Boston YMHA Hecht House

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D. Inter Lounge - Met once a week on Tuesdays from 7:00 - 10:00 P,M, Average
weekly attendance - 23. Changed to Monday nights starting
Feb. b because most clubs were meeting on Mondays.
E. Inter Council - Met every Wednesday frcm 3:15 - b:30 P.M. Maximum enrollment - 20
There were 2b meetings with an average weekly attendance of 11.
F. Week-End Socials - There were socials every Sun. starting October 7, either club-
sponsored or dept .-sponsored. In January a change was made to
include one special Sat. night social the 2nd. Sat. of the month
and Sun. socials every Sun. except the 2nd. Sun. Sunday socials
were held from 3:00 - 5t00 P.M. and Sat. socials from 7:30-10:30 P.M.
Q. Tutoring - 3b tutors from the Phillips Brooks House of Harvard University tutored
50 different students who were all members of Hecht House. $0% ot the
students were tutored at Hecht House, the other h?i f at Harvard. Most
of the students were junior high and senior high school students. They
received help in a variety of subjects. Two elementary school age children were tutored although there W^^ut 10 requests. This latter
was a new, undeveloped service. Vsaa is a very popular service and
through it new members have been recruited for Hecht House. The highlight of t he tutoring year was in the form of a Recognition Night held
in May to honor the tutors. The purpose of it was well-fulfilled. Approximately 50 people attended (tutors, students, their parents, guests).
This was an excellent public relations gesture and should be continued,
II, -valuation - Nature of the Program
The Intermediate Department (Junior High Dept,) is composed of boys and girls 13-15
years of age and 12 year olds who were in the 7th. grade. The restrictions placed on the
12 year olds ware that their parents had to sign a Special Permission Form, They had
all the privileges of Inters except they could not participate in weekly evening programs
after 9:00 P.M. or Sat, night functions after 10:00 P.„. There were 61 member's in that
category. After they brought in their Special Permission Forms, their Junior membership
cards were stamped "Inter Privileges'* by the Executive Director.
In the past 3 years this department has grown from a membership of 19b in 195b-55
to 272 in 1956-57 (a 1x0% increase), the largest increase occurring in 1955-56. Due to
the limited age range this dept. has been the smallest in comparison with juniors and
seniors and collegians. There is a potential in the Dorchester-iioxbury-riattapan area
for a larger dept. as last year there were 379 7th graders at S. Lewenberg Jr. High and
b31 8th graders, making a total of 828. Other junior high schools in the area attended
ty Inters were: Holmes, Campbell, Thompson, Boston Latin and Girls' Latin.
As of June 1957 there were 180 males and 92 females in the Inter Dept., a total of
0 72 members. This figure does not include the 61 juniors with Inter privileges. A percentage of the 272, especially females, were active in Senior clubs.
A. Friendship Clubs
Of the 10 friendship clubs 7 were male, 3 female with a combined enrollment of
121. The reason for the sparsity of female friendship clubs is not quite clear. It
may be related to the fact that the social contacts for girls in this department are not
sufficiently satisfying. Two boys' clubs, the Sy Rosenthal Inters and the Pontiacs and
one girls' club, the Splendorettes, were holdovers from last year. The Sy R Pre-Teens
graduated from the Junior Dept. The Vikings, Warriors, Rebels, Kadettes, Enrols Inters
and Teenettes wore new clubs. All of the clubs met once a week - b of the clubs started
in October, 3 in November and tnS in December and one in February. One of the difficulties