Jewish Community Centers Will Need 1,600 New Trained Workers in Decade

Approximately 1,600 new workers will be needed by Jewish Community Centers and YM-YWHAs in the next ten years, it was reported today by Sigmund M. Cohen, chairman of the National Jewish Welfare Board’s Bureau of Personnel and Training. At present more than 1,500 professional workers are employed in the community centers.

The figure of 1,600 new workers who will be needed in the next decade was arrived at on the basis of the following facts: 1. Centers need approximately 100 workers a year to meet the expansion and intensification of services and to replace workers who have retired, left to become mothers, or transferred to other jobs; 2. A hard core of 200 unfilled vacancies exists at present, and 3. At least 400 additional workers will be needed by the hundred Centers planning new buildings in the next ten years.

Of the 1,600 vacancies that will be created, more than 1,000 will remain unfilled unless the number of new workers entering the Center field grows substantially, Mr. Cohen warned in his report to the JWB executive committee. At the present time, only 40 to 50 Jewish group work students enter the Center field each year after graduation from schools of social work, he said.

Henry N. Sachs, chairman of the National Recruitment Committee, reported a growing interest in Center work as a career. This is reflected in the fact that the number of inquiries received by the JWB Bureau–800–is the largest received in any one year. In addition to the 800, the names of nearly 600 other persons were received by the Bureau as being interested in career opportunities in Center work and the availability of financial aid for the required graduate professional education.