HISTORY

The ORO acronym came from Oklahoma Rural Opportunities, Inc, which was incorporated on June 2nd 1971. ORO's first grant program was a $32,000 Community Food and Nutrition Program (CFNP). Other funded programs included the Office of Economic Opportunity (OEO), Migrant Farmworker Training, and Self-Help Housing programs. ORO became the Oklahoma Farmworker grantee when DOL took over the OEO Training programs. ORO successfully administered the Comprehensive Employment and Training Act programs (CETA) targetting Migrant and Seasonal Farmworkers.

ORO changed its name in 1976 to ORO Development Corporation when it established a CETA program in Kansas. In the late 70's, ORO with a $2,600,000 annual budget operated as a conduit for Energy Conversation programs in Oklahoma, Kansas, Missouri, Iowa, and Nebraska. In addition, from 1976 through 1981, ORO operated Youth Employment and Training Programs (YETP), with a concentration on Work Experience Activity.

ORO has been Oklahoma's Farmworker grantee from 1974-Present, throughout the OEO, CETA, Job Training Partnership Act(JTPA), and the Workforce Investment Act (WIA) eras. The present WIA program is funded for $1,208,222. The average number that ORO serves annually is 350 families. The average size family is 3.5. Therefore, ORO serves an average of 1,225 individuals per year. ORO cannot and does not assist persons who are undocumented workers.

In 1992, ORO started its Affordable Housing program activities branch and to date has helped hundreds of families with rental and home-buying assistance