[Recreation in War Time]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]

RECREATIOr
IN WAR TIME
A MANUAL FOR RECREATION COMMITTEES OF LOCAL DEFENSE COUNCILS
Published by the OFFICE OF CIVILIAN DEFENSE with the cooperation of the Office of Defense Health and Welfare Services OCD Publication 3624 • May 1943

FOREWORD
This is one of a series of manuals for local Defense Council committees in the field of Civilian War Services.
This manual should be taken merely as suggestive. It is to be used by the committee to which the local Defense Council has delegated the planning responsibility in this field of wartime community service. It should not be interpreted as a mandate to reorganize any part of a Defense Council that is functioning effectively.
It cannot be emphasized too forcefully that close working relationships should be established among the several local Defense Council committees in the field of Civilian War Services, especially those in health, welfare, and related activities.
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TABLE OF CONTENTS
Page
Recreation—A Community Job________________________________ 1
Recreation—A Wartime Need_________________________________ 2
How To Organize a Recreation Committee_________________ 2
Membership _ _ l__________________________________________ 2
Area and County Committees________________________________ 3
Officers________________________:______________________ 4
Executive Committee______________________________________  4
Subcommittees_____________________________________________ 4
Relationships With Other Defense Council Committees_ _	5
The Time To Organize Is Now_______________________________ 5
What a Recreation Committee Does__________________________ 5
Scope of Interest_________________________________________ 5
Survey and Use of Local Resources______________________ 6
Use of Volunteers_________________________________________ 6
Finance___________________________________________________ 8
Typical Activities Sponsored by Recreation Committees, _	8
Military Towns____________________________________________ 8
Facilities________________________________________________ 8
Information_______________________________________________ 9
Lodging and Hospitality_____________________________ 10
Programs_________________________________________________ 10
War Industrial Communities__________________________ 10
Emergency Conditions________________________________ 12
Resources Outside the Community_________________________  12
Office of Civilian Defense__________________________ 12
Office of Defense Health and Welfare Services_______ 13
Federal Works Agency___________________________________ 13
Work Projects Administration_____________________________ 14
Federal Public Housing Authority, ----------------------- 14
United Service Organizations_____________________________ 15
National Recreation Association_________________________  15
State Recreation Committees______________________________ 16
Local Community Responsibility__________________________  16
Amended Executive Order of the President No. 8757-	18
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RECREATION IN WARTIME
RECREATION—A COMMUNITY JOB
This manual sets forth the purposes, duties, and functions of the Recreation Committee of the local Defense Council. The Recreation Committee has an important place within the pattern of organization suggested by the United States Office of Civilian Defense in its publications being prepared on Civilian War Services. Its objective is an over-all plan of adequate recreation and leisure-time activities for service men and women in the community, for men and women workers in war industries, and for children and other civilians.
In all fields, the present national emergency requires the mobilization and fullest use of all local community resources. - The duties of the Recreation Committee are primarily those of coordination and over-all planning. Additionally, it is responsible for stimulating and prompting phases of the recreation program which are underdeveloped or have been overlooked.
The coordinating responsibility of the Recreation Committee is twofold. It consists of bringing about a single, united, community-wide recreation plan, jointly mapped out by all agencies operating war recreation programs, in cooperation with groups and individuals interested in meeting wartime recreation needs. It also includes clearing details of this community-wide recreation plan with the total plan for Civilian War Services of the local Defense Council. In this way, duplication or overlapping of work undertaken by the several Civilian War Services committees may be avoided.
In formulating this pattern of organization, the Office of Civilian Defense and the Office of Defense Health and Welfare Services have drawn upon their experience with the Recreation Committees of many local Defense Councils and upon the experience and advice of State Councils of Defense. The Civilian War Services Branch of the local Defense Council is charged with meeting community needs arising from the war. To the Recreation Committee is delegated authority and responsibility for meeting such needs within the field of recreation.
Exact assignment of functions among the various planning committees of the Civilian War Services Branch will vary in different communities, depending upon size, prevailing conditions, and resources. However, it is of the utmost importance that all war-caused needs be met by some responsible community authority.
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RECREATION—A WARTIME NEED
President Roosevelt has pointed out that “human beings cannot sustain continued and prolonged work for very long without obtaining a proper balance between work on the one hand and vacation and recreation on the other.”
