To

 

Chairman

THE YOUTH SERVICE COMMITTEE

(Usually a Subcommittee of the Community Service Committee)

The youth service committee is com-
posed of a chairman who is a member
of the community service committee,
and such other members as the needs
of the local club may require.

The youth service committee devises

and carries into effect plans to give
assistance and counsel to young men
and women (generally speaking, from
16 to 24 years of age), to develop them
along the line which will best prepare
them to become useful members of
society, and also to help them subse-
quently to function in accordance with
their preparation and capacity.
_ As a guide for the youth service com-
mittee, Rotary International publishes
Pamphlet No. 16, “Youth Service by
Rotary Clubs,” with which each mem-
ber of the committee should be familiar.
A copy of this pamphlet should be
found in the club secretary’s office. He
can get additional copies if desired
from the secretariat.

Pamphlet No. 41, “Rural Youth,”
should be especially helpful to commit-
tees in rural areas.

Occupational guidance, training, and
placement are important aspects of
youth service. They are treated in sev-
eral mimeographed papers which may
be secured free from the secretariat.

The board of directors of Rotary In-
ternational is of the opinion that it is
desirable for Rotary clubs to convene
conferences of youth and adult mem-
bers of the community as a start in de-
veloping a youth service program. This
method, known as a youth panel, has
been used with great success by a num-
ber of- Rotary clubs. File No. 698,
which describes this activity and in-
cludes a diagram for the seating of

‘ participants and suggested questions for

the use of the leader may be secured
from the secretariat.

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Youth Service—More Important Now

The crime wave that followed World
War I was no accident! Rotary clubs,
Rotarians and others interested in the
welfare of youth should be on the look-
out. The United States, Canada, Aus-
tralia and other countries report in-
creasing waves of juvenile delinquency,
and from London comes the report that
youth under 21 now constitute 48%
of those arrested for lawbreaking.

That this situation is not peculiar to
the twentieth century is proved by a
clergyman who served during the Revo-
lutionary War of the American Col-
onies when he wrote of the war’s “im-
petus to social offenses”; and again,
during the Napoleonic Wars 19th cen-
tury commentators complained that in
Old Bailey, London, the number of
criminals condemned was much greater
than before the wars.

The causes of these wartime crime
waves—closing of schools, lack of proper
supervision, general let-down in moral
attitudes and loosening of family ties—
can be checked by methods that are
discussed in File No. 674.

Character building programs for
youth are as vital to the nation’s interests
as are the more obvious war efforts of
building guns and ships. The future
welfare of the nation depends upon
what we do now for our youth. “Crime
prevention” should be a watchword of
the times.

To assist youth effectively in war-
time, Rotary clubs can cooperate with
youth-serving agencies in directing the
enthusiasm and energy of youth in
assisting the war effort.