The first 5 years (Phase I) of the New Orleans Parent-Child Development Center (PCDC) project are described in this report. Funded in 1970 by the Office of Economic Opportunity, the New Orleans PCDC project, like two other PCDC projects, was aimed at developing a parent education model which would help low-income mothers enhance the development of competence in their infants and 3-year-old children. The PCDCs were developed within the framework of a carefully planned research strategy consisting of two phases. In phase I the models were to be developed, refined, evaluated and documented. If the preliminary results showed promise, Phase II tests of the replicability and generalizability of the models were to begin. The New Orleans PCDC program produced a model designed for direct intervention with participating mothers. This final report of Phase I of the New Orleans PCDC project summarizes the theory and rationale on which the model is based; the development of the New Orleans Model; the programs which were developed from the model; the research design and evaluation strategy, and the results which indicate the impact of the program on the mothers and children who participated in the first 5 years. Finally, the implications of the New Orleans PCDC experience are discussed. (Author/RH)