This book presents some of the experiences of men and women, poor and not poor, who participated in a community's OEO poverty program. The research upon which this book was based focused upon those subcomponents of the program which best revealed the process experiences of the participants. The study was concerned with three major components of the local poverty program: (1) the Topeka Office of Economic Opportunity and its staff; (2) the Economic Opportunity Board and its members; and, (3) the Target Neighborhood Committees and its indigenous leaders. The research sought answers to such questions about the poverty-intervention organization as: How was it developed and by whom? What were its structure, function and goals? Was there a discernible organizational model? Concerning the Economic Opportunity Board, the study asked, among other questions: Who were its members? What were the decision-making processes for poverty programming? Were there significant social-psychological differences between poor and not-poor members of the Board, and if so, what part did such differences play in the decision-making processes? About the Target Neighborhood Committees, the research asked such questions as: What were the group dynamics of committees? What processes governed the emergence of indigenous leadership? (Author/JM)