Pueblo chieftain., 1921-05-02
ORGANIZED PLAY

activities sre running smoothly the
imported helpers go on to other
WORK.
A different plan has TO be worked
out for each city or town. No two
cities have exactly tho same interests.
or tho samc amount of money to put
into recreation. or tho Mmo facili-
ties
In Chicago. tho local community
| service is particularly concerned with
promotnx oreani,ed play among the
adults are concerned means. OF
course. baseball. dancing. athletics
singing and contests of various
kinds.
Flint. Michigan. Is Interested IN
working especially with roped-off
street play. and Fairgrounds for
children. In Connorsviile. Indiana.
community sports have developed
from tho usc of vacant lot whcre
tho men pitched horse~hocs in tho
evening. into three well established
community ccntcrs. Lowell. Mass
achusctts. speciallzes in girls ath-
lctic clubs. and Wilmington. Della
ware. is trying community recreation
to promote good citizenship among
Altogether $50 communities are
organized under the Community Ser
vice. One ehundrcd thirty of them arc
! operating without assistance from
tho New York headquarters They
have budgets, are working on definite
prosramn, and have some one in
charge of the community recreation
all the year round.
Trained Workers Needed
A large part OF the success of COM
munity play depends on the workers
in charge. The community secretary
or the specialist in some phase OF
recreation Is n new and rather com
positc type. He or she Is somewhat
like the settlement worker. Settle
mont work Is community work. in n
limited field. whereas the community
secretary Is a municipal employee
who serves everybody. The com
munity secretary needs perhaps a
greater amount OF pep and sociability
worker. He must also have AN
! abundance of initiative. executive
ability. and versatility. Unless the
local community service is completely
organized with pageant and athletic
directors, a song leader. and other
specialists, the community secretary
must organize and direct such activi-
ties, as well as chapcronc dances,
arrange classes in sewing swimming,
or whatever the community cents,
wants TO learn, and find teachers for
them. And finally. he must he on
hand at all times to 500 to things"
Men and women with these diverse
qualifications are not so scarce as
might be supposed. The war can
teens and huts developed social ex-
per,s by the hundred. And besides
these are some girls who would or
dinar!ly have become school teachers
who are looking towards community
service as an alternative for the per
son with executive ability, who likes
dealing with people. and wants to do
something useful.
Training workers for community
service is new field which the New
York headquarters OF the Community
Service is entering. a short course
has Just been given hero In washing
ton. Another is to be given in Chi
cago in May. and later there will be
session In San Francisco. These
courses do not attempt to give COM
pletc training for directing q CONF
munlty service organization Tho
school held In Washington lasted only
two weeks and had as Students only .
men and women who were already
engaged in community work or who
mad experience in directing play
ground work or romc other rcrrc-
ational feature.
When there is skilful supervision
NJ community center and the right
chord is struck TO interest the peo-
pie. remarkable results are being re-
| corded. Merely as a matter of inter-
est, we inquired OF Mr.. James Il.
Rogers, who conducted the training
school here. which communities have
model organization. He replied
that no community Is spending
enough, or can spend enough. on rec
/ Dduvn to meet all the needs that
exist