have learned.

As I said, it's a process of learning to know the people and getting their confidence in you.

And in that way, trying to involve them in community action, which is really my job, organizing people.

[gun shots] We have two groups, two community action groups.

The group in Ski Gap had felt the need for a recreational area and a great need for a building, to have a place for the people to meet.

I'm glad this is over with.

I'm sure this is a big load off of our shoulders.

I'm paying for this ground, which a lot of people in our house didn't think that we would get done.

Now you may sit it down in the sanctuary.

No.

We can't not do it, sunburn.

Y'all believe that.

You want to see?

Don't you dare.

You can't do that way.

Don't drop it.

Just drop it.

Don't drop it, Elwood.

Not till it's clear burn.

It LILLIAN WINELAND: Burn the mortgage, and they have now around $700 balance in their treasury yet.

And these were poor people that did this.

But community organization is really my job.

And when I say organization, I don't mean getting storm troopers together or something of that sort.

I'm talking about just getting ordinary people together to talk about their community and to maybe work on something worthwhile for their community.

When you go on public assistance, you're going there for the simple reason.

You need the help.

In Altoona here, we have some caseworkers who are there and are willing to help.

We have others who, I don't know, have the attitude as if what they're doing for you is coming out of their pocket.

They don't understand and don't realize that tomorrow, they may be wearing your shoes.

They may have a job today.

Nobody knows what tomorrow is going to bring.

LILLIAN WINELAND: You know, there definitely is going to be a welfare rights organization in the County.

They were hesitant about going to the first meeting.

Then to the second meeting, I think there were a few that were more brave about going.

But I don't think it was exactly.

As far as their checks were concerned maybe, but maybe they thought, well, if, for instance, maybe my case worker would find out I'd gone to a meeting like that.

He might think I'm just trying to stir up trouble for them.

And this really wasn't the case.

They weren't trying to make trouble for anybody.

They were just trying to find out what they were entitled to.

And because we're a welfare recipient doesn't mean that just because we're welfare recipients, that we don't have any more right than anyone else.

Yes.

Free lunch program is here in Altoona now.

They sent you a little paper in the mail if you had kids in school, right?

They're supposed to send you an application.

How many poor people are going to go into high school, into the principal's office, and get an application and going?

LILLIAN WINELAND: And that's the whole thing behind, I think, community organization.

The whole thought behind the whole thing is to get together to do a good for your community and for the people that live in your community.

And I think in this way, that community organization is doing a good job.

I mean, they're learning.

It's a learning process.

I'm learning right along with them.

And when we talk about organization, that's what we mean.

Maybe in the process of doing this, shake up the supervisors a little bit or maybe the borough manager or something of that sort, but nothing drastic.

Just trying to work together for the people who have never had an opportunity to have any say, to maybe have a little bit of say.

Because as I said before, these people have a lot of good ideas.

They may not make a lot of money and they may not have a lot of education, but they have good ideas.

I tend to work with whatever is being developed, whatever is new, and whatever involves more than one community action group, you know, bringing things together.

Sorry.

I don't think we can go through another year of depending on state and federal monies, especially when even Secretary Miller said, you know, we can depend on this money to March.

Well, we haven't been able to depend on it yet.

Now what happens when March comes along, we're going to go through this crisis again and possibly have to close.

So I think there has to be some alternative.

Somehow, we've got to find another way of funding this program and keeping it alive.

Too much work has gone into it already to just let it die because federal funds or state funds will discontinue or might discontinue.

KAY MALONEY: I met weekly with the committee that wanted to start the daycare center when the committee was just a group of people from the neighborhoods and two social workers that they'd asked to be consultants.

Now I meet maybe with the board monthly and don't have to serve with it all the time anymore.

It's really great to see people pick things up and go and become knowledgeable and able to go ahead.

The problem mostly has been that industry couldn't care less.

This is a direct quote from a personnel manager.

Look, lady.

I hire the people.

