PBH Organizes Settlement Work

Phillips Brooks House Association has started its first independent community center program. It will provide recreation and tutoring for children in the Roosevelt Towers housing project in east Cambridge.

In the past PBH has always worked through existing institutions, such as established settlement houses, prisons or mental hospitals, according to Chester E. Finn '65, director of the program.

"One of the things we're trying to do," Finn said, "is to prove that volunteers can work on their own--not just under professional guidance."

Geographical Reasons

Finn said that PBH has started the program because none of the four regular Cambridge settlement houses takes the children in, "for geographical reasons." He also said that the Donnelly area which includes Roosevelt Towers has "a high rate of delinquency and truancy as compared to the rest of Cambridge."

PBH volunteers will do some case work in the project. One student, for example, is looking after an entire family while tutoring the children. This is the first time PBH has done case work except in a mental hospital.

As of yesterday, 95 children, aged 8 to 12, had registered for the program, which runs three afternoons a week. The 228 families in the project have a total of 540 children under 19. Finn said he would like to expand the program to include other age groups, if he can get more volunteers.

Roosevelt Towers belongs to the Cambridge Housing Authority, which has given PBH the use of three rooms in the basement of one of the buildings.