The service man and woman, when free from military duty, revert to civilian interests. They want normal contacts with community life, hospitality, a place to stay over week ends. This constitutes a demand upon cities, towns, and villages adjacent to Army and Navy posts.
American engineers in human efficiency recognize the inter-related needs in human welfare—productive capacity and the recreational use of leisure time. War workers—both men and women—for whom adequate recreational provision has been made, return in better condition to meet their tasks.
Similarly, youth are vitally affected by war tensions and need wholesome outlets. Children, left to their own resources because both mothers and fathers are working, create added community demands in which recreational programs have a contribution to make.
Recreation is an essential area of freedom for the individual which must be protected. It is a continued opportunity to take part in democratic living. Adequate provision for recreation is as essential to community welfare as adequate fire protection, sanitation, and education. The constructive way for all groups to meet the need is through cooperative community effort. Because it is a community’s inherent and continuing responsibility, the initiative and directive for this activity must rest with the community itself.
HOW TO ORGANIZE A RECREATION COMMITTEE
Membership.—It has been stated previously that a well-planned and inclusive program of recreation can best be achieved by setting up a Recreation Committee as an integral part of the Civilian War Services Branch of the local Defense Council.
The Recreation Committee must make certain that all necessary wartime recreation programs will be carried on. At the same time, duplication of effort must be avoided if its planning is to be sound. Therefore, all program-operating agencies in the recreation field should be represented on the Recreation Committee.
In many communities a recognized peacetime planning body serves as the nucleus of the official Recreation Committee of the Defense Council, with membership enlarged to include representation from all groups in the community. Where a U. S. O. council has been organized separately, it should become part of the Recreation Committee of the Defense Council. (See the Office of Defense Health and Wel
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fare Services publication, “Health, Welfare, and Related Aspects of Community War Services,” revised Oct. 1942, p. 8.)
The membership of a Recreation Committee should be widely representative of all groups in the community. It should include representation from management and labor, liberals and conservatives, men and women, young and old, rich and poor, whites and Negroes, natives and foreign born. The purpose of community-wide organization will be defeated if the committee is merely a representation of a small selfappointed minority group, planning for the rest of the community.
All public and private agencies and organizations in the community interested in leisure-time activities should be represented on the Recreation Committee. Membership should be drawn from city officials interested in recreation, such as the park commissioner or recreation director, the superintendent of education or the director of recreation of the school system, the librarian, a representative of the local housing authority (or of the management staff of war housing projects where there is no local housing authority), organized labor, leaders in the chamber of commerce, social agencies, voluntary group work and recreation agencies, civic clubs, a U. S. O. council if such exists in the community, music and dramatic associations, the parent-teachers’ association, the ministerial association and other religious groups, and the press and radio. To these may be added several members at large to represent groups in the community not otherwise represented.
If the community is near an Army or Navy training post the special service and welfare officers should be invited to meet with the committee, ex officio. If the community is near an industrial plant the officials of the plant and of the labor unions should be included on the Recreation Committee. In some communities the committee may have to serve the needs of both service men and industrial workers. In such cases the organization may have two major subdivisions: One planning for service-men; the other, for industrial workers and over-all community recreation needs. From time to time it will meet as a unified group to consider the total recreation needs of the community.
In any community adjacent to military or naval centers or war industries where there are Negroes, adequate facilities and programs must be planned for this group. In such planning, the advice of Negroes is essential in interpreting the needs of their own group, and representative Negro leaders should be included in the committee membership.
Area and County Committees.—In an area where military training posts or war industrial plants affect more than one community, the Recreation Committees of several local Defense Councils may be
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linked together through an Area or County Recreation Committee. The membership of an Area or County Committee may include chairmen of local Recreation Committees, professional workers under municipal departments of recreation, city and county park boards, U. S. O., other philanthropic and private agencies, and representative lay citizens. The chairman of an Area or County Committee that coordinates the recreation program under more than one local Defense Council may be appointed by the State Defense Council or may be elected by the Area or County Committee itself. The field recreation representatives of the Office of Defense Health and Welfare Services act in an ex officio capacity.
Officers.—The chairman of the committee should be a person of large personal influence in the community. He or she should be given authority to appoint an executive committee and a vice-chairman when the need for such an office is indicated.