Their problem is to find somebody to take care of their kids.

I've got the job.

If they want to work, they'll find somebody.

Now don't bother me.

And if you stay out too long because of not adequate arrangements, you're fired.

You lost your job automatically.

This is a fact.

We've been a labor-rich area here for so many years, the industry doesn't have to take any guff to have employees.

They came close to it a little over a year ago when our employment rate first dropped way, way down and was even willing to take back old workers part time.

They hadn't been willing to take part time workers for years.

And they've already gotten rid of most of them.

Yeah.

Because now, again, we have lots of unemployment.

And for a little while, right at that time, they started talking-- They called us in.

They called us in.

They called Kay, and they called me.

And paid me.

I'd say approximately 24 hours, they paid me to sit in their office and discuss daycare.

And you know what came of it?

They forgot the program.

As soon as the employment situation loosened up a little bit again for them.

Despite all this, I'd still like to see Nancy go and see if we can get some support.

Me too.

I think it's wonderful.

But I think she ought to know before she starts-- What she's up against.

What she's up against.

Pessimistic center board.

That's what I call them.

We've been there.

We didn't used to be pessimistic.

We've been there.

I guess the hard thing is to learn to really get into something, and help with it, and learn all about it, and get people excited about it, and moving, and then go on to something else myself and leave it behind.

The idea is that we are starting this family planning center.

And we feel very strongly that you people with your contacts may be able to help us.

And likewise, we may be able to help you by directing people to us.

NARRATOR: Representatives of the Family Planning Center of Altoona Hospital meet with field workers of the Blair County Community Action Program.

We will be inviting people to come in with the idea of planning their families.

Now we all know that too many children, too fast, create great disturbances in most homes.

And we feel that if we can get these people to come in and avail themselves of our services, we may be able to cut down a little bit on the poverty and on the woes that come from having too large a family or having babies when they are really not wanted is the point.

This is only a suggestion that we could make.

I want to question why this has to be done on a one to one basis?

Because I feel we're going to be, God knows forever, on a one to one basis.

And why through community action, there can't be some general sessions and general education?

And then if someone is so inclined and the avenues are open to proceed.

They have listened without even talking, I can see my staff being tied down to this, and our priority is not to contact the referral.

And it's going to get more and more out the first year that we're organizing.

So I would like to see this staff use their ability in organizing and then leave the one to one to family planning.

You are not a social worker.

Please remember this.

You're going into organizing as of January 1.

You're supposed to be working on it now.

And I want organization.

We got 101 million agencies in this county who have responsibilities to these people on a one to one.

So let's take advantage of it.

Let's get them into the agency.

That's our job.

Make sure that they're handled.

And make sure that they come back to us and let us know if they're not satisfied.

But we're not going to sit down and run them all over town, and telephone, and write up reports and everything else.

We aren't getting paid for that.

We're going to start organizing.

Because it seems that we haven't been able to shake up everybody as much as we want.

And one reason is because we aren't organized.

Every time that we've organized people for an issue, we've gone somewhere.

The tactics we use here are all honest aboveboard.

When there's a concern, we don't overreact to it.

I believe this is the only way that you can solve any of the problems that we're trying to solve.

I think legal services is a fine example.

When it was first referred to committee, I remember at the board meeting, everybody played it up.

It was a problem.

If we didn't solve it immediately, who knows what would happen?

It wasn't solved immediately, it still isn't solved today, and we're still surviving.

The poor people are generally afraid of lawyers.

They won't walk into the door unless they have the money.

They will make sure they have the money.

I know a young lady who was contemplating going into prostitution to raise the funds for a divorce because her husband was in another state living with another woman.

We got it worked out.

She went to the family and got the money.

But the point is she made sure she had the money before she went to see the lawyer because the poor people are generally afraid of lawyers.

It's a normal channel for reaching the Legal Aid Society, and this is not even well known to the people who are likely to have needs, is by telephoning the secretary to the law library here in this building.

