City Asks PBH Effort In Anti-Poverty Drive

Phillips Brooks House will administer the educational aspects of the War on Poverty in three Cambridge "target areas," if the city's recent request for funds under the Economic Opportunity Act is approved. PBH, whose projects are usually financed by private foundations, has only once before managed a federal project.

A proposal submitted last month by the Cambridge Economic Opportunity Committee, Inc. asks for PBH's participation. The CEOC requested federal funds for tutoring and educational enrichment programs in six poverty areas in the city.

Under the terms of the proposal, PBH would expand its present tutorial and recreational projects in the Roosevelt Towers neighborhood, and establish programs in the Jefferson Park neighborhood near Fresh Pond and in Cambridgeport, an area west of M.I.T. and south of Central Square.

The Alliance of Cambridge Settlement Houses would administer tutoring projects in the three neighborhoods not managed by PBH. Most of East Cambridge would fall under the Alliance's jurisdiction.

John R. Moot '43, president of the CEOC, said last night that it is possible that the entire proposal may not be approved by the Office of Economic Opportunity. "The federal office operates a highly-complicated system of priorities," Moot declared. "There's no way of telling which proposals will be cut or even of determining when we'll get word of the office's decision."

Recruiting Problems?

Gail Gillam '66, president of PBH, last night foresaw possible difficulty in recruiting more tutors but said some volunteers now tutoring in Boston might help man the new Cambridge projects. "PBH is anxious to cooperate with the CEOC," Miss Gillam explained, "but we may simply not have enough volunteers to manage all three 'target areas.' PBH certainly won't abandon any of its present programs to work in Cambridgeport and Jefferson Park."

The operations of the Roosevelt Towers program may be significantly affected also. Presently, the program, is student-run, but the CEOC proposal provides for a full-time adult coordinator in each of the six target areas.