An executive secretary is necessary if the chairman and vice-chairman are too busy to attend to details. Preferably the secretary will be a professional person who is permitted by his agency or organization to devote time to the executive leadership of the committee.
A treasurer will be necessary to secure financial support for the work of the committee. It is advisable to appoint someone who is conversant with public and private support of recreational activities in the community and who has the confidence of his fellow citizens.
Executvoe Committee.—It may be decided to appoint an Executive Committee in large cities. This should be a small working group, preferably including the chairmen of subcommittees if such exist, and it should meet regularly and frequently.
Those members of the Executive Committee who are chairmen of subcommittees should be given authority to appoint members to their respective subcommittees from the membership of the Recreation Committee. As far as possible each member of the larger committee should be appointed to active participation on a subcommittee.
Subcommittees.—A basic framework of subcommittees may be necessary in larger communities, including subcommittees on some of the following problems and activities: (a) Information, clearing house, and survey; (b) publicity and publications; (c) finance; (d) programs; (e) facilities-centers; (f) volunteers; (g) sports and athletics; (h) commercial recreation; (i). church activities; (j) home hospitality.
Special program interests may be further served by subcommittees in such fields as dramatics, music, social recreation, newcomers’ welcome, recreation for children, and women’s activities.
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In larger communities, subcommittees may be established for work in special geographical areas or with particular minority groups. These might include a trailer camp committee, a housing projects committee (to meet recreation needs of the residents), a rural committee, or a neighborhood committee.
Whenever a community, under the sponsorship of the Recreation Committee, operates its own center or centers for enlisted men or industrial war workers, the Recreation Committee of the local Defense Council should set up a separate management or operating subcommittee for each of these centers. Wide experience makes it clear that the effective operation of a community recreation center requires the full-time attention of a group selected specifically for the task. This group should be incorporated as a nonprofit organization.
Relationships ^With Other Defense Council Committees.—The Recreation Committee must maintain close contact with the other committees of the Civilian War Services Branch. In most communities, the chairman of the Recreation Committee will also be, by virtue of his position, a member of the Executive Committee of the Civilian War Services Branch, where clearance between programs of the Recreation Committee and the other Civilian War Services committees will be centralized. In smaller communities, where fewer planning committees will be needed, necessary coordination can be achieved by having the Recreation Committee chairman serve on the Defense Council itself. Allied needs or problems not specifically within the field of recreation will be referred to the appropriate planning committee or agency by the Recreation Committee.
The Recreation Committee should secure assistance from the War Information Committee and Speakers Bureau of the Defense Council for the promotion of its activities. In recruiting volunteers the subcommittee on volunteers of the Recreation Committee should work closely with the Civilian Defense Volunteer Office.
Further information regarding the organization and responsibilities of the various Civilian War Services committees of Defense Councils may be found in the respective committee manuals now in preparation.
The Time to Organize Is Now.—The Recreation Committee should act before the community is faced with an acute problem. Total war means total effort. It is the time to reconsider and strengthen all our community assets. Organization of the community for the best use of its total recreation resources is a permanent service to the community. To meet the present crisis, strong community organization is essential. The community will then be prepared for any eventuality.
WHAT A RECREATION COMMITTEE DOES
Scope of Interest.—Thè interests of the committee should be widely diversified. They should include: (a) Various types of recreative
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program interests—outdoor and indoor, spectator and participant, free and commercial, individual and group—sports, dramatics, music, hobbies, arts, and crafts; (5) public relations and publicity on recreation as a wartime need ; (c) financial support for the program, both public and private; (d) public participation from both general and special interest groups.
Religious and cultural values should be recognized and the recreation program should be widely inclusive. A great variety of needs are to be met within any community. Recognition of all existing work and spheres of interest is basic to the development of effective community coordination of recreation activities.
Survey and Use of Local Resources.—The committee should consider all community resources, both public and private, to determine whether they are being used to maximum capacity and efficiency in promoting the community wartime recreation program as it affects both military personnel and war industry workers. Consideration must be given to the needs of workers on night and early morning shifts. Schedules of activities to fit in with the leisure periods of various groups in the population must be planned. Opportunities for recreation in the community can be greatly increased by such methods as developing community recreation activities in school buildings and grounds after school hours, by opening up churches and their auxiliary buildings, by arranging social affairs in fraternal clubs and service centers, by keeping parks and playgrounds open and lighting them after dark where the community is not subject to dimout regulations.
