AN APPEAL FOR VOLUNTARY WORKERS.
[To TEL Fonvoa DT THE "SPECTATOR:9 Sot,—The help which has been brought to us by your kindness in the past emboldens us; to ask for space in the Spectator to plead the cause of children and young people in North Lambeth and of the work -undertaken for them by the Lady Margaret Hall Settlement. The district covered lies between Vauxhall and Waterloo Station. We are in dire need of voluntary workers, first for the Children's Country Holiday Fund. The Settle- ment is responsible for the arrangements in nine schools, and for these three Group Secretaries and many visitors are needed at once. The fear of failing the children, who count eagerly on their fortnight, is beginning to haunt us. The sacrifice demanded of the workers is the necessity of carrying on through July and part of August, but the pleasure and benefit to the children bring more than ample compensation. The secretarial work and even the visiting can be done in the evenings. Further, we need an additional Honorary Secretary in our Invalid Children's Aid Office. She should be able to give three days a week and undertake both visiting and secretarial work, and also attend the weekly Committee. Experience in nursing or other health work is an advantage, but not essential, The actual personal contact is mere with parents than with children. There are 700 children in this district whose health this Association strives to build up, in conjunction with the hospitals, the Medical Officer of Health, and the Special Schools. The work of the Association is well known, and the Lambeth Branch may plead special need, for the conditions of life and housing in this crowded area mean an extraordinary demand on the watchfulness and resource of the workers. Lastly, may I put forward the claims of the North Lambeth Apprenticeship and Skilled Employment Committee, whose Secretary is strug- gling on nearly single-handed and is obliged to cut down im- portant work for sheer lack of time and strength? A per- manent helper or Honorary Secretary would find work of great interest and of immediate usefulness to those boys and girls ,who have sufficiently, good intelligence and upbringing to justify training in a skilled trade. There is an idea /thread that Voluntary helpers are no longer needed. That is not true, and at the Lady Margaret Hall Settlement each bit a voluntary part-time help is fitted into a wide and permanent organization, which, however conscious we are of its defects, we know to be of real valtie to the future of our social life. The work for which I appeal has leaders of long service and expert know- ledge who will be more than willing to train and help those who cannot offer previous experience in the same field of work.-
Warden of the Settlement.
Margaret Hall Settlement, 131 Kennington Road, Lambeth, S.E. 11,
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