Jewish Youths Working in Programs Designed to Curb Drug Abuse Among Teenagers

A unique work program designed to interest college students and graduates in careers in the various fields of Jewish communal service is now underway in the New York area under the auspices of the Bureau for Careers in Jewish Service. Called the Summer Work Experience in Jewish Service, vacationing students are learning, while earning, what Jewish community service is all about through an outreach program designed to curb drug abuse among teenagers, working with the elderly in several homes for the aged, and as senior counselors in a number of Jewish sponsored camps. The students – nearly all sociology majors – have been recruited by Miss Lillian Margolin, Executive Director of the Bureau, and assigned to their projects after careful screening and orientation. One of the most dramatic projects is the Outreach program conducted by the Jewish Community Services of Long Island In Rego Park. Here the students assigned by the Bureau, work as “case aides” and serve as a link between troubled Jewish teenagers and the JCS’s social workers and psychiatrists. Their assignments take them into the streets – into areas where Jewish middle-class teenagers usually congregate: Lefrak City, Cunningham Park. Bayside, Rego Park and Jamaica. Their job is to mingie with these teenagers, become members of the “peer” groups. Their primary objective is to motivate troubled teenagers to voluntarily make use of the facilities of the Jewish Community Services for counseling, psychiatric aid and other assistance.