She's in a room that no one's even allowed in unless they're an attorney.

Other than an ordinary domestic problem, maybe a landlord and tenant.

I cannot conceive in a county this small, where are all these cases are coming from?

I can't conceive those that are too many that were not handled by our legal aid committee, which I think in this county, through the years, has done an excellent job.

NARRATOR: At a meeting with the Blair County Bar Association, community action workers suggested a neighborhood legal services program that would provide full time legal service to indigent people who could not otherwise obtain it and would replace the Voluntary Legal Services Committee of the Bar Association.

I think it's wrong.

I think it's unprofessional.

I think it's bad that you got a crusading type of person in there, and I've seen instances of it happen.

I've read about it.

Who becomes more concerned with creating anti-establishment poverty law than he does in representing the individual who's coming to him for practical advice.

I don't think this county needs this federal funded program.

This Bar Association, the members of this bar are very competent.

And I know personally, and I'm a younger member of the Bar Association.

I've been practicing five years.

And I've rendered an awful lot of free legal services.

And I know every member of this Bar Association has.

We accept it.

We know it's part of our professional ethics to do it.

And I don't know of anybody in this county, and you people running around here gathering statistics, I haven't seen any of that people come in here and say, I haven't been able to get an attorney.

No.

You've had people come around here who were employed by the federal government wanting, looking for this.

What?

Sir, the people that come for an open forum called the Ohio Board Meeting held at City Hall in Altoona with this problem cause we do not in this County go out hesitating or looking for trouble or problems.

We have an [indistinct] in Hamlet.

[overlapping speech] --with Blair County that can't get legal representation, and there hasn't been in 25 year.

--if you give us a chance.

We don't need people from Philadelphia, Harrisburg, and Washington DC coming in here and trying to tell us that we're not representing the people of Blair County.

I think that's what it amounts to.

And I think that the Bar Association will be able to take this thing and resolve it.

And I'm not-- My question is how can you resolve it without the people who are saying they cannot get legal services, and my proposal was that you as a bar association come and appoint a committee and a number of five and sit on a committee which will be composed of 10 people, the other five being the people who are saying they cannot get representation from the attorney.

This is all-- MAN: Let me finish my statement.

The philosophy of federal money versus non-federal money, this program versus this program is not the point.

The point is there are people who are supposedly living in poverty, who are claiming they can't get representation.

Will you please listen to these people and give us some alternative way in which we can get them representation?

This is all I'm asking.

I was quite pleased with the initial meeting because of the number of attorneys which were in attendance.

It showed that there was an interest on behalf of the Bar Association.

Whether this was positive or negative I don't believe is important because after everybody got their hostilities out, everybody was gentleman enough to realize that this thing was bigger than either agency, either group, and that it must get into committee, and they best begin to look at the issue here in the County.

We've never examined in this class of different ways to bring about change.

It's almost like we've accepted that the way or one way to change would be through the democratic group processes, through interpersonal skills and so on, when maybe we should be teaching how to confront, how to form and organize.

This seems like this has been pretty effective to cause change-- this direct action.

Carry or picket, sit in, do these types of things.

The other way it just seems to-- they'll-- OK.

They'll give us a little check.

They'll give us a little lunch.

They'll maybe get hot water, but we're really perpetuating the whole system.

You have to take several factors into consideration.

The poor people are conservative, too.

It's so-- maybe you can come in and do it faster, but boy, most people when they do come in there and appear to be moving rapidly, lose the poor people first.

And it is only the minimum number who are on their last day that we can really get to shout effectively, and this number is minimal.

I think we have spent the first few years getting to know the people we call the disadvantaged, and they're getting to have a confidence in us.

And now, we've come to a point where we need to implement economic opportunity.

You don't suddenly have a thousand jobs offered to people who had jobs that didn't pay them enough, but you slowly see more industries asking to be in the jobs program of the National Businessmen's Association.

