Page 28 - To Dragma October 1933

ilies, approximately ten thousand j>eople, the
"needy" o f Leslie County, go to make Up this
long parade of human want. The story of the
first year's w o r k o f the "Social Service D e -
j>artment" w o u l d he very incomplete without
them, though several circumstances make it
difficult to crowd them into a formal report.
Last fall when the County was being organ-
ized f o r public relief (as a part of the State
relief p r o g r a m , financed by the Reconstruction
Finance Corporation), it seemed right and
proper that the one trained social worker in
Leslie County, representing the only organiza-
tion in the county doing any type of social
w o r k on a large scale, should be actively
interested therein. F r o m the outset, that is
since October, 1932, I have t h e r e f o r e been a
member of the County Relief Committee and
for several months directed the work of the
field staff.
The organization and administration of
emergency relief in a county that has never
known any large-scale or systematized relief
whatever is no easy matter. Allotments f o r
the administrative end o f things have been
woefully inadequate. Skilled personnel, even
for routine office w o r k , to say n o t h i n g o f the
m o r e e x a c t i n g field w o r k , has been almost
totally lacking. Promptness and efficiency have
been greatly impaired by the difficulties of
travel and communication. We have, how-
ever, administered $80,500.00, given relief at
one time or another to more than eighteen
hundred families, or about 85% of the popu-
lation of the County. During the hardest
months of the late winter and early spring,
when supplies f r o m f a r m and garden were at
their lowest ebb, we have carried almost that
number on our relief rolls at one time. This
relief has been administered l a r g e l y as w o r k
relief, the work being done on the county
roads. The quality of that w o r k has been
variable, of course, but we do have the satis-
faction of seeing permanent improvement in
numerous stretches of road.
ImjHissible as i t is t o measure i n concrete
terms just what was gained by the time and
effort I myself expended in the w o r k of the
County Relief Committee, several reasons
make it necessary to include, in the record
of the year's work, some attempt to evaluate
it. I n the first place, i t has taken a v e r y con-
siderable portion of my time, which in itself
would call f o r some accounting. Weeks and
weeks have gone by when I was able to do
l i t t l e else—those first weeks o f o r g a n i z a t i o n ,
limes when complications and misunderstand-
ings have arisen, times when new orders from
headquarters have necessitated sweeping
changes in practice.
H a r d as it is to make an actual reckoning, I
feel confident that we may, without immodesty,
believe that i t has been a w o r t h w h i l e invest-
ment in terms of the effectiveness with which
the relief job itself has been done: increased
efficiency, more sensitiveness to the needs o f
human beings, greater freedom f r o m local
prejudices and local interests, more easy ac-
cess to the invaluable i n f o r m a t i o n and advice
of the nurses. I think there is good reason
To DRAG MA
also f o r believing that my constant attempts
to size up the situation and present the relief
needs of this region to the State Commission \
as accurately and vividly as I could have had j
results in terms of more adequate relief funds. !
This experience has also been of immense 1
value to me as a social w o r k e r in the moun-
tains. I n the first place, I have gathered an j
enormous fund of information, information '
that I might otherwise have taken years to ]
accumulate: a familiarity with the various and I
ingenuous ways by which people strive to piece ,
out a livelihood where wretchedly unsuitable
land is the chief economic resource; a knowl- j
edge of endless local and family characteris- J
tics, hundreds of personal acquaintances, con- \
tributing immeasurably to my understanding
of people and rei>eatedly cropping up to make
easier a specific task. I n other words, eight i
months' experience with the County Relief •
Committee has served to give me a picture of ]
the social and economic situation in this re-
gion, in its larger outlines and in its varied ]
detail, such as I could not have had before and 3
could hardly have gotten otherwise in so short ]
a time.
No less important f r o m the point o f view
of my own efficiency has been one other I
outcome: I have achieved a "place." T o be on I
the staff of the nursing organization and y e t j
not be a nurse is to be, in the minds o f most -]
people, either an unknown quantity and there-
by unused, or to be called on f o r services one 3
is not prepared to render. 'Tis very s a t i s f y i n g !
to find n o w that I am, i n the minds o f a great 1
many people, the i>erson to w h o m one goes ]
with his troubles of a non-medical nature.
'Tis c o m f o r t i n g , too, to be twenty or twenty- I
five miles a w a y f r o m headquarters i n u t t e r l y 1
strange c o u n t r y and still find people to greet J
you with warm friendliness and call you b y ]
name! Fven more conducive to confidence is 1
to face what seems to be a new "case" and 1
then be able to d i g up f r o m a store of m i s c e l - i
laneous contacts and experiences something to j
simplify and make things easier. I f I must i
t r y to evaluate these eight m o n t h s — o f t e n hec- <,
tic, almost always arduous and time-consum- J
ing, and sometimes discouraging—I would sayj
that they have carried on my training f o r i
social w o r k in the mountains as literally noth-1
ing else could have done.
W i t h greetings to Alpha O's, I am
Faithfully yours,
Bland Morrow.
The enthusiasm for National Work was
most satisfactory at the R o u n d Table discus-^
sion w h i c h f o l l o w e d M i s s M o r r o w ' s rej>ort at!
convention. T h e o p i n i o n seemed to he that]
w h e r e there was criticism about i t , it came;
f r o m a lack o f understanding of the scope andj
type of the endeavors. The Kentucky moun-
tain project is but a beginning, we hope, o f thej
w o r k we w i l l d o i n time to come on the for-*;
gotten f r o n t i e r s o f Maine, o f Montana, NeWi
Mexico, anywhere and everywhere that womertl
and children need a chance to help themselvesJ