The Institute on "Helping People in Need" was held as a result of numerous requests made by lay workers at last year's Conference of Social Work in Brattleboro for an opportunity to discuss their problems with a trained social worker and to learn greater technique in dealing with the problems met in their communities. A committee was appointed at the Conference to arrange for an Institute as a first step in meeting these means. The committee consisted of Miss Elin Anderson, Chairman; Mr. William H. Dyer, Commissioner of Public Welfare; Miss Josephine Webster, Executive Secretary of the Vermont Children's Aid Society; Mr. Harold Slocum of the Vermont Tuberculosis Association and Miss Sara Holbrook, Assistant Professor of Education, University of Vermont.

Miss Etta Hamilton, case supervisor from the Family Society of New Haven, Connecticut, was chosen as discussion leader. She was assisted in two of the sessions by Miss Josephine Webster, field supervisor for the Unemployment Emergency Relief Work, and Mr. Wm. H. Dyer, Commissioner of Public Welfare.

Twenty six persons attended each of the three sessions with over forty persons attending at least one of the sessions. Those attending came from Danville, St. Albans, Chelsea, Montpelier, Proctor, Burlington, Bristol, Bennington, Rutland, Brandon, Manchester, Barre, Bellows Falls and Middlebury. There were representatives from among selectmen and overseers of the poor, from community chests, Red Cross, nursing district, The Vermont Association of the Blind, local aids, Federation of Women's Clubs, State Nurses Association, Vermont Children's Aid Society, Department of Education, Dorcas Society and others.

Miss Hamilton began with a discussion of the needs we all have in common for such things as food, shelter, clothing, and the more intangible thing such as a feeling of security. These are, therefore, the things of which all people need to be ensured.

Emphasis was put upon the importance of the skill and tact used by the social worker in the first interview with a client. The question was raised whether it was an advantage or a disadvantage to know the client well, as is true in our small Vermont communities where everybody knows everybody else. It was agreed that though there were some advantages to knowing well the person who came to ask for help that it also had its disadvantages because under such circumstances a social worker tends to think he knows what is best for the client rather than trying to put himself into the client's place and seeing the world through his eyes.

The difficulty with helping a very sensitive person who was in need and did not wish to ask for help was brought out in contrast with the type who would not assume responsibilities for family and was not interested in working. The solution of sending a man who did not wish to work to Windsor was considered only seldom as lastingly constructive for the whole family. The need for ascertaining why a person did not wish to work or assume responsibilities was stressed.

Rules for the Social Worker for Gaining Trust of Others

1. Being interested in what the client says.

2. Really listening to the client's story (without seeming in a hurry to make suggestions, et cetera).

3. Sympathizing with the client's difficulties. (An example was that of a vagrant family known to social agencies in two states which was considered hopeless, but the social worker went back and listened to the woman's side of the story and then told her how the agencies felt about it and both agreed that they would be willing to think over the other side--which was a step toward that family's improvement).

4. Following the client's interests as well as one's own. (Avoid doing all the planning for the person. Let them suggest and work their way out).

5. A social worker must have a manner of being pleasant, serene, unhurried, sincere.

6. A social worker must let the client feel that his confidence is being respected.

In order to help a person there must be a real understanding of him and this is possible only by bearing in mind certain fundamental principles on the part of the social worker.

1. A greater sensitivity (which implies a capacity for a deep appreciation of individual rights and feelings, tact, insight). An illustration of this is the realization of what disheartening effects it may often have upon the person to see his name printed in town reports, which so often is done.

2. Greater objectivity -- viewing the behavior of human nature in a situation without letting one's personal feelings about it enter and therefore viewing it without passing judgment.

3. Greater sharing with the client -- it is humiliating to always receive and never give. Everybody has something to give and a sharing on the part of the client gives him the feeling of greater self-respect. People who get a great deal of emotional satisfaction or a feeling of superiority by helping people who are in bad circumstances often do more harm than good.

4. A greater respect for the individual -- that is, an appreciation of differences and the right of every one to his own pattern of life be it ever so different from one's own.

The four principles above listed are essential in the art of helping people because the real aim of social work is to develop the personality to the fullest and that all that is done for an individual or family must have that objective if it is to be effective. In the case of families the social worker aims to preserve family life where it is threatened, restore it where it has been broken or, finding for those whose homes cannot be restored the best possible substitute for normal family living. In doing this she may call upon the help of many different persons and many social agencies who in one way or another may contribute their part toward the cultivation of independence of thought, the building of character and the development of personality which is her objective.

When the understanding of the individual or family and its needs is made the social worker is responsible for opening paths over which the client can walk to a fuller and more complete life. This may be realized by helping in various ways such as 1. Securing employment 2. Receiving adequate relief 3. Medical care 4. Recreational opportunities 5. Educational opportunities 6. Opportunity to participate more in community life 7. Changing of the environment itself 8. Changing of attitudes. (This is the most difficult of all things to achieve and can only be done by touching the springs of character).

The most pressing problem at the present time is that of relief, in which social workers of all types are concerned. In giving relief the following were stressed as the most important things to remember.

1. That relief be adequate -- that is, that it neither be given over a short period of time nor that it be insufficient for the proper nutrition of the family. An illustration of the greater cost of giving inadequate relief was of a family of four in the northern part of the state which because of the improper nutrition which the two dollars a week permitted by the town contracted tuberculosis. Part of the family is in the Preventorium and Sanatorium and their care is a far greater cost now than if adequate relief had been furnished all the time.

2. Relief should be given on the basis of need -- different amounts should be given to different families, both according to size of family and also according to health and other problems within it.

3. Food standards used should only be those set up by a nutrition specialist -- possibility of securing those from the Children's Bureau of the federal government or the Extension Service of the University of Vermont.

4. A social worker should check up on how the relief is being used and whether it is being used most effectively.

5. Relief should be administered in such a way that the client still has the opportunity of doing his own planning -- this is possible either by permitting a wide range of choice in the grocery order or by permitting responsible families to have cash and assume the responsibility of doing their own buying. A study made in New Haven illustrated the great value of trusting people to handle cash, both in the careful buying that the families did and in the sense of self-respect that was preserved which m is usually taken away when no opportunity is permitted to do one's own planning.

Out of the general discussion came the realization of the rich possibilities in the present situation for building of a greater field of social work in the state.

1. The federal supervision of administration of relief in those towns receiving federal aid has great possibilities in it. The way may be paved for overseers of the poor and other social workers in each community to realize the need of the cooperation of a trained social worker. This may pave the way for one of the most needed things in the state and that is welfare districts in which a trained social worker may assist lay workers with their welfare problems. The Institute recommended to the Resolutions Committee that a plan of welfare districts be realized and that ways and means be studied for making them possible.

2. The need for educating the general public in the principles, purpose and technique of social work so that there could be a greater cooperation of lay workers was realized and the group expressed the desire to have sectional Institutes during the following year where again lay workers may discuss their problems with a trained worker.