Creating and Using Systemic Links Among Low-Income Families.

An experimental program of directed social change was undertaken in nine Mississippi counties by the Cooperative Extension Service with special funds provided by the Federal Extension Service. The purpose of the program was to test the hypothesis that the creation and use of systemic links in extension work would result in desired changes in homemaking practices among low-income families. The assumption on which the experiment was based was that women who lived in the target communities and were themselves in the low-income stratum could communicate more effectively with other low-income housewives than professionally trained extension home economists. County extension staffs identified likely prospects for the role of systemic links, recruited those persons, provided intensive training experiences in certain homemaking practices, and then instructed them to initiate contacts with client system families and establish themselves in the role of teacher and counselor. Measures of recommended practice adoption by client system homemakers indicated that the creation and use of systemic links is an effective procedure in programs of directed social change. (MF)