| AdminHistory | The Birmingham Juvenile Organisations Committee was set up as a voluntary organisation in 1916 with the intention of coordinating and furthering the work of existing voluntary organisations which focused on the social welfare of young people between the ages of 14 - 18 years, and to organise its own club, sporting and recreational facilities for young people particularly in the years after leaving school. As the volume of its work and need for secure financial backing increased, the committee was taken over at its own request in 1928 by the Education Committee and became the Juvenile Organisations Sub-Committee, a sub-committee of the Juvenile Employment and Welfare Sub-Committee (see BCC/1/BH/14/1).
The sub-committee had no definitive orders of reference other than the general aims and objectives adopted by Juvenile Organisation Committees across the country. The Chairman of the Birmingham Committee outlined these main aims in October 1939, which was to report to the Education Committee on the best use to be made of voluntary organisations to provide social, cultural and recreational facilities for school leavers; to assist in the provision of services of common use to the youth organisations in the city, such as sports leagues, playing fields, festivals and displays; and to advise the Juvenile Employment and Welfare Sub-Committee on matters relating to Youth Community Centres, the training for Youth Leaders and other related business. The committee was intended as a channel of communication between the Education Committee and the voluntary organisations.
In October 1939 the Juvenile Organisations Sub-Committee changed its name to the Youth Organisations Sub-Committee; its name changed again in February 1940, now becoming the Youth Committee. As Youth Committees were urged by the Board of Education to represent as far as possible all interested parties, with a number of Birmingham bodies not represented on the Youth Committee, the committee, alongside the Juvenile Employment and Welfare Sub-Committee, decided to appoint a Youth Council in 1940 to work alongside the existing Youth Committee and to be made up of representatives of various organisations some of which would also be on the Youth Committee.
In March 1962 the Education Committee embarked on a major reorganisation of committees concerned with the Youth Service. The Youth Committee was replaced by a Youth Service Advisory Committee (see BCC/1/BH/21/2) and the Youth Council was disbanded. The constitution of the standing Youth Employment Sub-Committee was widened so that the sub-committee had increased representation on it of voluntary youth organisations and was the executive sub-committee for the Youth Service as well as for Youth Employment. A standing Youth Sub-Committee (see BCC/1/BH/20/1) was also created with identical membership to the Youth Employment Sub-Committee to take over the functions with regard to the Youth Service. The Youth Committee last met in April 1962. |