New Britain herald., 1916-01-13

1 employees. We should like to have l those people who have this or that social scheme in mind and yet have no need of a full time welfare worker bring their commission to and let us serve them in the same way.
 At meeting of social workers of this state held recently, the subject for discussion was publicity in Char ity Organization society work. Ob- viously the names and histories of families befriended cannot be made public and yet the public which sup ports the organizatio certainly has a right to know what is going on. In this city we have solved the problem of late by advertisements of our needs; by public addresses on charity work whenever invited by clubs or organizations; by explanatory letters of thanks to all who contribute to the agents special funds; and by monthly reports given in full to the newspapers each month, accompanied by office statistics and financial state ments. Naturally the papers cut out much of this as uninteresting to their readers but we feel that the newspa- pers are feeling the public pulse con- tinuously, that their suggestions or
 
 that they have a right to know all we do not pass what they consider of news value.
 Copying Local Ideas
 New London has lately copied our plan of advertising but so far as we could judge from the meeting no other societies save Waterbury and Meriden give frequent addresses, none make acknowledgements to donors of special funds. Our adver- Using scheme which had the atten- ton of the Russell Sage Foundation seems to be working out well in other cities outside the state. It was grant ed by all present that charity Organi- zation societies should give more at tention to placing their work as well as their needs before the public.
 During the month of December, 1915, there have been 337 applica- tions for service of the Charity Or ganization; sixteen from public of ficials, twenty from private societies, six from churches, eighty from inter ested individuals two from other cit ies, and the remainder from appli- cants themselves. There were twen- ty-six new cases during the month and ninety families dealt with all to- SSCnGr. mere were 40S CdliS dL sllS office, 228 from cOnsultants and 211 from applicans Ninety-nine visits were made on the families we are in- terested in, eight more were made by friendly visitors for us, and there were ] thewty-seven and one-half hours Of . volunteer office work donated by var | ious young women and 434 telephone ] calls in behalf of the families we are | helping. Optical aid was given to two, 1 clothing to twenty-four, and weekly ] aid throughout the month to eight. 1 Ten families were helped through | emergency needs from our own treas 1 ury $40.3O was spent in relief from l the treasurers fund $16.10 from the l agents special fund, $8.38 from agents ! special Christmas fund. $1S.02 from l special shoe fund for our school chil- | dren and a loan of $1.50 was made to | one individual.
 The amount of SPILLS was paid cut J by various persons through our sug- 1 gestion although this money did not ] pass into the agents or treasurer's l hands, making a total of $355.43 ex- pended through Charity Organizati ton ! channels for relief during the past l month