Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1953-12-30
Youth Council
ToDraft Fight
On Delinquency
Seeks Machinery
To Meet Problems
Revealed il Probe
BY Miriom Gutenberg

BY Miriam Gutenberg
Machinery to work on some of
the problems explored by the
Senate Juvenile Delinquency
subcommittee in it's District
hearings will be sought at the
next meeting of the Commits
sioners' Youth Council, it was
learned today.
The council so far has been
buSy setting up area committees
to bring prevention of juvenile
delinquency down to the neigh
borhood level.
With that work we'll under
way. the 15-member council will
start coping with some of the
problems that affect all neigh
borhoods. This came out when
Mrs. Henry Grattan Doyle,
council = chairman, was asked
what the council plans to do
about youth needs accented dur
ing the Senate hearings.
Several members of the sub
committee predicted after the
hearings that the Youth Council
would cope with some of these
problems.
Shaw Report Due.
Mrs. Doyle said the council
meeting, scheduled for January
z, will open with a report from
G. Rowland Shaw on the hear
ings. Mr.. Shaw, former Assist
ant Secretary of State and an
authority on juvenile problems,
is member of both the Youth
Council and the local fact-f1nd-
ing group that advised the Senate
subcommittee on the District
hearings.
After Mr.. Shaw's report, Mrs.
Doyle said, she will ask council
members what they think of this
proposal to deal with city-wide
problems:
Three to five members of the
council would be assigned to
work directly with officials or
laymen in each field particularly
emphasized during the Senate
hearings. The council members
would explore the possibilities
for change, seeking mot to an
tagonize or criticize but to asso-
ciate themselves with people right
in the work"
Mrs. Doyle said as a start on
this city-wide approach, she
thought the schools, recreation
and the family should be con-
Sidered first.
Will Study Recreation.
In recreation, the council men,
bers would concern themselves
particularly with the hours the
centers and Fairgrounds are open
and with programs aimed at
reaching some of the youths who
now avoid them.
In the schools, the emphasis
would be put on truancy, devel-
opment of special classes for
children with special problems,
and a study of why teen-agers
drop out of school.
Council members assigned to
the family would concentrate on
ways to strengthen the family
unit, drawing on advice from
parent-teacher groups, pastors
and family case workers in the
social agencies.
Mrs. Doyle said such questions
as the need for more mental
health clinics and for more OPP
portunitieS for teen-age employ
ment-alSo emphasized during
the hearings-could be consid-
cred next by the teams of coun-
Gil members.
With four area committees al
ready organized and five others
now in process of being selected.
the council expects to have more
than third of the neighborhood
groups functioning by the end
of January
Programs Formulated.
Each of the area committees is
working out grogram to meet
the needs of its neighborhood,
with guidance from the council
and its staff.
One of these committees, put
ting the emphasis on the family
is inviting whole families to a
settlement house where they can
consult with counSelorS.
Another committee, emphasiz-
ing recreation in an area where
recreation facilities have failed
to keep up with housing devel-
opmentS. is developing teen-age
centers in churches and Offering
prizes to "gang-type" groups to
get them into the programs.
A third committee. in an area
where young people have more
social life, is talking about bring
ing the parents together to work
out minimum rules of conduct
agreeable to all so their children