Britain: An official handbook > 1966

EDUCATION
177
The Voluntary The voluntary organisations vary greatly in character since nearly all of them
Organisations were formed to serve specific groups of young people, but most of them
provide educational and religious activities as well as social and recreational
pursuits for their members, and all of them seek to inculcate high ideals of
personal conduct and service to the community.
Twenty-seven national voluntary youth organisations with memberships
of at least 10,000 are constituent members of the Standing Conference of
National Voluntary Youth Organisations, a consultative body which, although
it takes action only in the name of its member bodies and with their consent,
represents their interests on a great number of committees. A further 25 bodies
are associate or observer members, for example, the Church of England
Youth Council, which represents about 272,000 young people who are
members of clubs sponsored by the Church of England. The corresponding
body in Scotland is the Scottish Standing Conference of Voluntary Youth
Organisations, in Northern Ireland the Standing Conference of Youth Organisa¬
tions, and in Wales the Standing Conference for Wales of Voluntary Youth
Organisations.
These major organisations have a total United Kingdom membership of
about 3 million young people under 21.
Among the youth organisations with a mainly religious origin and purpose
are the Young Men’s Christian Association (YMCA) and Young Women’s
Christian Association (YWCA), with approximately 48,000 and 20,000
members under 21 respectively; the Boys’ Brigade (151,000), the Church
Lads’ Brigade (13,000), the Girls’ Life Brigade (63,000), the Girls’ Friendly
Society (20,000), Girls’ Guildry (28,000), the Methodist Association of
Youth Clubs (163,000), the Salvation Army Youth Organisations (106,000),
the Catholic Young Men’s Society of Great Britain (25,000), the
National Council for Catholic Youth Clubs (37,000), the Young Christian
Workers (17,000), the Grail (14,000), and the Association for Jewish Youth
(18,000).
The Boy Scouts Association and Girl Guides Association have world-wide
affiliations; they are undenominational and non-political, and were founded
by Lord Baden-Powell in 1908 and 1910 to develop character and good
citizenship in boys and girls. They have various sections, based on age
groups, but most of their members are under 16 years. Their total United
Kingdom membership under 21 is about 477,000 scouts and 552,000 guides.
The National Association of Boys’ Clubs, with nearly 2,000 affiliated clubs
and 155,000 members, and the National Association of Youth Clubs, with
over 3,000 affiliated clubs and 234,000 members, are concerned mainly with
the 14 to 20 age-group. Each affiliated club has its own rules, but all aim at
giving young people opportunities to develop into mature members of
society. Representatives from clubs form local committees and these send
representatives to the national members’ councils.
The Girls’ Venture Corps, with about 4,000 members, formed in 1964
from the Girls’ Training Corps and the Women’s Junior Air Corps, has an
Air Wing offering aviation courses. The pre-Service organisations for boys
(the Combined Cadet Force, Sea Cadet Corps, Army Cadet Force and Air
Training Corps) combine social, educational and physical development with
training for possible entry into the armed forces; their combined membership
is about 141,500.
The National Federation of Young Farmers’ Clubs in England and Wales
has about 40,000 members between 10 and 25 years old, the Scottish
Association of Young Farmers’ Clubs has about 7,500 and Northern Ireland