EDUCATION/MANPOWER The majority of the VISTA Volunteers working in education programs are attempting to supplant or supplement traditional public education for disadvantaged children. Over 13% of those surveyed were working to establish alternative schools. Typical of the Volunteer involvement in alternative schools is a project in Iowa where VISTA Volunteers worked with school officials to set up a School Without Walls.. There the Volunteers succeeded in starting sixty classes serving about 200 young people. All classes were conducted by people from the community. The initial work done by the VISTAS was followed by a $850,000 State Education Association grant to the school system. VISTAS have now successfully phased themselves out of the project. In 40% of the education projects surveyed, Volunteers were involved in tutoring which in the more successful cases involves mobilizing and training community volunteers to tutor. MANPOWER programs in 62% of the projects surveyed dealt with job placement activities. ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT Seventy-two percent of the economic development projects surveyed are some form of cooperatives. VISTAS working with co-ops appear to be concerned primarily with marketing and purchasing co-ops and most particularly with consumer co-ops. An example of a cooperative covered in the survey is one in Massachusetts which began with VISTA Volunteers' efforts last year and is now grossing over $28,000 a month. The expected annual gross figure is expected to reach $340,000 this coming year. The co-op has over 4,000 members and has been so successful that co-ops were started in two other communities by the same organization. Consumer education classes are conducted at each cooperative. A VISTA Volunteer now works with the project in management techniques, bookkeeping, inventory, sales, and price comparisons. In all 10 regions, Volunteers are working with craft co-ops. One in Maine now has over 400 crafters, who are now provided supplemental income derived from the marketing of their ceramics, leather goods, knitted and patchwork items. The cooperative grew from a sale in a supermarket to a Statewide organization filling orders all over the country, with both retail and wholesale markets. |