New Homes for Old

by Sophonisba Preston Breckinridge

Home Helps

Closely linked with the problem of skilled midwifery, care of the working mother is the problem of arrangement for her domestic life during her disablement.

In the Home Helps Society a movement has been inaugurated which, if widely extended on the right lines for clearly subsidiary purposes, would prove of incalculable benefit to working mothers, and so to the general community. The scheme provides, on a contributory basis, the assistance of trained domestic helpers for women who are incapacitated, especially in illness or childbirth, from attending to the normal duties of the home. A Jewish society has been in existence for twenty years to meet the needs of poor Jewesses in the East End of London, but the general scheme came into existence under the Central Committee for Employment of Women to provide employment for women who have been thrown out of work owing to the war. Three months is considered an average period of training, but a shorter time is sanctioned in special cases. The women are trained under supervision in the homes of families and in certain approved institutions. In the Jewish society no special period of training is demanded. If a candidate is competent upon appointment she is sent out at once. In Birmingham similar help is afforded by what is known as the "nine days'" nursing scheme, and Sheffield has a provision for a municipal allowance to a mother needing such help in a special degree. North Islington Maternity Center has a local scheme for home helps, managed by a subcommittee. Encouragement has been given to these schemes by the sympathetic interest in them of the medical women acting for the London County Council as inspectors, under the Midwives' Act. Similar arrangements have been proposed in various parts of the country.

The second is from the Report of the Women's Advisory Committee of the Ministry of Reconstruction on the Domestic Service Problem.

Subcommittee on Home Helps

After meeting several times this committee came to the conclusion that, in the light of the evidence that had been given before them, it was not advisable for them to proceed further without reference to the committee which was dealing with the question of subsidiary health and kindred services, as the question of the provision of Home Helps intimately affected that committee also.

The committee on Home Helps passed the following resolution:

That with a view to preventing sickness which is caused by the unavoidable neglect of children in their home, the Local Government Board should be asked to remove the restriction which at present confines the provision of Home Helps to maternity cases, and to extend the scope of the board's grant for the provision of such assistance in any home where, in the opinion of the local authority, it is necessary in the interests of the children that it should be given, and agreed that if the Subsidiary Health and Kindred Services Committee were prepared to adopt it in their report it would be undesirable to continue their own sittings.

The resolution was adopted by that committee, and the Home Helps' Committee was dissolved.

We are not unconscious of the great need that exists for further preventive measures in connection with health services, more especially as regards children, and we think that the question of Home Helps must first be explored in this connection. We are of the opinion, however, that as regards help with domestic work, the position of the wives of professional men with small incomes, and of the large army of men of moderate means who are engaged in commerce and industry is becoming critical, and that some form of municipal service might help to solve this most difficult problem.

RECREATIONAL AGENCIES

The public parks, playgrounds, and recreation centers, and the social settlements, constitute the main community provision for the social and recreational activities of immigrant groups living in the congested sections of industrial cities. Certain problems in the adaptation of the services and resources of such agencies to the needs of an immigrant neighborhood have been brought out in our consultation with representative men and women from various nationalities living in different sections of Chicago.

The history of Dvorak Park may serve to indicate the nature of some of these problems. Established when the population of the district it was designed to serve was almost exclusively Bohemian, this small park was given its distinctively Bohemian name, and the district chosen was Bohemian. It became at once a popular recreation center for the neighborhood, as the facilities provided in the playground and field house were admirably suited to the needs of the people. Representative men and women who have kept in touch with the later immigrants of their nationality speak with greatest enthusiasm of the value of the park to the Bohemian community. Its services in relieving the monotony of the lives of immigrant women, and especially of mothers of large families, is noteworthy.

For those to whom it is accessible it provides a type of entertainment which they really enjoy. It is said, in fact, that women who begin going to the park take a new interest in life. The moving pictures are especially popular. The director, a man thoroughly familiar with the lives of the families of the settlement, has sought to adapt the service of the park to their needs. Special entertainments for women with little children are given in the afternoon while older children are in school, and mothers are encouraged to bring the babies. Mothers who have begun going to the park themselves feel greater security in allowing the older boys and girls to go to the evening entertainments and dances because they learn that there is trustworthy supervision.

During the last few years, however, there has been a great change in the character of the neighborhood surrounding Dvorak Park. Bohemians have moved away, and their places have been taken by Serbo-Croatians. The newcomers have found churches, schools, and public halls established by the Bohemian people, and the impression has gone out that the public park also is a national recreation center for Bohemians. No criticism of the management of the park has been made by leaders among the Croatians, who believe the director has earnestly sought to meet the requirements of the two groups impartially, frequently asking the advice and co-operation of well-known Croatian men and women. They do feel that it is unfortunate that the popular idea that the place is intended for Bohemians only is too deep to be easily eradicated.

In Chicago some of the older immigrant groups have made provisions for their recreational needs by building national halls, auditoriums, and theaters; and in groups representing later immigration, funds are being raised for the same purpose. In many instances it is admitted that the public recreation centers in the immediate vicinity of the settlement afford adequate space and facilities for the requirements of the group. The reasons given for failure to take advantage of such opportunities or for duplicating such splendid community resources are varied. When analyzed, they are on the whole indicative of shortcomings in park management, which might be overcome if park supervision could be made a real community function.

In a Polish district, for instance, the people in the vicinity of one of the most completely equipped parks in the city have come to regard it with suspicion as the source of a type of Americanization propaganda too suggestive of the Prussians they have sought to escape. In a Lithuanian district, officers of societies which make use of clubrooms in the recreation centers say they prefer the rooms to any they can rent in the vicinity, but they often feel in the way and that their use of the building entails more work than attendants are willing to give. The Lithuanians, too, speak of feeling out of place in the parks. There has been little evidence that in any section of the city people of foreign birth feel that as community centers these parks are in a sense their own.