PBH Social Service Committee Reports Shortage of Volunteers

The Phillips Brooks House Social Service Committee is facing a shortage of volunteer workers, co-chairmen Harold A. Richmond '59, and Leroy C. Gould '59, revealed in a special report yesterday.

At the present time there are less than 100 volunteers enrolled in a program which serves fourteen settlement houses, two penal institutions and the Boy Scouts. Last year's final volunteer staff was 140.

As a result, agencies which would ordinarily be receiving workers have been dropped from the group's list, and others, such as Norfolk House and Allston-Brighton Y.M.C.A., have less than half of their volunteer positions filled. In addition, the Committee may be forced to to discontinue its Boy Scout program, Gould said.

The shortage of workers is due, in part, to the expansion of the Committee's program, the report said. The expansion is "met only by the fact that we are getting less volunteers each year."

Richmond stated that although "we can use as many volunteers as we can possibly get, our concern is not primarily with numbers. We feel that the stress should be on quality."