Evening star., 1953-09-27
CitY-Wide Effort
IsAim in Drive
On Delinquency
Small Group at Top
Seen Required in
Co-ordinuted Plan
By Miriom Ottenbero

BY Miriom Gutenberg
Washington's co-ordinated at
tack on juvenile delinquency is
shaping up as program requir-
ing full community participation
at the neighborhuod level with
a small but strong operating
group at the top.
The most effective methods
of getting this participation will
be mapped out at the conference
of A civic leaders and agency
heads october Z.
Spencer's PROPOSAL.
Those closest to the problem,
however, like this approach pro-
posed by Commissioner Samuel
Spencer:
/. Area committees would be
established throughout the city.
The areas would follow precinct
boundaries as convenience. ex-
cept where the extent of juvenile
crime or different types of neigh
borhoods within the same pre-
cinct make smaller areas more
desirable.
2. A city-wide committee of
nine to eleven persons would
direct the work of the area COM
mittees as well as cope with
problems common to the entire
community. This group would
report back at intervals on mat
ters of policy to the large body
of citizens called to the October
conference but it would have
considerable authority of its own.
The area committees would
be small. They would include
those dealing most directly with
children-an elementary or jun
ior high school principal, a
clergyman, a parent, a recreation
worker, welfare worker and a
policeman.
Area Committees Job.
Theirs would be a tWo-fold
Job. They would survey the
situation in their particular area
and develop a program to meet
1t. This is where the neighbor-
hood cooperation would come in.
The committee would use the
services of the churches to get
more programs for young people.
the schools. the parent-teacher
organizations and volunteers.
How far actual case-work serv-
Ices would go is one of the as
poets of the program to be
thrashed out at the October
conference.
The area committees would
probably be named by the city
wide committee on the basis of
suggestions from participating
organizations.
The city-Wide committee prob
ably would be named by the
Commissioners and would in
clude a balance of public officials
and representative private citi-
EenS.
This group, after setting up
the area committees. would CO.
ordinate and direct their pro-
gram. It would get reports from
the area committees but would
also make an independent inves-
tigation. It's job then would be
to develop and execute plans to
meet the problems raised by the
area groups and its own inves-
tigation.
Study Agency Budgets.
Among other things, it would
study the budgets of the agen-
cies dealing with children, look
for gaps in service and possible
Implications.
Commissioner Spencer is
frankly anxious to see how much
can be done without spending a
lot more money. He believes that
getting the official agencies to
work more closely with each
other. organizing volunteers to
work with juveniles, embarking
on program of education and
persuading some of the existing
agencies to adopt needed new
programs should be tried first.
He emphasized that at this
point, he is only thinking of pos
slble approaches and the deci-
sionS will come out of the Octo-
ber meeting.