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57
"Thanks to the financial aid we get from the Essex County
Council (Sunday Cinema Fund) we are able to do a lot more for these
defectives than would otherwise be possible. Everyone received a
gift at Christmas and in special cases clothing and invalid chairs
have been purchased. Grants are made to the Essex Voluntary
Association to assist necessitous cases attending the Occupation
Centre, thus ensuring that they receive a mid-day meal.
"The members of the Committee spent a day at the Royal
Eastern Counties Institution, Colchester, and its branches, in
September. Here they were able to see many of the defectives
they had visited in Walthamstow prior to their admission to the
Institution and to observe their progress.
"We are very grateful to all those who assist us in our work,
and to the Local Authority for their co-operation in our efforts on
behalf of the mentally defective."
(f) The "Youth Centre."— An interesting social experiment
of much promise was initiated at the end of November by the opening
of the new headquarters provided by the Juvenile Organisations
Committee with the sympathetic help of your own Authority.
A disused school provides accommodation on the ground floor for
the Schools Library already referred to in Section 3 of the report.
The first floor provides accommodation comprising a lounge and
reading room, cafeteria, a large hall for badminton, lectures and
other functions, a committee room, secretary's office and cloakrooms.
The annexe provides a well-equipped gymnasium on the
ground floor and a large room for table tennis and possibly billiards
later on the first floor.
The "Aims and Objects" of the Juvenile Organisations Committee,
which was founded eleven years ago to bring together representatives
of all youth organisations, social workers and others
concerned with welfare work among young people, includes the
following
1. To act as a meeting ground for representatives of youth
and juvenile organisations and for all persons engaged in the welfare
of young people, in which Common problems and common action
can be discussed. Common action may take the form of:—
(a) Making a survey of existing work, from which can be seen
where the greatest need for further development exists, and
what kind of work is particularly called for.
(b) Conducting investigations into any matter of common
interest.
(c) Arranging such functions as combined displays, sports days,
table tennis, exhibitions, swimming, football, cricket,
competitions, leaders' training courses, and so on.