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CHAPTER VI
YOUTH WELFARE
24. From the start the Social Welfare Office's principal role in this most important field was to promote the expansion of voluntary work, and to co-operate with the voluntary bodies in doing so. After the appointment of Miss D. Lee as Principal Youth Welfare Officer in 1949 this work developed steadily.
25. In 1948 the Relief Section of the Social Welfare Office had experimented with the formation of Children's Clubs for 300 of the poorest children who were then attending the Social Welfare Office Free Feeding Centres. These children were given simple lessons, taught health rules, given opportunities for games, and for singing lessons, Christmas parties, and so forth. Some were also taught trades; and were helped to set up small co-operatives for rearing poultry, vegetable gardening, carpen- try, rattan work, or the making of artificial flowers.
The Principal Youth Welfare Officer later developed this work, insisted on home visiting by Club Leaders, and set up twelve Social Welfare Office Boys' and Girls' Clubs. In 1951 an unusual step was taken when the Social Welfare Office sought for, and was granted, affiliation of these twelve "official" clubs with the voluntary Boys' and Girls' Clubs Association. This meant that, although these clubs were still entirely main- tained and staffed by Government, they were deliberately made subject to the rules of a voluntary organization.
26. Boys' and Girls' Clubs had first been started in the 1930's, and were re-opened after the war by the Boys' and Girls' Clubs Association. By 1954 there were some 80 clubs affiliated to the Association, with an active membership of over 3,500. At all times there was very close and harmonious relationship between the Association and the Social Welfare Office. Through-
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