Evening star., 1927-10-30
RELIEF
HEAVY IN DISTRICT
One Of Every rs Aided by
Welfare Group, Charities
Appeal for 1923 Reveals.

Opening it's Fall campaign to raise
money for relief work among the poor
in Washington next year. the Associ-
ated Charities and Citizens Relief AS
socia ton announced in it's appeal
letter last night that out of every
25 children under 16 years of age in
the Capital was a member of some
family aided by the Associated
ChSrities last year. Although con-
tr:outions last year exceeded those
for 1925, the family welfare agencies
wers obliged to expend $3.50 out of
their reserves. The 1928 budget Will
have to be increased by at least S15.-
900 over the budget for the current
year to keep pace with relief demands.
Ord Preston is treasurer of the
Joint finance committee and will re-
ceive contributions at 1922 Eleventh
street, or they may be sent to the
treasurers of either association-John
b. Larner, for the Associated Cnari-
ties, and William j. F'lather, for the
Citizens Relief Association.
1869 Families Aided.
The two associations aided 1862
families last year, which included
4.213 children. The total of children
and adults receiving care and relief
from these agencies totaled 1897 last
year.
With the appeal letter which went
out last night. Corcoran Thorn, chair
man of the joint finance committee.
included a statement showing now
the demands for relief have risen
from S39. .S67 in 1928 to $59,490 in
1927, gain of about 49 per cent in
the past two years. Causes for the
increase were said to be the general
growth of the city. the increased
number of social workers who refer
cases of distress to the agencies. the
policy of giving continued and con-
structive relief. decreased employ
ment opportunities, high cost of living
and frequent lack of parental respon.
sibility.
The three main sources of family
dependence as shown by the records
of the workers engaged in this family
reha blita ton service. are i'll health,
non-support and unemployment. Sick
ness which often results in the
death or incapacity of the bread win
ner of a family was reported in one
form or another in 1.040 families
DeSertiOn OF nOn-Support was found
to he the salient factor of dependence
and distress in 433 families or about
onc-fourth of all. Unemployment
was found in 729 families last year.
Workers Not Increased.
Although demands for relief have
increased tremendously, the number
of trained social workers has re-
mained about the same. There are 13
family workers who look after the
eight different branch offices and who
made a total of 12.11S visits on be-
half of their clients during the year.
In addition 1,ll3 calls were made at
the office by applicants and All from
persons seeking advice or informa-
ton.
During the year the organizations
continued to make the social service
exchange available to the public and
private agencies of the city, and the
year found more than 10000 registra-
tions added to the exchange. of which
more than 1000 We're identified as
being previously known to some social
service activity.
One of the most important parts of
the work of the year is that carried on
by the committee on Summer outings
through which 1888 separate outings
were provided at Camp Good Will and
Camp Pleasant for children and
mothers.