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