OFFICIALS SEEK ROANOKE TIPS FOR POINTS OF LIGHT

                         Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: SATURDAY, February 29, 1992                   TAG: 9202290311
SECTION: VIRGINIA                    PAGE: A-5   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: MONICA DAVEY STAFF WRITER
DATELINE:                                 LENGTH: Medium
OFFICIALS SEEK ROANOKE TIPS FOR POINTS OF LIGHT
A pack of officials, including a special assistant to President Bush and the head of the Points of Light Foundation, toured Roanoke's Total Action Against Poverty programs Friday and took some lessons.
"It's been a very inspiring thing for all of us," C. Gregg Petersmeyer, Bush's assistant in the Office of National Service, said after the tour.
"A great challenge that all of us recognize exists for the country is how to substantially increase the scale and the effectiveness of community-based problem-solving activities," Petersmeyer told reporters.
"I think Roanoke, for many years, has worked really hard . . . with a very sophisticated effort with community involvement to tackle in a total way - hence TAP's title - problems of low-income people."
Petersmeyer and 14 others wandered over loose bricks at the Henry Street Music Center, where renovation is under way; stood on Lincoln Terrace's practice field to learn about the Inner-City Athletic Association; and toured Comprehensive Health Investment Project headquarters.
Included in the group were representatives from the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services and the Washington, D.C., mayor's office.
Richard Schubert, president of the nonprofit Points of Light Foundation created to encourage volunteerism, said the group came to Roanoke to study TAP's programs and take information back for use in other communities.
Schubert heard about Roanoke and TAP when a Pennsylvania friend told him about Cabell Brand, TAP's president.
"We said, `We need to know a lot more about it,' " Schubert said. "Our ultimate objective is to pull all of that learning together and then to share it with other communities across the country and say, `It's time collaboratively to get our act together and tackle critical issues.' "

by Bhavesh Jinadra by CNB