Y.W.C.A.—HOSTEL AND CAFETERIA

Evening Star, Issue 21036, 25 February 1932, Page 3

Y.W.C.A.—HOSTEL AND CAFETERIA

In our grandmothers’ day women and girls led a very sheltered life, economic conditions being such that industrial and business life for girls was a thing apart; but with the advent of machinery, independent thought, and in later years the circumstance of war these conditions have changed. Women have left the seclusion of their homes and stand shoulder to shoulder with their brothers—and who would say it was not for their good. They have come into their own ; their vision has been enlarged. Whereas once they were led, they now think for themselves on political, civic, and world affairs. To meet these new economic and social conditions the Y.W.C.A. establishes hostels where it endeavours to make a home away from home for the women and girls, who through force of circumstances are compelled to live in a city. To the girl arriving in a strange city the Y.W.C.A. hostel is a boon, for she is met, introduced to her new surroundings through a friendly atmosphere, and helped to adjust herself quickly to her new environment. To the woman traveller the hostel again opens its hospitable dears. The contacts made and friendships formed within these hostels are often of lifelong duration. Another feature of the Y.W.C.A. which appeals to business girls and to the parents of girls is the homely, friendly cafeteria. It is a good place in which to spend the lunch hour, a bright, pretty room, airy, yet cosy, with an open fire, central, yet set apart from the noise and din, plain, yet offering the friendly comfort of a clubroom to all girls and women. Hot and cold dishes and drinks are served at cost price, or one may bring one’s own lunch and enjoy it in this sotting. Numbers of girls purchase soup only, or a hot drink to supplement their own lunches. There is also available a lounge, with magazines and papers, comfortable easy chairs, a piano, a cloakroom, where one may read or idle away the lunch hour with needlework and happy conversation. On Sundays, when most of the city closes its doors, we find again cafeteria, lounge, and clubrooms at the service of women and girls- . i , The hostel and cafeteria are only two of the many departments of the Y.W.C.A. Its activities range over an amazingly wide field, and embrace clubs for the development of friendship, clubs for social and educational help’ for athletics, singing, dramatics, physical culture and deportment, games, and, lastly, clubs to stimulate citizenship in the youthful mind. Every lunch hour girls troop into the cafeteria, some just to enjoy their own lunches, others to purchase the daintily served dishes, while in the evening the building resounds with gay laughtei, friendly banter, as the members of the various club meetings gather for hours of happy comradeship, fun, study, and games. There is no need for any girl to be lonely or to lack interests; a welcome and open door await her at all times in die Y r .W.C.A.