Commercial recreation facilities available often determine the nature and extent of programs for adults. The survey should include all details relating to location, hours, and prices in these establishments. Sources of competent leadership—both voluntary and professional—should be thoroughly explored. Money is needed to provide buildings, to operate and maintain facilities, to pay leaders and purchase supplies. The survey should indicate possibilities for financial support.
The committee should then devise ways and means for expanding and supplementing these resources in relation to wartime needs. This can often be done cooperatively at very little expense. New resources should, as far as possible, be developed with the thought of permanent service after the war. The services of the ODHWS field recreation representatives are available to assist in such a survey.
Use of Volunteers.—Through its subcommittee on volunteers, the Recreation Committee should take the initiative in suggesting ways in which volunteers may be used, what training is necessary for them, and what standards should be observed in relation to their supervision,
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It should work closely with representatives of the Civilian Defense Volunteer Office in developing these suggestions and should arrange for admission of such volunteers to membership in the Citizens Service Corps of the Defense Council.
In respect to general training, the committee may take responsibility for executing the suggestions it develops. Actual planning for the use of volunteers and for their proper supervision is, however, carried on in the individual agencies to which volunteers are assigned. In respect to these matters, therefore, it is impractical for the committee to go further than making suggestions.
The principal responsibilities of the subcommittee on volunteers fall in the following areas:
1.	To study the personnel needs of the various recreation programs and contemplated programs in the community to determine which may be suitably met by volunteers who have been trained and who are under the supervision of qualified personnel.
2.	To determine what kind of training is needed by recreation volunteers in the community and to develop suggestions in respect to all needed training, whether it be general orientation to problems and recreation resources or training for engaging in specific activities.
3.	To develop standards for the use of volunteers including their orientation, training, and supervision.
4.	To produce material embodying the results of the above outlined work and to make it available to all recreation agencies in the community.
5.	In cooperation with the Civilian Defense Volunteer Office, to work constantly towards increasing the effectiveness of the use of volunteers in recreation agencies in the community.
Some example of work which volunteers are doing in connection with recreation activities follow: Women serve as clerical assistants. They serve as hostesses. Women’s organizations may often be interested in sponsoring a hostess program. In New Brunswick, N. J., 31 women’s organizations each furnish hostesses for one day a month. Women provide and serve food. They play an important part in entertainment programs. They serve as dancing partners. Successful soldier centers like the one in Huntsville, Tex., are operated completely with volunteer workers.
Volunteers collect magazines, games, and a variety of special equipment needed for entertainment at centers. Troop trains passing through Gallup, N. Mex., are provided with bundles containing food, tobacco, and reading matter contributed by citizens and distributed by volunteers.
Men volunteers are also making a very real contribution. They can perform numerous functions in advisory capacities and as active participants. They help with recreation programs by putting on stag
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parties and smokers. Rockford, Ill., has weekly stag parties in the recreation center. Informal stag parties where service men can drop in at any time are held regularly in Windsor Locks, Conn. San Antonio, Tex., has similar programs. Men’s civic luncheon clubs can often be stimulated to sponsor this type of activity.
Various schemes for the organization and supervision of volunteers have been developed. In the service men’s center in Cheyenne, Wyo., volunteers are divided into small companies, each with a captain and each responsible for service for definite periods. Where volunteers are used in established recreation agencies the staff members of these agencies serve in the capacity of supervisors. (For further suggestions see the OCD publication, “Volunteers in Recreation.”)
Finance.—Recreation Committees that take the responsibility to provide all or a part of the recreation facilities and services required by war needs will have a subcommittee on finance. This committee will raise the necessary funds for services and facilities in a number of ways:
1.	Through direct appropriations from city and county funds.
2.	Through special drives which are integrated in the over-all war chest or other fund-raising plans of the community.
3.	Through contributions from private individuals and organizations.
4.	Through special activities such as dinners, concerts, athletic affairs, and dances.
5.	Through supplemental aid from the Federal Government (see section on Federal Works Agency, p. 13).
Whenever it is necessary for the Recreation Committee, through a subcommittee on management or operations, to assume responsibility for expenditure of funds, it is recommended that the subcommittee incorporate as a nonprofit organization.
