Hearings

satisfy these interests but also to offer additional activities which are wholesome, constructive, and beneficial to the community. Thus, the programs are geared to all age groups. Supervised recreation begins with programs for the 3- and 4year-old child and carries through to those who are retired. Activity skills are progressive from the simple to the difficult, depending upon the abilities of the participants.

Recreation needs in the District of Columbia are of two kinds: facilities and programs. These are related to the extent that deficiencies in programs can be corrected by the expansion and improvement of present facilities.

Physical development of facilities has been delayed for many years. Scarcity of materials and restrictions on construction during World War II and the Korean action prohibited the development of recreation areas already acquired during those years. Despite the public works program, many sections of the District will be inadequately served by playgrounds and recreation centers for some time to

come.

Automation and the shorter workweek have, of recent years, made everyone more aware of the importance of constructive recreation pursuits. Private recreation agencies are embarking on a comprehensive survey of leisure-time needs in the Washington Metropolitan area. Recreation surveys in the surrounding counties of Maryland and Virginia are causing the suburbs to reexamine their plans and resources. Community organizations are becoming concerned and seek increased facilities and services. More and better services are demanded and expected.

Similarly, the recent emphasis on fitness requires an expansion of teen-age programs to reach even greater numbers of youth. Evening centers with programs specifically designed for teen-agers need to be expanded to serve the growing number of participants without overcrowding. The need for these centers has been intensified by the recent closing of many of the Metropolitan Police boys' clubs. A reported 12,000 boys are now deprived of the activities previously provided at these clubs. No public or private recreation agency is presently able to expand its program so that these same services can be available in adequate quantity.

SURVEYS AND RESEARCH

As a measure of the effectiveness and efficiency of operation of health, welfare, and recreational services, the District government has encouraged studies and surveys of its programs by outside organizations. The major survey of municipal hospital facilities recently completed by Messrs. Steinle and Rosenfield is an example of the significant contributions to be made by such surveys. Progress is being made in several areas in implementing the findings and recommendations contained in the Steinle report. For example, significant proposals were made for the construction and alteration of the city's hospital facilities, particularly for District of Columbia General Hospital. These have been given serious and favorable consideration this year and funds have been made available for the drawing of preliminary architectural and engineering plans and specifications. Another recommendation of the Steinle report was a proposal to establish a new Bureau of Mental Health in the Department of Public Health. This new component, established in 1958, should greatly strengthen community efforts in the fight against mental illness.

The Department of Public Health is cooperating with Federal, District, and other interested groups in drafting legislation that will authorize the licensing and operation of tissue banks in the District of Columbia, and facilitate the ante morten and post mortem donations of human bodies or parts thereof for tissue bank purposes. Because of the rapid medical progress in the field of tissue preservation, tissue transplantation, and tissue culture and because it is in the public interest to aid in the development of this field of medicine, it is believed that by such legislation reconstructive medicine, surgery, and research will be encouraged and aided.

The effect of ionizing radiation from radioisotopes or from high voltage equipment on living tissue is to injure or destroy cells. Once the damage or destruction has taken place, there is no known means of reversing the process. The Department of Public Health has for some time been holding conferences with representatives of the Medical Society of the District of Columbia. It is anticipated that regulations resulting from these conferences will be developed and proposed during the fiscal year 1959.

COMMUNITY RELATIONS

The responsibilities of government agencies engaged in health, welfare, and recreation activities require them to work closely with all community groups and organizations. To insure as great coordination as possible with private voluntary agencies, a regular monthly meeting is held between key staff members of cognizant District government agencies and interested private agencies. These meetings are helpful in reviewing common problems and in the study of ways and means in which gaps in service can be bridged.

The Public Relations Subcommittee of the Welfare Advisory Council has, throughout the year, invited leaders of community organizations to meet with them to discuss particularly the need to strengthen family life and the sense of responsibility in the community. Guests have represented the Congress of Industrial Organizations, the Federal City Council, the National Council of Negro Women, the Junior Chamber of Commerce, civic and citizens associations, and other special groups. Discussions to date have revealed active community concern with methods by which problem families can be reached and helped. Health, welfare, and recreation agencies have also worked closely with newspapers in the community and have participated in several public service radio programs, including the special TV series, "For the People."

One of the most effective means of public education has been through volunteer programs. The use of volunteers in many programs offers specific opportunities for citizens to help and to gain skill in meeting problems in this area. During the past year, for example, the Department of Public Welfare utilized the services of 471 different individual volunteers and 420 different organizations. The average number of volunteer hours per week totaled 1,173.

Several years ago, the Commissioners, concerned with the rise of juvenile delinquency in Washington as well as in the Nation as a whole, brought together. a group of 100 citizens interested in the problems of youth. The Commissioners presented to the meeting a plan to appoint a central Youth Council which, in turn, would appoint committees of citizens throughout the city to plan a program of neighborhood participation for the prevention of juvenile delinquency.

The activities of the Council embrace the coordinated services of many agencies. Joint participation is facilitated by the membership on the Council of appropriate department heads of the District of Columbia government, and of members of the Health and Welfare Council.

THE FUTURE

Continuing, positive action has been undertaken in the effort to meet District responsibilities outlined in this section. In many program areas, considerable success has been achieved. With respect to juvenile delinquency, for example, concerted community effort by both private and government agencies has resulted in an impressive decline in the number of delinquent acts as was shown in the Juvenile Delinquency Index. (See chart 4-D, p. 4–16.)

