This coordination requires that someone pull together a host of different funding streams and programs. In the case of the Lafayette Family Center, officials in the city public housing authority also have been able to play the role of landlord, offering services that are a mixture of new and redirected resources. Private philanthropy has renovated the building to permit on-site services. Other capital costs and some operating expenses come from Community Development Block Grants. Employment and training services are funded out of the Federal Job Training Partnership Act. Day-care slots are jointly budgeted from state Investment in Job Opportunities funds and the Purchase of Care program in the Department of Social Services. The Health and Recreation Departments provide in-kind services and help with contracting out.

Another promising experiment is the widely publicized Beethoven Project in Chicago. Begun with support from both the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services and the Harris Trust, this project targets about 150 infants born in six high-rise buildings of the nation's largest public housing complex, children who will eventually attend the neighborhood's Beethoven Elementary School. The preparation of this future kindergarten class of 1993 begins before birth with prenatal care for the mothers. Health screening and continued health services follow after birth, together with day care, nutritional aid, and counseling for parents in child development. At age three the children will be enrolled in Head Start.