TYPICAL ACTIVITIES SPONSORED BY RECREATION COMMITTEES
Military Towns.—Facilities.—A community near a military training center is faced at once with problems of overcrowding. The soldiers come to town in their free time. They crowd the thoroughfares. They overcrowd stores, eating places, bus and train depots, and recreation facilities. Special provisions must be made for them.
Columbia, S. C., as an initial step, bought benches which they put on the State House grounds. Corpus Christi, Tex., had benches made for church lawns and to place along streets. These provided some other place than the curbstone and the doorstep for the servicemen to sit.
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Shortages of lounge and rest rooms are often relieved by cooperative community efforts. For example, Taunton, Mass., opened a recreation center with the school department providing a portable school building, the bank furnishing the land, and labor-union members donating the painting and decorating. In Great Neck, N. Y., a structure for a servicemen’s center was obtained rent free and its operation financed through monthly contributions from local organizations.
A normal college for Negroes in Albany, Ga., turned over one of its buildings as a Negro service center and the Recreation Committee arranged for renovation and equipment. Churches in Blackston, Va., cooperatively sponsored a center in a parish house with members accepting the responsibility for the operation of programs. Residents in the trailer camp community at the Marine base near Jacksonville contributed funds for lumber and equipment to erect a recreation center. These are but a few of the hundreds of examples of community action from Maine to California.
Recreation Committees can stimulate all groups in the community to share in the tasks and give generously of their services. Labor unions often donate a portion of the labor required to decorate and renovate centers. Business houses supply equipment. Public utilities supply electricity and water. Garden clubs landscape the grounds.
Recreation centers should be equipped with showers, wash rooms, and shaving facilities. Facilities for checking parcels should be made available. Telephone booths and a postage-stamp machine should be installed. Canteens where soldiers can obtain food and beverages are always well patronized.
Information.—Servicemen need conveniently located information centers where full details regarding the facilities and recreation opportunities of the community are available. They want to know about transportation, parks, shops, maps, schedules of movies, church activities, commercial and public recreation. Information centers are convenient for distribution of free tickets for entertainment. They also serve as room registries and as a meeting place for conducted tours and for organized home hospitality.
When servicemen come to the Hospitality House in San Francisco, they are given a guide book of the city in which are a map and several tickets for free rides, theaters, and amusements. Hopewell, Va., gets up a four-page circular and New Orleans provides a printed “map tour.” Jacksonville, Fla., furnishes servicemen with a guide which can be sent back home to familiarize the folks with the type of community in which they are stationed. Most communities print regular programs of events for servicemen and newspapers cooperate by publishing full weekly schedules. Frequently, these media are supplemented by radio broadcasts.
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Lodging And Hospitality.—Soldiers on leave for week ends need overnight lodgings. Organizing this service is one of the activities of Recreation Committees. The Recreation Center of Portland, Maine, took over the supervision of an armory and equipped it with 500 cots to lodge servicemen. Parish houses made available by churches in Washington, D. C., house men who stay in town overnight.
The men in the services want a touch of home; they want home cooking and a family table. The churches have been generous in their organization of home hospitality. A Sunday dinner with the family after services is a real treat. Cards sent home with school children, requesting parents to take soldiers into their homes for Christmas dinner, proved to be a successful project of the Macon, Ga., Recreation Committee. Hospitality organized through the Recreation Committee in Dover, Del., offers rooms without cost to servicemen in transit as well as to their families. Every week end in Santa Barbara, Calif., hundreds of servicemen are provided home hospitality. Colorado Springs, Colo., has a well-organized program of hospitality that includes week-end outings and picnics at dude ranches. In many towns private homes with tennis courts and swimming pools have joined in the community recreation plan.
Programs.—The Recreation Committees are ingenious in their use of local resources in providing activities for servicemen. Dances, entertainment, and athletic events draw large crowds. In Sylacauga and Childersburg, Ala., the movie houses cooperate with the Recreation Committee by making their facilities available for community sings. Boats for fishing trips are provided in Palacios, Tex. Deep-sea fishing parties are arranged at Buzzards Bay. The recreation department of Dallas, Tex., not only provides swimming facilities for soldiers, but furnishes the men with free bathing suits and towels as well.