When you see that there's a need in your community, and you get out with somebody else and talk it over, that's the beginning of something good happening right there.

The little we victories which we win from time to time, they're a necessity.

If or nothing more, they motivate the staff who is out there working hard and the people in the communities.

And that's the only way that I can see is for people to realize what's happening right in their own areas, try to do something about it.

Another segment of notes on an Appalachia County spotlights the role of religious and secular leaderships in efforts to remedy poverty-- matters of morals and of money.

What are the dangers?

I think the dangers here so often is that when you go out and you really become involved in the community, a lot of times our church taught quote just doesn't work.

You really have to know what you're talking about.

You have to have your facts.

You have to be willing to respond to the moment if necessary.

It means to take all kinds of criticism that comes not only to you, but it comes to the institution that you're the pastor of.

So it's so important to have a good rapport with your people, to keep them informed as to why you take positions that you do, and then I guess you just have to learn to live with the controversy and all the innuendos that come along at that particular point.

NARRATOR: The Reverend John Jameson is a United Methodist minister and former pastor of a Blair County church.

Presently, he is serving as manager of a low and middle income housing project and as executive director of a non-profit housing corporation.

The reasons for the transition from pulpit to rental office are directly involved with poverty.

The way this happened was I went into this house to visit this family and smelled this tremendous odor, and I asked the mother where it was coming from, and she said, the basement.

I went downstairs and looked, and you could hardly believe that this was actually happening.

Human sewage, and trash, and garbage was at least 6 or 7 inches deep.

It was up to the first floor of the cellar steps.

I was completely infuriated to believe that something like this could actually happen.

After all, I came out of pretty much of a middle class home life and ethos.

So I wanted to share this experience with some other ministers, and I talked to two or three and felt that something had to be done.

The community, the people, and the leadership, they're not really feel we had a housing problem.

So we organized a group of clergy and took a bus tour of the city and exposed many of our other brothers to what was happening.

And of course, this hit the front page of the paper, and it began a real concerted effort.

I remember that I was interviewed by the press, and I said that it was time that we clergy started putting our money and our real concern where our mouth was at.

And we were guilty so often of talking about problems and things like this, but it took a lot more than that.

And so as a constructive response, we developed a nonprofit housing corporation known as Improved Dwellings for Altoona.

--secured without the outlay-- NARRATOR: A board of directors meeting of IDA-- Improved Dwellings for Altoona, of which Reverend Jameson is executive director.

IDA acts as a non-profit sponsor for housing, construction, and rehabilitation projects within the city of Altoona.

Once you bring a problem to the foreground, then you have to muster the people, people who have the determination and the dedication to stick with it, but also the people that have the tools, the knowhow, the means, the people that can somehow understand the dynamics of the political processes.

That's just the way life is in America, where people don't have a lobby.

And when it comes to politics, they can only institute the appeal to the morality of people who will come to their support.

And you're talking a million dollars.

You're talking of commitments.

You're talking of mortgages.

It's a world that they have no idea exists because they're worrying about paying next week's rent, or how are they going to manage their food stamps.

But when you talk about new housing, you're just into an entirely new world.

And this is why you have to have responsible people in the community, the people that can get the job done.

You have to win them over.

You have to persuade them, or you have to crowd them.

You have to push them.

You have to pressure them, until they realize that they've got to move.

We moved on through this experience and gained the support of the community, and it had its effect upon our low income public housing efforts in altoona, the Housing Authority.

I remember I received a call from the mayor asking me if I would serve on the Housing Authority.

I was very open and forthright when I told him that he knew my feelings and my positions, and that I would not compromise these positions.

And then I had to make a decision to myself whether I would continue to work outside of the system, or whether I would move into the system and become a part of the system.

And I chose to do so.

We had the Health and Human Services committee-- NARRATOR: A regular meeting of the Altoona Housing Authority.

One of the questions was asked of me, and he said are you a follower of Saul Alinsky?

