I kinda wanted to return to my earlier thoughts about the article on Dr. Yapa's program at Penn State...

Like I did say, aren't the things that his students are doing similar to what VISTA and CAP (Community Action Porgram) folks were doing in the late 60's and early 70's???

Well, yeah... Okay, maybe not with a larger world view but this is what we were kinda doing... As a CAP worker I almost lived in the housing project, Hillside Court, where I was assigned... I had some help from VISTA from time to time and we did try to orgainized child care coops so that mother could get away for a variety of reasons including job training...

What I see in Dr. Yapa's program is the university and the parents of these students funding the same types of things that the governemnt once funded...

Now that's okay but it really isn't a major paradigm change...

No, a major paradime change would be for the governemnts as various levels create public/private partnerships with various industries that are willing to locate in areas where poor people live and create decent paying jobs for these folks... That, in MO, would be a paradigm shift...

Face it, Yapa's kids = VISTA + CAP...

Okay, I'll admit that I do think he is on to something in his larger visioon but his larger vision is a ***urban planning*** one and not a roadmap to end poverty... For that to happen, greater resources are going to have to be shifted toward the poor...

Without that happening, Dr. Yapa's kids are fighting a loosing battel...

And I am still very concerned that thye urban poor are being squeezed outta their neigborhoods....

Bobert