Interest in arts and crafts can be satisfied. Studios in the Museum of Fine Arts of Houston, Tex., are opened to servicemen for painting and drawing. The St. Petersburg, Fla., Defense Council conducts a camera club and has regular programs in music, painting, sculpture, and poetry. In Berkeley, Calif., a workshop has been set up in a church parish house to rehabilitate furniture for use in soldiers’ centers. There are no limits to the scope and content of a recreation program. The facilities, needs, time, season, and personnel are the factors which condition the activities a community can make available to servicemen.
"War Industrial Communities.—The influx of large numbers of industrial workers and their families greatly overtaxes community facilities. Concentration of population in trailer camps, workers’ dormitories and housing projects create new communities within the
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community. Old facilities are congested. Increased numbers live in boarding houses. The pressure of these strange surroundings and of over-crowding threatens the morale, productivity, and health of war workers.
Opportunities for recreation often prove nonexistent. War industry workers cannot bowl if the few alleys are always taken when they have a little free time. They cannot go to a movie if the theater which provided for a population of 5,000 now must provide for 10,000. They cannot pursue a hobby if there is no room for a workshop. And they cannot get recreation at home if they live in a small house, overcrowded by several families.
Widespread initiative and responsibility of the community is the only solution for many of these problems. Public schools, parks, swimming pools, playgrounds, and private agencies need to be staffed for 24-hour service. Outdoor facilities need to be lighted for night use in areas not under dimout regulations. Additional lounges and meeting centers must be provided; information booths and bulletin service set up to acquaint all residents with recreational opportunities in the community.
Churches in the community have an important role in providing much needed hospitality. Churches may send people to visit the newcomers and invite them to participate in church and community activities. One church opened its Sunday School room as a rest center for women who came to town for marketing. Some of them said that it was the only peaceful spot in the whole area.
The Recreation Committee in Kenmore, N. Y., on which are representatives of organized labor and management, developed a program of recreation for industrial workers on an around-the-clock basis. Hartford, Conn., has secured the cooperation of commercial recreation operators to keep movies, roller skating rinks, and bowling alleys open until 3 a. m. A recreation program in Parsons, Kans., includes get-togethers for war workers who leave the plants at midnight. Newton Falls, Ohio, has its “Dawn Patrol” parties for men and women workers who finish their day’s work during the early morning hours. The adjustment of hours for recreation services is necessary to provide much-needed relaxation when workers come off the “swing” and morning shifts.
Women, in increasing numbers, have been drawn into work oustide the home. It is essential for them to get relief from work tensions. Special attention, therefore, should be paid to their leisure-time activities. A variety of social, physical, and cultural programs can be arranged. Co-recreational parties, dances, and supper clubs are popular. At Little Rock, Ark., girl war workers serve as dancing partners at the service men’s center. Team and individual sport activities should be encouraged. Fort Worth, Tex., conducts successful pro
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grams for mixed teams and leagues of men and women in basketball and volleyball. Dramatic and music clubs, hobby clubs, lectures, and gift clubs for soldiers are but a few of group programs local recreation agencies are sponsoring.
Unions and personnel departments of war plants are showing in-creased-interest in working with communities and providing recreation opportunities for both men and women war workers.
Children especially are affected by the lack of facilities and wholesome recreation activities. The Buffalo, N. Y., Recreation Committee conducts a series of programs in the public schools for children. Preschool groups at Hawthorne, Nev., use the recreation building during the early morning hours. Children in Vallejo, Calif., use the Federal recreation building during the part of the day when they are not in school.
The realization by working men and women that normal community services are being maintained and extended, even during this period of national emergency, will make an important contribution to morale and deepen the convictions of those on the home front in the cause for which they are fighting.
Emergency C onditions.—Organization of recreation in American towns where the blackout may become a recognized part of American life is another important measure. Special kinds of games for children and adults alike and special training of volunteers in recreation activities in times of emergency serve to lessen the hazards of wartime strain.
