Author Description

While our leaders in Washington argue over block grants and competing plans to reform the human services bureaucracy, grassroots movements all across the land are quietly developing effective solutions to the problems of hunger, housing, employment, and education. Often overlooked by the media, these grassroots programs are not based on any radical economic theory, nor are they tied to any political agenda. They simply work, and we know they work because they are in place now, achieving astonishing results. In the tradition of David Osborne and Ted Gaebler's Reinventing Government, Garr's close examination of what is actually working out there allows him to present a set of principles to guide any effort to help people climb out of poverty. Garr shows how the programs that work are guided by clear objectives; foster self-reliance rather than dependency by building on people's strengths; take a comprehensive approach to the complex array of an individual's problems and use in a variety of tools at once; deal with people one on one as distinctly important individuals; focus on prevention; demonstrate strong leadership.