Call For Support For Youth Council

Press, Volume CII, Issue 30155, 12 June 1963, Page 14

Call For Support For Youth Council

(N.Z. Press Association) WELLINGTON, June 11. “Youth organisations can and will provide full facilities for welfare and recreational training of youth if they are given the necessary support by the community and the Government. We know the problems and we have the answers,” said Mr G. Briggs national secretary of the Y.M.C.A and president of the National Youth Council of New Zealand in a statement today.

“But with the public apathy we have encountered in the past and the great post-war growth and urbanisation of our youth population, we have not had the wherewithal to keep up,” he said. Through the council, youth organisations were now pooling their resources in knowledge and facilities in an endeavour to catch up Member organisations had had financial assistance at local level from the Minister of Internal Affaire but, in comparison with the money expended by the orga-

nisations themselves, such assistance to date was not adequate to meet the growing demands.

The member organisations ot the council were providing every form of youth training and guidance under the control of experts in the fields of social service and youth training and within the framework of national organisations of proven substance and quality, said Mr Briggs. Mr Briggs said -the council was not providing this for every community today for three very real reasons:— (1) Lack of suitable training and assembly places in the local community No such provision whatever was made in the planning of new housing areas. (2> The difficulties facing volunteers in obtaining the training they needed to become confident and effective leaders They were required, to take their annual leave, or leave without pay. to attend leadership courses which was an unfair burden on persons

already giving their time and effort in service to the community. (3) The lack of trained field staff to encourage and guide development and expansion of youth services. For example, the Boy Scouts’ Association had one field commissioner serving the whole of the South Island with scout units in every community

"Know.ng the Government’s deep interest in youth welfare, the council executive feels that the Minister of Internal Affairs will be sympathetic to a request for special assistance for these problems so that member organisations of the council can effectively achieve their aims in this work,” said Mr Briggs. Member organisations are: —The V .MCA„ young farmers’ clubs. Catholic Youth Movement. Boys’ Brigade. Boy Scouts' Association. Girl Guides’ Association. Y.W C A., provincial youth councils, country girls' clubs. Red Cross Society. Girls’ Life Brigade. Christian Youth Movement, the Y.C.N.C.C. and the Youth Hostels' Association.