In one community the Bureau of Parks and Recreation prepared a special manual on recreation in blackouts. This opens with the following statement: “Defense agencies have instructed people what to do in case of air raid warnings and blackouts. A splendid organization of volunteer workers which can be mobilized On short notice has been established. People know where to go, but what will they do when they get there? The experience of a test air raid will be unique and entertaining, at first, but, as time goes on, the novelty and excitement ‘wears off’ and folks begin to look about for things to do. Recreation provides the answer—playing together. There is no better way of sustaining group morale and peace of mind than by playing together.” Then come directions for simple games to be played without equipment. Music is included with the suggestion that if accompaniment is not available, whistling is an ancient and honorable art.
RESOURCES OUTSIDE THE COMMUNITY
Office of Civilian Defense.—Community mobilization is the “American method” of safeguarding our communities through planned community action and the volunteer service of millions of citizens. The
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primary responsibility for mobilizing the community in wartime rests with the local Defense Council which receives assistance toward this end from its State Defense Council. The Office of Civilian Defense, through its regional offices, provides expert community organization counsel and advice, including field service, to State and local Defense Councils. Requests for such assistance should be made by the local Defense Council through the State Defense Council.
Office of Defense Health and Welfare Services.—An increasing number of communities are in close proximity to military and naval centers and large and important war industries. These so-called war impact areas are often faced with a sudden and overwhelming increase in population which overcrowds their facilities beyond their capacity for adjustment. In recognition of Federal responsibility to aid such communities the Office of Defense Health and Welfare Services was organized. The Recreation Section of the Office of Defense Health and Welfare Services has a staff of Federal recreation representatives who are available for technical consultation at any stage in the planning and execution of wartime recreation programs.
The Federal recreation representative is prepared to discuss specific problems of organization with the Recreation Committees of local Defense Councils and to assist in a survey of local resources. Based upon the needs of the community, he will assist the chairman in securing such special services of the Recreation Section of the Office of Defense Health and Welfare Services as may be deemed needed and as are available. Local Recreation Committees may be placed on the mailing list of “The Recreation Bulletin,” published by ODHWS, by communicating this wish to the State Defense Council, or the request may be made directly to the Recreation Section, Office of Defense Health and Welfare Services, Washington, D. C.
Federal Works Agency.—Under the Lanham Act the Federal Works Administrator will entertain applications for Federal grants for the construction, maintenance, and operation of recreation facilities for the armed forces when it is demonstrated that the need cannot be met by other public or private funds. The agency follows in general the policy of using Lanham Act funds for recreation facilities only where they are for the use of members of the armed services. Through April 1943, FWA had approved more than 400 war public works projects, costing more than $28,000,000, for construction of recreation facilities and a substantial number of war public services projects for maintenance and operation. Applications for Lanham Act assistance for recreation projects should be submitted through the Regional Offices of the Federal Works Agency located in New York, Richmond, Chicago, Atlanta, Fort Worth, St. Paul, and Salt Lake City, and sub-regional offices in Boston, Los Angeles, Seattle,
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and Washington, D. C. The Washington sub-regional office handles applications for the Washington metropolitan area.
Work Projects Administration.—Through the Work Projects Administration, certain types of recreation facilities and services have been made available in the past to communities adjacent to army and navy concentrations and to communities which are certified as war industrial areas. Hundreds of communities throughout the Nation have made use of WPA recreation service as supplementary aids in the development of their own war recreation programs.
Since WPA was ordered liquidated some of its recreation projects, directly war-connected, have been granted Lanham Act funds by the Federal Works Agency for maintenance and operation. However, as the WPA liquidation has now been substantially completed, and in view of the Federal Works policy above referred to, it appears unlikely that this kind of assistance can be given for any more of the WPA projects.
Federal Public Housing Authority.—Through the Federal Public Housing Authority of the National Housing Agency, facilities are provided in war housing projects (family dwellings, trailers, dormitories, and dormitory apartments) essential to the needs of war occupants for recreation, child care, health, sanitation, and safety to the extent that such facilities are not otherwise available and accessible. The scope of this program covers not only the housing projects constructed by the Federal Public Housing Authority but extends to housing projects constructed by other agencies and turned over to FPHA for operation. Basic equipment necessary for the normal operation of such facilities is also provided.
Project management staffs include persons responsible for the overall administrative supervision of these facilities and for achieving the provision and development of tenant programs of an educational, recreational, and self-help nature. However, since housing tenants are part of the community, the Federal Public Housing Authority states that project management staffs shall work with community agencies and groups in the extension of community service programs to the project and shall assist tenants in developing and operating their own programs.
