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New York San Francisco December 1, 1920-November 30, 1921 In the Field Always there has been a demand for the services of the field secretaries of the Playground and Recreation Association of America. With the requests for help in new campaigns it has been difficult for the field secretaries to find time to give further service to cities where they had helped to secure playgrounds and recreation centers. Many cities would not report the need of help in saving the recreation budget or in building up the work until there. was no longer time to give effective aid. Continuation Field Service At last it became clear that the only effective way of meeting the need was to secure the strongest field workers possible, setting each one free to follow the work in a district of about twenty cities which have asked for regular help throughout the year. In April 1921, S. Wales Dixon, formerly Superintendent of Recreation at Hartford, Connecticut, became the first continuation field secretary and was assigned to New England and New York State. John Bradford, for many years a community worker in this country and Canada, began in August to visit cities in Pennsylvania, New Jersey, and West Virginia. Harold O. Berg, in charge of the social center work in Milwaukee from its inception in 1914, will start work on December first, 1921, in Indiana, Illinois, Minnesota, Iowa, Nebraska, Missouri and Kentucky. Another continuation field district is soon to be opened. As rapidly as funds permit arrangements will be made to serve other cities having year-round municipal recreation which desire such help. According to the plan which has been adopted, a city wishing the continuation field service of the Association extends an invitation through the superintendent and the Recreation Board or Commission in charge of the work, or some group associated with it. Approximately sixty cities are now receiving the service. Thousands of children and young people would today have recreation opportunity not now open to them, had it been possible to establish this continuation field service six years ago. Some of the Tasks of the Continuation Field Secretary The continuation field secretary in visiting a city is presented with problems of all kinds. His advice is sought on questions of administration, of program, of equipment. He is often asked to give the local group an analysis of the situation; to help in securing increased appropriations; to aid in laying out playgrounds and planning community buildings; to interest certain groups or individuals whom the local people may not have reached; to suggest new workers; to bring to bear on the local work all of his experience and his knowledge of what other cities are doing and of most successful experiences in other parts of the country. The continuation field secretary is able to help in building up an intelligent public opinion back of the work by presenting the leisure time movement to local groups. Because he comes from the outside he is often able to aid in solving problems arising from a lack of understanding between groups. Recreation officials are glad to feel that the work in their community is being identified with the larger work throughout the country and that through the experiments they are working out a contribution is being made to other cities. Many cities are able to strengthen their own work as they hear by word of mouth what their colleagues in other communities nearby are doing and thinking. One of the most valuable things which a continuation field secretary does is to arrange for small group conferences where the recreation superintendents of a section of the country may come together to discuss their problems. Such a conference was held in October at Reading, Pennsylvania. If this conference is in any degree an indication of the interest and success of future conferences in various parts of the country a wide field of service lies before the Association in this feature alone. Promotion Field Work The initiation of continuation field service with its follow-up program has in no way minimized the importance of the promotion work which the Association has been doing for years. This new phase of work will make it possible, on the other hand, for the regular promotion field workers to devote full time to conducting recreation campaigns and initiating activities in new cities. During the past year the Association with a very limited staff of promotion field secretaries has not been able to meet all the requests for help which have come to it. It has been necessary for these field workers to give much of their time to helping cities in which work had been started but which were not at the time receiving continuation field service. In addition, they have given help to a number of cities without a definite campaign, some form of service having been given to at least thirty-four cities during the course of the year. Successful recreation campaigns were carried on in a number of new cities. A few notes about the promotion campaigns in the following cities will be of interest: At Torrington, Connecticut, the campaign was directed at the arousing of public interest which would express itself at the town meeting in favor of the creation of a recreation commission and the appropriation of funds. This action was secured and a year |
