have a common, unifying, focused set of goals. It is to make the connections between the awesome energies of the American people and the institutions of community where changes in people's lives begin. And it is to channel those energies to serve those whose needs are greatest and most immediate. We are responsible, in John Lewis' phrase, to the left out and left behind. There are still millions of Americans not only below the official poverty line but voiceless in the affairs of their government. There is still much to do and we have, I think, set ACTION in position to do that work. We are an agency that still defines itself as working with those who will struggle against poverty and with those who work to overcome the powerlessness of people which sustains that poverty. The $131 million requested for ACTION's domestic operations in the Fiscal Year will be applied toward the goal of assisting those citizens already engaged, and toward ensuring that many more will be encouraged to participate directly. The request before you represents an increase of $11.3 million over the current level of activity. This budget represents significant increases for VISTA, a program that we are revitalizing. The $38.5 million we request will permit a 26% increase in the number of volunteers and also increase the amount spent on training them for their assignments. Volunteers are now being assigned by ACTION to grassroots organizations controlled directly by those who are to be served. Significant increases in the number of VISTA volunteers assigned to work in the areas of health and nutrition, energy conservation and economic development are projected in this budget. The total increase for VISTA in Fiscal 1979 is $11.7 million, assuming the approval of the Fiscal Year 1978 supplemental request by Congress. In consultation with more than 100 private voluntary organizations and local community groups, ACTION has reorganized its system of assisting and supporting their activities into a new Office of Voluntary Citizen Participation. This office is becoming a center for assistance to national and community-based voluntary efforts to help them improve the quality of life for millions of citizens and to be a source of technical assistance. Former Peace Corps and VISTA volunteers who wish to We are asking Congress for $3.8 million to research the National Youth Service and to explore with specificity the public policy issues involved. We believe that direct involvement of young people in meeting the problems and needs of their own communities will encourage life-long commitments to community service and will lead as well to personal growth of the young men and women who participate. Historically much of the strength of our nation has been the voluntary community involvement of its citizens and we believe that usable models for bringing young people into that tradition can be developed. We have begun in Fiscal 1978 and will continue our work in short-term volunteer projects under Part C of Title I, such as those that allow businessmen and women to help a community with a particular transportation problem or a specialist to assist with recovering from a natural disaster, and we have already begun efforts to supply small grants to communities attempting to mobilize for a specific emergency. We are strongly committed to the ideal that our role is that of facilitating rather than managing these efforts. We find that thousands of neighborhoods and other local groups are already trying to establish these efforts themselves and that small amounts of help can often make it possible for them to solve their own problems. A variety of demonstration programs planned for Fiscal Year 1979 will test other ways to apply voluntary action to pressing community and national needs. Among them is a project directed toward de-institutionalization of the young, elderly, and those with functional limitations and disabilities. Other projects will explore community and citizen involvement in energy conservation and production, crime, and counseling of the millions of Americans living on fixed incomes. This budget requests $2.0 million for demonstrations in this area. In two categories of the budget before you, we have requested less money than in the current Fiscal Year. Both reflect our belief that changes in the direction and organization of existing programs can strengthen them in the future. Education programs have been discontinued in the University Year for ACTION in favor of stressing technical assistance and development of other servicelearning models. Our judgment and the judgment of our citizen review panel is that the UYA program was not succeeding primarily because institutions sponsoring UYA programs had inadequate plans to continue the programs after withdrawal of funds and that it failed to attract the participation of low income and minority students. The Youth Challenge Program is being merged with the National Student Volunteer Program to allow it to operate more effectively. Total expenditures in Service Learning programs projected in Fiscal 1979 are $605,000. We will strengthen ACTION's volunteer program for Older Americans during Fiscal 1979. This is a major undertaking and one that will require a great deal of my time and that of the staff of those programs. During that period we have asked for funds totalling nearly $58 million for Older American Volunteer Programs which include small increases in the Foster Grandparent Program and the Senior Companion Program and a decrease in funds for the Retired Senior Volunteer Program. |