The Recreation Section of the Office of Defense Health and Welfare Services works closely with the Federal Public Housing Authority on planning for community facilities and making provisions for the use of existing community facilities by housing tenants. Field recreation representatives of ODHWS will assist in program planning in housing projects.
The Recreation Committee of the local Defense Council will want to work closely with the Housing Committee where such a group has been set up by the Defense Council and should consider the needs
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of war housing tenants in studying total community needs for recreation.
United Service Organizations.—The U. S. O., which is a national voluntary organization providing services to service men, is formed by six private welfare groups—the Y. M. C. A., Y. W. C. A., the National Catholic Community Service, the Jewish Welfare Board, the Salvation Army, and the National Travelers Aid Society. It is subject to certain types of supervisory control by the Director of the Office of Defense Health and Welfare Services.
U. S. O. is a supplemental agency. The program of the U. S. O. is one segment of the total community program and should be incorporated as a part of a total war program. It is not intended to supersede local efforts but to supplement them. When large communities have resources sufficient to meet the emergency they are expected to do so. But, when communities find large concentrations of men in camps adjacent to their towns and when local resources are not available to meet the needs, the U. S. O. is available to help with the job when requested. It provides personnel and maintains clubhouses to serve the social, educational, and welfare needs of the men. While the basic plan of U. S. O. operations contemplates the utilization of as many Government-owned buildings as possible, the 198 Federal buildings it now operates comprise but a part of its 679 clubhouses included in its 1,091 operations in continental United States. The remainder of the clubhouses function in rented or privately provided quarters. Requests for U. S. O. assistance may be directed to the regional office of ODHWS.
National Recreation Association.—The National Recreation Association is an organization to which local committees can turn for assistance of two types. First, district representatives of the N. R. A. are available for consultative services to local communities. These experts are in a position to advise groups concerning the community organization aspects of recreation, the planning of facilities, as well as the technical phases of a recreation program. Second, the National Recreation Association prepares printed materials which are helpful in planning recreation programs. Information may be obtained from the national office, 315 Fourth Avenue, New York, N. Y.
STATE RECREATION COMMITTEES
In many States it has proven extremely successful to have a Recreation Committee set up as part of the State Defense Council. Local Defense Council Recreation Committees are recognized as its agents. The function of the State Recreation Committee is to interpret programs and policies from Federal offices and to act as a clearing point for information, resources, and personnel outside of the community. It advises on finance and on relations with outside organizations which
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may come into the community to provide assistance. When problems arise affecting a large area, State Recreation Committees aid the neighboring communities involved in pooling resources to carry out programs.
LOCAL COMMUNITY RESPONSIBILITY
The focal point in the program in every instance is thé local community. Here is where the need is felt; here is where the basic resources are. Here is where the initiative and responsibility reside. Federal and State governments bring aid to supplement and strengthen the work of the local community. A Recreation Committee of the Defense Council is the most effective means of providing adequate recreational opportunities to meet wartime needs. Only through this medium can there be a coordinated program to assure maximum use of community resources in facilities, trained supervisory personnel, and the services of volunteers.
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Amended Executive Order of the President of the
United States No. 8757 of May 20, 1941 Establishing the Office of Civilian Defense
“* * * There is established within the Office for Emergency Management of the Executive Office of the President the Office of Civilian Defense, at the head of which shall be a Director appointed by the President.
“The Director . . . shall:
“* * * Keep informed of problems which arise in States and local communities from the impact of the industrial and military efforts required by war, and take steps to secure the cooperation of appropriate Federal agencies in dealing with such problems and in meeting the emergency needs of such States and communities in such a manner as to promote the war effort.
“* * * Consider proposals, suggest plans, and promote activities designed to mobilize a maximum civilian effort in the prosecution of the war, and provide opportunities for constructive civilian participation in the war program; assist other Federal agencies in carrying out their war programs by mobilizing and making available to such agencies the services of the civilian population; review and approve all civilian defense programs of Federal agencies involving the use of volunteer services so as to assure unity and balance in the application of such programs; and assist State and local defense councils or other agencies in the organization of volunteer service units and in the mobilization of community resources for the purpose of dealing with community problems arising from the war. * * *”
U. $. GOVERNMENT PRINTING OFFICE: 1943