You know, well, sure, I was a follower of Saul Alinsky early in '61.

I got involved in all this civil rights stuff.

But I'm realizing, too, that it's a point where you can tear down, and tear down, and tear down, or you can follow his techniques, and you can get changes.

So much of this is just new things.

A progressive-- Mr. Geist, if we make a resolution authorizing John to approach legislatures with the idea of having his law changed-- we don't lose our valuable members, this authority and all authority.

Do we have a second to that motion?

I know the leaders were certainly threatened and suspicious of us.

It came about a time when there was a lot of social or community organization, and they didn't know what we were up to.

A lot of clergy had become very militant in different parts of the country.

But when they realized that our intentions were not only to raise issues, but then to respond to in a constructive way to this need, we found that there's been tremendous support for us.

Now, this just doesn't come about quickly.

I think that there's a tremendous education program that was involved.

Well, I'm here tonight to talk to you about a program that I believe that-- NARRATOR: Reverend Jameson meets with the Martinsburg Boosters club in rural Blair County.

The group had asked for information and advice about sponsoring housing construction for low income families and elderly people.

I could throw a lot of figures at you about the needs, but I think just the trip through Blair County, or into the city of Altoona, or even in your particular neighborhood make you acutely aware of the need.

I have people coming into Evergreen Manors and applying for apartments who live out here.

And the reason they're coming in there is because they can't find anything here.

Continually winning over these people and helping them to see that what you're trying to do is in the best interest not only of one group of people, but it's the best interests of the total community of people.

It takes money, investments to get these programs together, to hire people that can do the job for you.

You're businessmen.

You've got responsibilities.

You've got obligations.

There are people who are qualified in these fields, who are trained-- who are trained, who know how to wade through the red tape and get what has to be done and accomplish these things.

You have to set up a nonprofit corporation.

I don't know whether your Booster Club is incorporated or not.

A nonprofit group would have to be a legal entity in the State of Pennsylvania.

And then, of course, you've got to continually tell the story.

I remember in the Citizens Advisory Committee, which really are the decision makers in our community.

We're together, and we had a confrontation, but a clearly defined differences in opinion.

The one man who is a very conservative individual in his philosophy felt that churches should go around on their own, rehabilitate individual units and help families.

And finally, when we realized that it was such a complex problem and this could not be done, an individual who we had convinced got up-- a friend of his-- and just literally spoke in our behalf in terms that this businessman could understand.

And here were two men, both respectful of each other, in which he told him in so many words that this was not a workable direction with such amount of problem.

First of all, I want to introduce you to what IDA has done up to the present time, what their ideas are for the future, and why we as citizens here from lending institutions, real estate firms, newspaper men, insurance companies, city officials, interested businessmen of many types-- we're here to see that what is going on in this town is responsibility-- or what can go on in this town is a responsibility to one of us to at least do something about it.

NARRATOR: IDA improved dwellings for Altoona meets with DARE-- Downtown Altoona Revitalization Effort, an organization of business, professional, and political leaders.

IDA asked DARE for assistance in financing the administrative overhead in a proposed housing rehabilitation project.

The chairman of DARE is the president of one of Blair county's largest banks.

I know against some of us, it is against our principles when we talk about government subsidies and so forth, but I think at this meeting, we have to push this aside because we're talking about the problem, the problem.

And these two gentlemen feel they have a part of a solution to a problem, and that problem is better housing for-- we're not going to call them poverty people-- people who are underprivileged.

People who would like to have some of the things that we have.

But because of limited income, or large families, or sickness in the family, or some other reason, cannot have these things, which we take for granted every day because of limited circumstances.

We have the Downtown area, which is being redeveloped and a core area around it, the fringe area of Altoona that is dilapidated.

And it is this area, which we are presently concentrating in.

The problem of housing is just not the non-profit sponsors.

It is the city of Altoona's responsibility to provide for its citizenry, and we are the city of Altoona-- the people of Altoona.

The important thing that we need is a partnership.

