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244
THE CRISIS

[[Image]] (MISS E. G. BURLEIGH AT WORK)

for the Protection of Colored Women, the Committee for Improving the Industrial Condition of Negroes in New York and the Committee on Urban Conditions Among Negroes (the committee formed at Mrs. Baldwin's meeting) into the incorporated National League on Urban Conditions Among Negroes. Since this consolidation there has been close co-operation with practically every agency in the city working for colored people in the handling of numerous cases of destitution, in securing employment for worthy applicants, in getting knowledge of the work of the organizations disseminated through the community, in conducting boys' and girls' clubs, in making investigations, in placing neglected children in homes and in the securing of competent social workers. 
For two summers a central bureau of fresh-air agencies was conducted. This bureau kept on record a list of colored people receiving fresh-air benefits for the use of various co-operating agencies in order to prevent "repeating." This work is now handled by the social-service exchange of the Charity Organization Society.

ORGANIZING OR CONDUCTING NEEDED AGENCIES.

The league has sought to establish agencies for uplift where needed. If no committee could be found ready to take over and conduct the particular undertaking, the league has handled the movement through its local office staff.
The Sojourner Truth house committee, with Mrs. George W. Seligman as chairman, has undertaken the task of establishing a home for delinquent colored girls under 16 years of age, because of the failure of the State and private institutions to care adequately for these unfortunates. The league made an investigation of this need and formed a temporary committee from which developed the present organization. 
The league also inaugurated the movement for the training of colored nursery maids. A committee, of which Mr. Frank W. Barber is chairman, has worked out the details for courses of study in hospital training in care of infants, kindergarten training, child study and household arts.
During the summer of 1911 the league conducted, in Harlem, a playground for boys, for the purpose of demonstrating the need of recreational facilities for the children of Harlem. As a result of this movement, and a continuous agitation for more adequate play facilities, the city has practically committed itself to the operation of a model playground on any plot of ground [[Image]] (THE HARLEM OFFICE)

[[Image]]("BIG BROTHER' ALLISON AT WORK.)

in the Harlem district, the use of which is donated to the City Parks Department.
The travelers' aid work, in charge of Miss Eva G. Burleigh, has consisted principally in the meeting of the coastwise steamers bringing large numbers of women and girls from Southern ports to New York City, who are without acquaintance with methods of meeting the competition of city life, and who are frequently sent to New York to be exploited by unreliable employment agents or questionable men. The league supports two travelers' aid workers in Norfolk, Va., which is the gateway to the North for hundreds of women and girls from Virginia and the Carolinas.
The preventive or protective work of the league consists of the visiting in the homes of school children who have become incorrigibles or truants, for the purpose of removing the causes of these irregularities. This work is in charge of Mrs. Hallie B. Craigwell and Mr. Leslie L. Pollard.
Probation work with adults from the court of general sessions is done by Mr. Chas. C. Allision, Jr. In connection with this work with delinquents the Big Brother and Big Sister movements are conducted. The league seeks to furnish to each boy or girl passing through the courts the helpful influence and guidance of a man or woman of high moral character.
The league conducts a housing bureau for the purpose of improving the moral and physical conditions among the tenement houses in Negro districts. It seeks principally to prevent the indiscriminate mixing of the good and bad by furnishing to the public a list of houses certified to be tenanted by respectable people. It also seeks to get prompt action of agents and owners or the city departments whenever there is need for correcting certain housing abuses. This work is in charge of Mr. John T. Clark.
A monthly conference of workers with boys and girls has been organized. Through this conference several neighborhood clubs have been formed, among them the Utopia Neighborhood Club, of which Mrs. Albert S. Reed is president, and the Harriet Tubman Neighborhood Club, of which Mrs. Marie Jackson Stuart is president. The chairman of the conference is Rev. F. A. Cullen, pastor of Salem M. E. Church.
In connection with the fresh-air work the boys' camp has been established, at which, during the last three years, more than 400 boys have been accommodated at an expense of more than $3,000. This camp is supervised by Mr. William Lloyd Imes. 
Industrial organizations are formed along occupational lines. Public porters, mechanics (including carpenters, painters, plasterers, paperhangers, etc.) elevator men and hallmen and chauffeurs have been organized.
A vocational exchange, designed to refer Negroes to opportunities for training along vocational lines, and to refer applications for help and for positions to reliable philanthropic and commercial employment agencies, has been established, with Mr. John D. Jones in charge. 
TRAINGING OF SOCIAL WORKERS.
No human movement can move with appreciative success without the propelling impetus of a forceful personality. Social work among Negroes has suffered not so much from the lack of movements as from the lack of conscientious, enthusiastic, trained workers. This fact was emphasized by Dr. George Edmund Haynes when, shortly following Mrs. Baldwin's meeting, he was employed as director of the organization. The result was the establishment of two annual fellowships at the New York School of Philanthropy and Columbia University, and scholarships at Fisk University, where Dr. Haynes holds the chair of social sciences, and from which he seeks to influence other Southern Negro colleges to standardize their courses in sociology and economics and to encourage promising