(Click on picture in left-hand corner to see the whole article)

Children and Youth (Continued)

Emphasis Shifted to Concerns for All Children

After World War II, the National Child Welfare Commission recognized the need to place added emphasis on sound public programs for all children in order to fulfill the purpose of guaranteeing care and protection to children of veterans. Because of the greatly increased segment of the nation’s population which now was classified as “veteran,” it was evident that the majority of all children in the United States would be of veteran parentage.

The change in emphasis to encourage and support good public programs for all children was the major factor in permitting The American Legion to fulfill its purpose in this area.

The National Child Welfare Commission recognized that many of the larger problems of child welfare cannot be met on the basis of direct help to individual children.  For example, immediately after World War II, a major cause of death among school-age children was rheumatic fever and rheumatic heart disease.  As a result of the joint interest of the National Child Welfare and Rehabilitation Commissions, the National Executive Committee in 1946 appropriated $25,000 to the American Heart Association to begin research on this problem.  The American Legion Auxiliary appropriated a like amount, and the $50,000 so provided, in a large measure, launched the present program of the American Heart Association.  As a result of this organization’s research in medical science, we now know that rheumatic heart disease is an outgrowth of rheumatic fever and that rheumatic fever can actually be prevented.  The research which was financed by this grant has been an important contribution to the decline in the rheumatic fever death rate among children.

Similarly, in 1950, The American Legion contributed $25,000 to the National Association for Mental Health, and the progress which has been made by research financed by this organization indicates that substantial results are being achieved in this critical area.

In order to avoid possible public misunderstanding of the purpose and scope of its child welfare program, The American Legion, by action of its 1970 National Convention, amended its Constitution and By-Laws in order to redesignate the National Child Welfare Commission as the National Commission on Children and Youth.  This change did not affect the composition, purpose, or function of the Commission and its program.

By 1954 the wisdom of the grants to the American Heart Association and the National Association for Mental Health was quite apparent, and the need was felt for a recognized method by which future grants could be made which would bring the best results to the greatest number of children.  In that year, The American Legion Child Welfare Foundation, Inc., was authorized by the National Executive Committee with these two primary purposes:’

1. To add to the sum total of man’s knowledge about children and youth through research, study, etc.;
2. To help distribute information society already possesses about children in order that such information may be more adequately used.

This Foundation in no way supplants or supersedes The American Legion’s traditional and continuing program for children and youth.  Through its stimulation of preventive research, the question and wide application of new knowledge and similar long-range efforts, the Foundation will supplement and make even more effective The American Legion’s long-standing program of direct assistance, legislation pertaining to children and youth, and general public information to further the streamlining of childcare concepts. The Foundation is supported primarily through the generous contributions of individuals, posts, units, departments, and the national organization of the American Legion Auxiliary.  Currently, memorial contributions for departed comrades made by individuals, posts, and units provide a part of its income.

But even more important than its income are the grants which the Foundation has made and the results which have been achieved.  The Foundation is authorized to use such funds as are put at its disposal for the benefit of children and youth, with emphasis on research, special projects, and demonstrations.  It has already made grants in the field of juvenile delinquency, ratardid children, mental health, institutional care, education, physical medicine, and specific areas of need, such as the study of alarmingly increased rates of venereal disease among teenagers, and increased emphasis on understanding and training children who are partially sighted.

The Foundation, though still small, has had tremendous national impact, and the results of its work are already beginning to be felt.  The Foundation is actually a private enterprise in philanthropy, and just as our private enterprise system has proved so highly productive in the field of business and industry, so also is private enterprise becoming equally fruitful in the broad field.