IDA cannot solve the housing problems of the community.

It can be an instrument, a vehicle, which with community support, can resolve many of the difficulties that we face.

So I do bring you here today-- is that some of us are going to benefit by it-- by these things going on.

So if you don't want to donate money, you can donate time and services and get a tax credit also for the time and services that has beem used.

Now, we can't give you all the answers today.

What we're bringing to you-- It seems to me that you get a couple of these people convinced, and when they realize that you don't have an ax to grind, other than that you are your brother's keeper-- and somehow, even though you're charged with paternalism and do gooding, and do-gooders, and stuff like this-- I guess basically a person that believes the gospel and as a minister is charged about doing good for his fellow men, when you convince these people that you can do this, and they in turn are able to influence their other peers.

As far as office space is concerned, I'm sure there's several vacant offices in town that we can con somebody into giving us.

What's the next step here on this?

Well, I think the next step is for me to get-- NARRATOR: A peer, a man at home among businessmen, is Gerald P. Wolfe, president of Wolf Furniture Company of Altoona, and 22 other Central Pennsylvania locations.

We, a family furniture company that's been in business for almost 70 years.

Redevelopment needs 18 feet in order to give-- so that the highway can be built for the Highway Department.

And we're going to lose our garage.

You're going to lose your warehouse space.

We are a growth-oriented company, and we have four company goals.

We want to serve the customer.

We want to make our employees as satisfied as possible.

We want to pay a dividend to the stockholders, and we want to be of service to the community.

And I think that the highway program, as it's been laid out, needs support.

Public support.

Right.

And I think that some of the heat has got to be taken off these elected officials, and I'm not sure the committee is the best answer.

MAN: A meeting of the Highways Committee of the Altoona Chamber of Commerce.

I'd like to see someone run with the game plan.

Well, I think the public is getting the-- a great deluge of information, which Ted mentioned somewhat as misinformed or at least distorted.

That we need somehow to get the positive part of this publicity out of.

Get the planning commission, get the highway department and the other public and quasi public organizations that are backing this thing to also come forward and refute some of these untruths and half truths that they've been putting out.

The planning commission is, you know-- their blessing on this thing was the first step.

They are backing this, but we haven't heard anything from them.

It's just a fact of life that a great deal of leadership for these community activities come from among the businessmen, and of course, the businessmen for many, many years have been aware of the economic needs of the territory and have provided the leadership for economic growth.

I think we should have a committee of the whole expanded with recognized community and business leaders-- small numbers from communities we do not specifically represent at this time, and that this committee, or whatever you want to call it, group of interested citizens, get in touch with Denny Bixler so that we have a portion of the day that Milt Sharpe is here to express our views.

And our views would be along the line of the planning that's already been done and in progress and emphasize the need for the economic, health, tourism, industrial growth.

Congested areas.

Just the flow of traffic that we have been shortchanged for a number of years, and we want action.

We want it fast.

The difficulty with that is there was a clause added on to see the governor, and that means a one shot deal, and that's been our trouble all along.

We make these spectacular visits to the governor and so on, and then we drop dead, and we end up with nothing because the other group keeps working, working, working, working.

This has got to be a continuous action.

MAN: Usually, these projects start with one or two or four people interested, and they call together others whom they might feel are interested in the same problem and who would like to see a solution.

They don't meet so much from the point of view of, well, we're going to exercise our and, we're going to get something done.

They need to discuss the problem and see how they might bring about a solution.

But I think it's essential that we have a firm foundation of support for his visit.

And I don't disagree with what you're saying.

I agree with it, but I think this organization-- MAN: You know, everybody questions the motives of what these men are doing.

And they always say, oh, there's a buck behind it, or they wouldn't do it.

But personally, I would probably make a lot more money for the company if I spent more time in business and less than all this committee work, and I don't know of anybody in the Downtown who couldn't say the same thing.

There's a tremendous amount of time spent in this committee work, and there's no immediate payoff.

