Stages of Development in Poverty Program Neighborhood Action Committees

Abstract

As part of a larger study of a poverty intervention organization and social change, a team of participant observers attended, over a period of ig months, 174 meetings of 12 poverty program neighborhood action committees. Seven stages of committee development are conceptualized: I. Orientation, II. Catharsis, III. Focus, IV. Action, V. Limbo, VI. Testing, and VII. Purposive; and modal individual and group behaviors bracketed by each stage are described. The stages are discussed, with the theorist in mind, as they relate to the relatively few previous studies and typologies of developmental sequence in small groups. It is suggested that "Action" or "Social Change" Groups be considered entities for intensive theoretical and empirical inquiry. The stages are discussed, with the practitioner in mind, as they relate to the dynamics of a poverty intervention organization and to the "maximum feasible participation" of the poor. Particular attention is given to those poverty intervention organization practices which stimulated, thwarted, or reversed the sequential progress of neighborhood action committees through the stages of development.