In other program areas the District can point to measurable achievement. For example, the establishment of a Bureau of Mental Health within the Department of Public Health should meet a long-standing need for coordinated mental health services; the use of tuberculin testing instead of X-ray techniques formerly employed will materially reduce the danger of exposure to radiation, particularly for school-age children; and the initiation of a program for the distribution of Department of Agriculture surplus food should be of considerable benefit for the health of low-income families, especially with respect to the children in such families. Some District programs have lagged, generally because of lack of funds and supporting legislation. Progress in the attempt to provide adequate nursing care for the aged and chronically ill has thus been very slow. Further, the needs of emotionally disturbed children have not been adequately met.

Institutional facilities are vitally related to the care of the ill and aged and to the control and rehabilitation of juvenile delinquents and adult offenders. A major item in this particular is the rehabilitation of District of Columbia General Hospital along the lines recommended by the Steinle-Rosenfield report. Considerable improvement in service and capacity will result from this construction.

Other serious needs are for the expansion of the capacities of the youth center and the workhouse at Occoquan, both of which are now severely overloaded. Additional facilities are also vitally needed at Blue Plains, the institution for the aged, to replace obsolete facilities.

come.

SURVEYS AND RESEARCH

and aided.

ment of Public Health has for some time been holding conferences with representatives of the Medical Society of the District of Columbia. It is anticipated that regulations resulting from these conferences will be developed and proposed during the fiscal year 1959.

COMMUNITY RELATIONS

Several years ago, the Commissioners, concerned with the rise of juvenile delinquency in Washington as well as in the Nation as a whole, brought together a group of 100 citizens interested in the problems of youth. The Commissioners presented to the meeting a plan to appoint a central Youth Council which, in turn, would appoint committees of citizens throughout the city to plan a program of neighborhood participation for the prevention of juvenile delinquency.

THE FUTURE

Institutional facilities are vitally related to the care of the ill and aged and to the control and rehabilitation of juvenile delinquents and adult offenders. major item in this particular is the rehabilitation of District of Columbia General Hospital along the lines recommended by the Steinle-Rosenfield report. Considerable improvement in service and capacity will result from this construction.

Continuing efforts are being made to resolve the problems in these areas and in other lagging programs. Other sections of this report discuss more fully the financial, physical, and legislative resources required to support programs in the area of health, welfare, and recreation. Despite the many needs which are still unmet, real progress has been made in the past few years on health, welfare, recreational, and delinquency matters. A continuation of the dedicated attitudes of the Congress and the Commissioners with regard to these matters will insure future progress in these vital areas.

SECTION 5. EDUCATION

The District of Columbia, through its school administration, is charged with the task of maintaining standards of educational achievement for the children of Washington commensurate with the status of the city as the National Capital. To accomplish this goal, there are many needs that continue unmet in the complex and rapidly changing situation the District has been experiencing. Among these are further ability grouping in order to make it possible for the gifted as well as the slow to learn at maximum levels, strengthening teacher techniques to include better use of teacher time and materials, stabilizing the teacher staff by reducing the number of temporary appointments and increasing the number of probationary and permanent appointments, providing adequate classroom space with special attention to the elimination of part-time instruction, and improving existing school facilities where they are deficient.

In addition to the normal public school services, which in the District include kindergarten through the fourth year of the Teachers' College, the community must, in order to provide well-rounded educational opportunities, furnish library services; offer adults the chance of continuing their education; establish special programs for atypical children, such as the crippled, the deaf, and the defective; and, in general, supply the basic services which enable the individual citizen to enlarge his opportunities in constructive ways.

Consequently, considerable financial support is needed if the District is to meet its educational obligations. The primary items, and the most costly, are new and improved physical facilities and additional teaching staff. If adequate levels of improvement can be reached in these two major areas, the District will be able to meet its greatest educational need, that is, the reduction of average class sizes, particularly in the elementary schools, so that teachers can deal effectively with the learning problems of individual children. Such strengthening of the school system will also have the desirable effect of reducing the number of part-time classes. Another important but less expensive need is for the extension and improvement of both public and school library facilities. The importance to students of accessible and sufficient learning materials is self-evident.

SCHOOL POPULATION

The trend in school population has been steadily upward in the District during a period in which the total population has remained fairly static. (See chart 5-A.) Since 1950, the total pupil population for all grade levels has increased by 19,527. The upward trend in the school population shows little indication of leveling off as the estimate for the 1964-65 school year is an enrollment of 140,709, an increase of 26,490 over 1958. (See app. 5-1.)

The disproportionate growth in the child population contrasted with that of the adult population has many implications for the District. These implications are discussed further in sections 2 and 9 of this report. Their meaning for the District school system is plain. In the public elementary schools of this community, teachers are attempting to give instruction to 75,382 children in classrooms which should contain no more than 63,790 children.

Many pupils are attending classes in substandard and temporary rooms and many are receiving part-time instruction in split class sessions. For obvious reasons, such expedients are not to the best interests of these children in terms of an adequate learning environment. Such conditions add a further note of urgency to the already extreme need for an extensive school building program. Section 8 of this report contains additional data on the proposed school construction program.

« Previous Continue »

Books