The detached Work Program of the Boys Club of Vancouver : an analysis of the detached work program, its initiation and progress from May 1964 - September 1967

The purpose of the study was: 1) To describe the similarities and differences in aims of detached work approaches between Vancouver and other major North American centres. 2) To analyze the attempted fulfillment of the goals of the detached work program of the Boys Clubs of Vancouver. 3) To suggest the formulation of data gathering tools that would provide the Boys Clubs of Vancouver with more accurate and researchable information for future inquiries. Questionnaires were formulated for: 1) The organization administrators in the areas where detached work was initiated 2) The youths with whom the detached worker made contact. 3) Data was provided by the Boys Club describing the pre- and post-orientation program which they offered to their line detached workers. A third set of data regarding line worker perceptions of their training and role was obtained by us in February 1967 using the same tool as the. Boys Club for their documentation. We used the above data tools to attempt to determine the following: 1) The influence of the detached worker on delinquency rates, family situations educational factors, peer group and.authority relationships and leisure time activities. 2) The amount of neighbourhood organization involvement in the detached work program. 3) The workers perception of their role and any discrepancies from the prescribed role formulated by the sponsoring agency. Provisional findings are as follows: 1) More youths increased their delinquent activities than decreased their delin- quent activities while associating with the detached worker. 2) No work was done with the families of the involved teens. 3) Patterns of leisure-time activities were significantly influenced by the detached worker's presence. 4) The number of referrals that agencies stated they wanted from the detached work program was significantly higher (50% yes 25% no) than actually handled (6% yes 75% no). There was a similar trend in the number of referrals wanted and handled by the detached work program (36% wanted referrals 19% actual referrals). 5) 50% of the organizations contacted stated they could take a more active role in the detached work program largely in the area of use of facilities. 6) Observations and conclusions in the area of the workers' perception of his role (#3 page 2) were totally subjective and largely without statistical reliability.Arts, Faculty ofSocial Work, School ofGraduat