P.B.H. SOCIAL SERVICE DEPARTMENT AIDS MEN TO OBTAIN EMPLOYMENT

The following article was written for the Crimson by E. S. Amazeen '31, Chairman of the Social Service Committee of the Phillips Brooks House.

The Social Service Department of Brooks House is a liaison unit between Harvard men and the many groups in Boston and Cambridge seeking the aid of these men in handling their problems. As a clearing house the Social Service Committee matches requests for particular jobs with the offers of men to do this work.

Some are leading boys' clubs, work which demands probably the greatest ability of any of the social service activities. To successfully lead a boys' club a man must be willing to accept responsibility, have a good imagination, and have ability to develop quickly whatever talent for leadership he has.

Other men are engaged in teaching naturalization. This in particular offers a field in which the worker can see definite results. He is preparing a man to secure citizenship papers and when those citizenship papers are secured the worker knows that he has accomplished something. Several men are assisting foreigners in the State University Extension courses.

Some of the houses run boys' camps at which they want college men over weekends. These boys' camps are situated near Boston and furnish an opportunity for any man who wishes to get away from college for the weekend. Former boy scouts find an opportunity in working with scout troops in passing tests. Dramatics and music offer a constant demand for experts, and good coaches in basketball, wrestling, fencing, boxing and even men to give skull practice in football and baseball are sought.

The Committee is always interested in securing better results from men who are working in these houses. It stands ready constantly to cooperate in any way possible with them. Suggestions are made to the houses in which the men are working which will lead to closer cooperation between the worker and the professional in the settlement.

There are needs for men in every one of the fields just outlined. The members of the Social Service Committee will be glad to talk with any one interested in doing some of these volunteer works if they will call at Brooks House.

The Social Service Committee offers an opportunity for various types of men; first, for those who feel a human-interest in the many problems of people of very limited means who live in the poorer sections of the city; for those who have some talent in a particular line such as teaching, coaching or music and wish to develop that by further practice; for those men who expect to enter business or politics at some future date and wish the opportunity to learn the points of view of the workers and of various foreign radical groups. So Social Service may be said to offer the practical supplement to the theoretical studies in sociology, government, and economics.