Community leadership is a shining example in the industrial expansion.

Now, when they started, 90% of the industry were for the railroad.

Now, we have a situation where half of the community works for the railroad and half is in other industry.

A terrific job has been done here.

Now, we have to turn to other problems, and getting the leadership to turn to these other problems-- it's hard because they were raised at a time when-- and to themselves they've shown what we get out there, and we did get jobs in here.

And these people won't have these problems if they get out there and work and get a job-- they'll solve their problem, too.

It doesn't always work that way, and it's been a struggle to get the power structure to refocus and feel these problems of the poverty areas in a more personal way.

We are working on a human achievement company that will have the assignment or the purpose of matching jobs for high school students and teenagers to odd jobs that have to be done.

MAN: I used a scare tactic to get the chamber to set up an Urban Affairs Committee.

They didn't want to have anything to do with urban affairs, but I said, we're going to have riots here in Altoona, and shooting, and killing, unless we do something to get at the cause of them.

And it was a rather underhanded approach, you know, a negative type approach, but they did decide, well, we should have an Urban Affairs Committee.

And more to the point, I think it's to teach young people something about responsibility, earning a little money when they can, provide these youth with cash reserves to go on to higher education or technical schools.

MAN: One of the jobs of this committee is to try to awaken the community's awareness of this poverty problem.

We did make some progress, but sometimes it's difficult to pick a program that doesn't require funding.

And as soon as you come to talk about funding, you run into a problem.

How is it going to be funded?

Now, this would mean that the balance of the funds would have to come from a sponsoring organization.

Could be the chamber, or it could be business and industry.

But basically, he quoted a figure of somewhere around $2,000 for a summer program.

We prepared as a committee to raise $2,000.

Or help JA raise it.

Or help JA raise it.

Well, I don't think it should be fully the responsibility of this committee.

I think this committee has determined the need for this activity and is recommending that it report back to the chamber, and I think the chamber ought to respond to this recommendation and let it take its proper place under-- To my knowledge, we have no miscellaneous fund of $2,000.

Well, I'm not saying that, but at least you get the word out that you're going to start this thing.

You get going and people can start thinking.

My philosophy is take each plan step by step and get approval-- little tiny steps at a time rather than trying to take big jumps.

Everybody likes everybody else so much that nobody will vote against anything if you take them in small steps.

They will delay things, but they won't say, no, we don't want this.

And gradually, it'll change.

But it's very slow and discouraging.

[laughs] Slow and discouraging as it may be, Blair County organizations and individuals continue their efforts to aid those living in poverty.

Community action continues, although funding has been curtailed, and successful programs have been spun off to independent agencies.

Jim Prichard has survived the bureaucratic changes.

He heads the Economic Opportunity Council for the County.

Prichard is still active in trying to organize community groups-- what he calls a new yet old idea.

Kay Maloney left Pennsylvania for Montana, where she works with an area housing agency.

Dolly Wineland worked in community action projects for 20 years before her retirement.

Regrettably, Dolly died in 1992.

John Jamieson left improved dwellings for Altoona after completing almost $20 million worth of housing developments.

He returned to the Ministry and works on missionary projects in Jamaica, Mexico, and Blair County.

And Gerald Wolfe retired as president and chairman of his family business.

Raising community awareness of the problems of poverty are among his successes he feels.

More businessmen now realize that poverty is a legitimate social problem, and that proposals to drop support programs willy-nilly would not be an effective solution.

You may wonder why this grainy black and white film is considered important enough to recall.

We think that recollection is important.

That without a sense of where we have been, we cannot determine where we are nor chart where we may be going.

One purpose of Pennsylvania Parade is to remain aware of change-- changes in issues, and changes in the lives of individuals.

Documentaries allow you to see and hear what is happening and what is changing.

Pennsylvania Parade will continue to recall those changes.

For Penn State Public Broadcasting, I'm PJ O'Connell.

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