COMMUNITY DRIVE

Evening Post, Volume CXXI, Issue 78, 1 April 1936, Page 4

COMMUNITY DRIVE

AGAINST MEMPLOY.MENT

RESULTS OF THREE YEARS

Through the medium of a report on' "Unemployment and Community Service" just issued, the National Council of Social Service presents the first comprehensive account of voluntary action in the past three years to combat the insidious '.evils' of . unemployment which arise from a loss of self-respect and the absence of.the discipline of work, says "The Times." ' .< The National Council of ■. Social Service. was founded in 1919 to-develop voluntary effort in ,the service of the community, ,and with; this end ' inView to promote the co-operation of voluntary associations and public authorities both nationally and locally. Since'its formation; the council has concerned itself especially with village betterment through the establishment of rural community councils, and .320 village halls have been built or improved with' the assistance i of funds administered by ; the organisation. Attention, has also/been, given to the development 6f 'social 'service in towns on cooperative ./lines,, the development'.of'facilities for community life on new housing estates, and the collection and distribution of voluntary subscriptions to the amount of £1,623,000 to other agencies. THE BEGINNING. The origin of the work among unemployed people, which is the special subject of the present report, really dates from the Albert Hall meeting addressed by the King, as Prince of Wales, on January,27, 1932. The Prince, as he then was, called on the country to face the problem of unemployment as a national opportunity for voluntary social service, and; in order not to be paralysed by the size of the problem, to "break it up into little pieces." Before this meeting a few public-spirited people in the coalfields and elsewhere had initiated a number of welfare schemes for people suffering from the effects of prolonged unemployment, "but th Prince's speech focused attention on the essential part to be played by personal • effort in helping the workers. In the autumn of 1932 the Ministry of Labour invited, the National Council to act as the central advisory body for the movement and offered to place funds at'its disposal for this purpose so that it might strengthen the work where the need was greatest. Between November, 1932, and April, 1935, the Council distributed over £791000 in. Ministry of- Labour grants. Beyond this over. £400,000 has been raised by voluntary effort. - • ■ • The aim of the Council, the report states, has been to see that people with time on their hands should have within their reach a club where, if they wished, they could find not only good fellowship but opportunities to develop interests for which ■they often had little time when they were in work.' "It is important," the Council consider, "that those who cannot get work should not only have the means to keep body and soul together, but also, food. for their minds and some purpose to fill empty days." Grantaid has been a; valuable factor in the extension'; of """the" "rriovementrbut - - itsucceeds or .falls in any particular area as unemployed. .■ people ~.themselves and'the community of which they ar^. members are willing to make the ■ necessary • effort.' '•' "■■■ ■ '".■..".'. ■■ • ASimVEY. ...■•■ \ : A survey carried out by the National Council has shown that there are now some 1500 occupational clubs and centres for unemployed people, with an average active membership of 200,000, of whom" about 16,000 are unemployed women or the wives of unemployed men. -Most: of the members contribute a penny or twopence a week towards the cost of running their clubs, and by 'March,; 1935, over £20,000- had been contributed in this way. The members also give their time and labour towards building or reconstructing club premises and making their own furniture. They have built swimming baths, playing fields, and children's playgrounds, and have equipped' nursery schools in many parts of the country where local funds were, not. available. At least 200 clubs, or 20 per cent, of those surveyed, are now in no danger of losing their premises, and nearly as many are • their own landlords . and free to develop the premises as they please. One valuable method of supporting the clubs has been the "adoption" of hard-hit places, either by more fortunate areas, or by groups of people in banks, business houses, or the public services. The movement is growing rapidly and has already yielded fruitful and promising results. Of the 96 local schemes assisted in this way 53 are in Durham and Northumberland and 14 in the West Riding of Yorkshire. Eighty per. cent, of the clubs reviewed included some form of craft work as part of normal activities, which also embrace debates, lectures, wireless listening groups, and study groups. Physical training classes in* clubs have been encouraged both locally and by the National 'Council. 'It has' been asked, the report states, whether the craft work has a serious aim or .. is little better than a pastime of no particular value. The purpose is not to produce a mass of articles that are either unwanted or could have been better made by machinery, nor is it to train men and women for industrial employment. It is rather to produce articles which are of modest, but real use to the maker, his family, or the club which their users could not afford to buy. MUST BE WIDER. The report points out that while much has been' contributed to the movement the work if it is to fulfil Hj promise must be extended until the opportunities afforded by the clubs are within the reach of all who are unemployed, and as the movement grows its needs multiply. Recent figures show that the numbers who are without work at any particular time is still appallingly large. Mr. A. D. Lindsay, Master of Balliol, who is chairman" of the Unemployment Committee of the National Council, in a comment on the report, stated that one of the most serious problems which the movement had to face in the immediate future was that of the younger men, between the ages of 18 and 25, who had never been in work except perhaps as boys in a blind-alley occupation. Aspects of the movement which were likely to develop most rapidly were concerned with the development, of physical training, and games,for these;young men, and work among women who were unemployed or the wives of unemployed men. ;