Y.W.C.A CELEBRATES 50 YEARS

Press, Volume CXVI, Issue 34138, 27 April 1976, Page 18

Y.W.C.A CELEBRATES 50 YEARS

The golden jubilee of the New Zealand Young Women's Christian Association is more than a time for self-congratulation about past achievements: most of the jubilee celebrations, both on a national and local level, are designed to provide signposts for service in the future.

“As vve celebrate the fiftieth jubilee, we pay tribute to all who shared in its foundation and in its development over the period.” according to the immediate past president, Mrs Ruth Shrimpton.

“The .W.C. A. is also a movement and denotes change. As people and their needs have changed, so the association has developed in meeting some of these needs.”

Mrs Margaret Cot erill. the current national president, says: “ I here is no knowing yet what the untapped human resources —which are to be found primarily among the female population of our world —could offer to the renewal of society.”

Yesterday The Y.W.C.A. in New Zealand came into being through the concern that some citizens in Dunedin during the rough, gold-rush days of the 1870’s, felt for the welfare of immigrant girls arriving in that city. In the years that followed, the need for accommodation for girls brought about the establishment of Y.W.C.A. hostels. And from that grew the variety of Y.W.C.A. programmes for women and girls, particularly in urban communities. Local associations sprang up, all going their worthy but unintegrated ways. In 1883, the Christchurch association was founded.

Soon it seemed logical and obvious to form a united and national policy-making group to give some sense of direction to the diverse groups. In 1907 the Joint Y.W.C.A. of Australia and New Zealand was formed and affiliated with the World Y.W.C.A. The partner organisations worked well across the Tasman; after all their aims were similar, but the geographic distance did bring about communication difficulties. A New Zealand Provisional Field Committee, centred on Auckland, was formed first. Headquarters were moved to Wellington where they functioned till 1924. Another move, this time to Christchurch for a year, occurred at the same time as a change of name to the Dominion Committee of the Y.W.C.A. A return to Wellington came soon after and their headquarters have since remained.

The separation of the New Zealand Y.W.C.A. into a self-contained and autonomous organisation in its own right, separate from its sister Australian organisa-

tion. came in 1926. A con-1 stitution for the Y.W.C.A. of New Zealand with an outline of its purposes was drawn up in that year at a Dunedin conference.’ That conference, attended by representatives from local associations throughout the country, was germinal to the development of the Y.W.C.A. in New Zealand during the half century that has followed. Names such as those of Ethel Law as the organisation’s general secretary and Leila Bridgman as the National Girls’ Work Secretary, came to the forefront of the movement in those important years.

It is impossible in a brief retrospective article about a nationwide movement such as the Y.W.C.A. to pay honour to all the women who have contributed sterling service to a voluntary organisation such as this.

As far back as 1925 the aims of the association were expressed as: “To take girls beyond the interests of their own group, to make the appeal of citizenship attractive and challenging and to make them conscious of themselves with a definite responsibility for nationbuilding. The aims remain valid in our changing world of the 1970’5. The techniques for achieveing them may have been adapted and expanded but the Y.W.C.A. can look forward to a further halfcentury of achievement in a changing world. Today The old image of the Y.W.C.A. hostel with its necessary privations and institution food is slipping into the past tense. Today the move is toward self-service flats with a matron or a hostess handy ito provide counselling serI vices. I But accommodation is by 'no means the sole concern

of the association, which has, through the years, become increasingly involved in community work, both at home and overseas.

The Y.W.C.A. is not primarily a building, but a membership and a programme designed to meet the needs of women and girls everywhere. The Y.W.C.A. works away from its centre with mobile vans, which carry staff and equipment to the suburbs where mothers and young children need help,

with creche facilities and a programme designed to meet their needs. These vans were made possible with a grant of $50,000 from the Sutherland Self Help Trust, and one is used in Christchurch to take Y.W.C.A. activities into the suburbs and the country. In general, the Y.W.C.A. programme comprises classes in an enormous range of activities which are run in conjunction with school terms. And during the school holidays, special holiday camps and programmes are run. The term-time classes include art, basketry, cake decorating, crochet, floral I art, macrame, mechanics,

'meeting procedure, survival cooking, weaving. jazz dance, yoga and basic gymnastics, keep fit, a Duke of Edinburgh award club, a handcraft club, a trampoline club, an indoor bowls club and the triple C. All these classes are open to women, whether they are members or not who are 17 years of age or older. Junior classes, for those of school age, include basic gymnastics, and trampoline, as well as the numerous holiday activities. Workshops are run in business knowledge, gardening, home maintenance, ecology, arts and crafts, budgeting, meeting procedure, macrame, candy making, parcel wrapping, and making Christmas gifts and decorations. Men are able to join the association as associate members. I The association also runs a Young Wives Club, after school clubs, and a Saturday morning club for physically handicapped people aged 15 years and over. Tomorrow The future of the Y.W.C.A. in New Zealand looks bright and demanding, full of challenges. International Women’s Year created an awareness of the contribution women can make to society and the responsibility of women’s organisations to provide opportunities for service, for continuing education, for creating social consciousness and political action. The world council of the association, which met in July last year, indicated new directions of work — cooperation in development, responsibility and understanding of the implications of the new international economic order, development of leadership potential and

new commitment to the] : association’s role as a Christian movement. In New Zealand the future ■ could certainly see fewer ' large “Y” buildings and more small units populated by people of all ages from i pre-schoolers to senior citi- : zens. Mobile “Y” units, not ' only on the peripheries of cities, but in the rural com- , munity are a growing and . practical concept. Things such as the > Y.W.C.A. workshop at last year’s National Women’s 1 Convention helped to point . up the expanding and vita! role that the “Y” can play 'jin our modern community. 'iThe future is likely to see a 'change of emphasis, though [soundly based on the [■Y-W.C.A. principles of the ■past. J Some of the outward-look- \ ling, new ventures already 'embarked upon which could be interpreted as signposts) ; for the future of thei . Y.W.C.A. in its second half- ' century are already in exist- ’ ence. A fine example is the ’ appointment to the Wellington Y.W.C.A., to work with immigrants — of Miss Eleanor Phillips of Fiji. She al- , ready has a committee of [ people from various Govern--1 ment departments, various ’ volunteer agencies and people from amongst immi1 grants themselves to work ’ alongside her. , But there is one thing in the Y.W.C.A. that has not j changed through its 50 years . existence; it is something . that will never change as . long as the association exists. And that is the pur- . pose of the Y.W.C.A. in New , Zealand: "Motivated by Christian • concern, the Young Women’s , Christian Association of New Zealand seeks without j discrimination of culture or I : faith, to bring together) I people, that through shared!

thinking and activity they may. develop their potential as individuals and take responsible action in their community and in the world.”