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Citizen Action . . . Kim Toylor, Editor

Lowell Citizens Provide Services

Programs Aid Aged, Alcoholics, Prisoners

ITIZENS’ groups in Lowell, Mas- ‘ sachusetts, have united behind a series of programs to help others who want to improve their life styles but need assis- tance and support to do so. The Lowell Council on Aging, made up of elderly citizens, provides information and re- ferral, and other services. The Lowell House is a nonprofit corporation to alert the entire community to health hazards and the need for a home for alcoholics, The Emergency Adjustment Service for Ex Offenders (EASE) w a s set up by two ex offenders to provide a place for others to sleep or apply for a job.

The Council on Aging was organized after a meeting at which about 300 citi- zens gathered to complain about the lack of city services for the elderly. As a result several programs have been initiated. The Satellite Feeding Service serves about 60 people a day and a surplus program delivers food to those who cannot get to the center. Volunteers call elderly people daily to check on their well-being and see if they have food. A minibus takes people who cannot get out to doctors, shopping, social gatherings or wherever they wish.

The Lowell House serves the homeless man between the ages of 21 and 65 who has a sincere desire to stop drinking. Five Alcoholics Anonymous members who conceived the project obtained a building and renovated it with the help of the Lowell Trade High School. The program emphasizes rehabilitation through living in a home. Therapy ses- sions are conducted twice a week by a

social worker and a psychologist. The men are encouraged to seek employment and are given medical assistance and job counseling if requested.

The EASE program provides emer- gency service for men released from prison in the area and help with hous- ing, counseling and job placement. An office has been set up in a local correc- tion center so that pre-release counseling is available. Volunteers provide transpor- tation to Lowell so that offenders can be brought directly to the EASE office when they are released.

Pontiac Develops Goals Plans

Pontiac, Michigan, has joined a select group of cities with long-range goal plans. They were officially passed by the city commission with the strong en- dorsement of the mayor, manager and city commissioners, according to the Michigan Municipal Review.

Pontiac leaders feel that their action is most significant in view of the nature of the problems that the community faces. The other cities with similiar plans reportedly do not have the ethnic and economic teneions which make commu- nity consensus as difficult as in Pontiac. The officials formulated their own plan and did not hire outside consulting firms and staff to do a long job; they did it in two days and the plan was adopted unanimously two weeks later. The recent conference at which the long- range goals were formulated outlined the city’s basic problems as declining reve- nues, lack of diversity in the economic base, rising crime figures, unmet needs far recreational facilities and other planned use of underdeveloped land, and inadequate local street maintenance.

The city identified some goals in 1970

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and without a plan began a series of projects including the introduction of a methadone maintenance program to curb drug abuse which accounts for a large portion of the rising crime rate. Com- munity communications have been im- proved by a new department of human resources, a new division in the police department to handle community rela- tions, and a public information officer. Federal funds have been successfully procured for new sewage and storm drainage systems. A new commercial, industrial and economic center is being developed by an outside developer, and the city has assumed responsibility for a transportation system and developed a new management services department to provide administrative support for public services.

D. C. Citizens' Committees to Advise COG Officiale

The Metropolitan Washington Coun- cil of Governments has authorized the establishment of citizen committees to advise elected officials who compose the policy committees on land use, commu- nity resources, public safety, and health and environment protection.

Each citizen committee will have from 15 to 21 members, one of whom will be elected by each local government, metropolitan citizen organizations and official community action agencies. COG'S board of directors stipulated that not more than half of these representatives can serve on one advisory committee.

This action follows by two months another board decision expanding the public information program by approv- ing public hearings on major COG proposals before their submission to the board (see the REVIEW, October 1972, page 488). Other ways that COG has involved citizens in regional decisions include an annual Citizens' Conference on Metropolitan Issues, a regional en- vironmental conference and one on hous-

ing needs. During the last two years COG has sponsored conferences through- out the region to discuss and review the current and future status of the Year 2000 Plan.

Citizens and Government Need Better Communication

A recent article in Arkansas MIC- nicipnlities examines the question of communication between citizens and government. I t is pointed out that as government has become more specialized and complex, a greater communication effort is needed but it is that specializa- tion that is making the task difficult.

Citizens feel divorced from the decision-making structure which has proliferated to such an extent that gov- ernment often appears as a web of interactions designed to initiate pro- grams and decisions by a few for their own gains. Local government officials are faced with the severe problem that most citizens are much more interested in international or national occurrences than in local affairs.

Since it is in the local community that citizens can participate and feel the effect of it, local officials should assume re- sponsibility to open communications with the electorate by establishing a public relations program. Some of the practical suggestions were to invite local organizations to attend council meetings, invite municipal employees to meetings, especially ones concerned with some aspect of their job, have officials attend meetings of local organizations to explain new projects or recent decisions and consider hiring a full-time public rela- tions manager.

Keep America Beautiful Issue8 Environment Manual

Keep America Beautiful has developed a handbook, Closing the Circle, for in- structors in high school social studies courses. The manual suggests ways that

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students can be made aware of environ- mental problems and begin to develop an awareness of the importance of individual projects to solve them. It treats litter prevention and other pollution control programs as interdisciplinary subjects.

Closing the Circle suggests field trips to dramatize local conditions and prob- lems. Students could be required to obtain copies of local ordinances so that programs they study or implement would be done within a realistic legal frame- work. The pamphlet has other ideas for some of the other non-social science courses. English classes would write editorials for local newspapers, home economics classes could examine re- cycling, food additives, overpopulation and phosphate detergents, and art stu- dents could create designs from found objects as well as using photography and posters to illustrate aspects of their community’s problems.

Williametown Environmentalist Has Everybody ‘Collecting’

Williamstown, Massachusetts, has created the position of town environ- mentalist. The new director has set up projects for collecting bottles, cans, paper, compost and discarded tires. When enough materials have been dis- carded in eight collection sheds in the town, they are sold to local businesses for recycling. The projects are so suc- cessful that the city employs two people to operate them: more than half of all the glass used in the community is col- lected.

One recent project was the collection of discarded tires. Working with a rubber reclaiming company a composition of hot asphalt and rubber (from the reclaimed rubber) was used to pave the streets. Though the mixture costs a little more it has a longer life and is easier to keep UP.

Citizens and local organizations have helped with all the recycling projects.

Citizen Participation A special issue of Public Administrp

tion Review (American Society for Pub- lic Administration, 1225 Connecticut Avenue, Washington, D. C. 20036, Sep- tember 1972) is devoted to issues of citi- zen participation in Model Cities and Community Action Programs. The papers presented were part of a study by the National Academy of Public Administra- tion on Crisis, Conflict and Creativity in HUD’s Model Cities and OEO’s Com- munity Action Programs.

The Model Cities program in North Philadelphia is presented from the per- spectives of members of the community council and the mayor’s office. Each de- scribed different versions of the same events. The members of the council re- portedly felt manipulated by city hall and HUD throughout the project. City offi- cials found that they did not receive necessary community support, money and time for improvements.

The other authors discuss problems of citizen participation and relations in new types of communication between the groups which federal programs seek to help and officials who administer the aid.

Computer-City Game The University of New Mexico has

created a simulated city-in-a-computer of 214,000 residents for students to learn urban planning, municipal administra- tion and political science. Nine students play at a time, three each assuming one of the three functions. The computer prints out a simulated newspaper giv- ing the current state, an opinion poll, and a rundown of the city’s problems. Using this information the students determine priorities and develop solutions to problems based on their role. The euggestions are entered in the computer which projects the consequences by print- ing another issue of the newspaper and opinion poll.