Women's typing class National Youth Administration Illinois USA 1937

The National Youth Administration (NYA) was a

New Deal The New Deal was a series of programs, public work projects, financial reforms, and regulations enacted by President Franklin D. Roosevelt in the United States between 1933 and 1939. Major federal programs agencies included the Civilian Cons ...

agency sponsored by

Franklin D. Roosevelt Franklin Delano Roosevelt (; ; January 30, 1882April 12, 1945), often referred to by his initials FDR, was an American politician and attorney who served as the 32nd president of the United States from 1933 until his death in 1945. As the ...

during his presidency. It focused on providing work and education for

Americans Americans are the Citizenship of the United States, citizens and United States nationality law, nationals of the United States, United States of America.; ; Although direct citizens and nationals make up the majority of Americans, many Multi ...

between the ages of 16 and 25. It operated from June 26, 1935 to 1939 as part of the

Works Progress Administration The Works Progress Administration (WPA; renamed in 1939 as the Work Projects Administration) was an American New Deal agency that employed millions of jobseekers (mostly men who were not formally educated) to carry out public works projects, i ...

(WPA) and included a Division of Negro Affairs headed by

Mary McLeod Bethune Mary Jane McLeod Bethune ( McLeod; July 10, 1875 – May 18, 1955) was an American educator, philanthropist, humanitarian, Womanism, womanist, and civil rights activist. Bethune founded the National Council of Negro Women in 1935, established th ...

who worked at the agency from 1936 to 1943. Following the passage of the

Reorganization Act of 1939 The Reorganization Act of 1939, , codified at , is an American Act of Congress which gave the President of the United States the authority to hire additional confidential staff and reorganize the executive branch (within certain limits) for two ...

, the NYA was transferred from the WPA to the

Federal Security Agency The Federal Security Agency (FSA) was an Independent agencies of the United States government, independent agency of the United States government established in 1939 pursuant to the Reorganization Act of 1939. For a time, the agency oversaw food a ...

. In 1942, the NYA was transferred to the

War Manpower Commission The War Manpower Commission was a World War II agency of the United States Government charged with planning to balance the labor needs of agriculture, industry and the armed forces. History The Commission was created by President Franklin D. R ...

(WMC). The NYA was discontinued in 1943. Badge_belonging_to_a_National_Youth_Administration_Defense_Worker

By 1938, college youth were paid from $30 to $40 a month for "work study" projects at their schools. Another 155,000 boys and girls from relief families were paid $10 to $25 a month for part-time work that included job training. Unlike the

Civilian Conservation Corps The Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC) was a voluntary government work relief program that ran from 1933 to 1942 in the United States for unemployed, unmarried men ages 18–25 and eventually expanded to ages 17–28. The CCC was a major part of ...

, it included young women. The youth normally lived at home, and worked on construction or repair projects. Its annual budget was approximately $580 million. The NYA was headed by

Aubrey Willis Williams Aubrey Willis Williams (August 23, 1890 – March 5, 1965) was an American social and civil rights activist who headed the National Youth Administration during the New Deal. Biography Aubrey Williams was born in Springville, Alabama, on August 2 ...

, a prominent liberal from

Alabama (We dare defend our rights) , anthem = "Alabama (state song), Alabama" , image_map = Alabama in United States.svg , seat = Montgomery, Alabama, Montgomery , LargestCity = Huntsville, Alabama, Huntsville , LargestCounty = Baldwin County, Al ...

who was close to Harry Hopkins and

Eleanor Roosevelt Anna Eleanor Roosevelt () (October 11, 1884November 7, 1962) was an American political figure, diplomat, and activist. She was the first lady of the United States from 1933 to 1945, during her husband President Franklin D. Roosevelt's four ...

. The head of the

Texas Texas (, ; Spanish language, Spanish: ''Texas'', ''Tejas'') is a state in the South Central United States, South Central region of the United States. At 268,596 square miles (695,662 km2), and with more than 29.1 million residents in 2 ...

division at one point was

Lyndon B. Johnson Lyndon Baines Johnson (; August 27, 1908January 22, 1973), often referred to by his initials LBJ, was an American politician who served as the 36th president of the United States from 1963 to 1969. He had previously served as the 37th vice ...

, who was later to become

president of the United States The president of the United States (POTUS) is the head of state and head of government of the United States of America. The president directs the executive branch of the federal government and is the commander-in-chief of the United Stat ...

. The NYA operated several programs for out-of-school youth.

Origins

As the

Great Depression The Great Depression (19291939) was an economic shock that impacted most countries across the world. It was a period of economic depression that became evident after a major fall in stock prices in the United States. The economic contagio ...

continued to grip the American economy and inhibit the harnessing of American potential, unemployment and poverty spiraled to record highs. These debilitating years saw youth unemployment rise to 30% and the younger cohorts of the United States increasingly faced the devastation of not being able to afford education. Serving as the main catalyst for change and accelerator for government intervention, Eleanor Roosevelt advocated government involvement. In 1934 she notably declared that she frequently experienced "moments of real terror when he thoughtwe might be losing this generation". Mrs. Roosevelt was an initiator of the National Youth Administration as well as its adviser, a planner, an investigator, and a publicist. Halfway through the depression, due to the change in tides as a result of

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposin ...

, Roosevelt had mixed opinions on the NYA. Roosevelt felt that the United States should send the majority of these workers to serve in the war. This resulted in FDR beginning to lean towards Congress to shut it down. Due to Eleanor Roosevelt's intuition regarding the decline of progress within the American youth, she urged her husband to allow her to "act as an extension of the presidency by moving in new directions or in areas where it was politically difficult for the President to operate directly." These "difficult areas" in which it was difficult for FDR to operate directly pointed towards the youth in America. Eleanor Roosevelt's efforts and contributions gave the American youth various opportunities including education, jobs, recreation, and counseling for male and female youth between the ages of sixteen and twenty-five.

Creation

In June 1935, to combat the economic forces that entangled youth and their families, the National Youth Administration was launched by Executive Order 7086. Much like the

Federal Writers' Project The Federal Writers' Project (FWP) was a federal government project in the United States created to provide jobs for out-of-work writers during the Great Depression. It was part of the Works Progress Administration (WPA), a New Deal program. It ...

, created just over a month later, the federal agency was intended to assist young Americans during the tumultuous times, to prevent them from falling victim to current hardships, and to maintain their potential for future achievement and societal contribution. The NYA's first mission embodied the goal to prevent already-enrolled high school and university students from dropping out before earning their degree, out of necessity due to dire financial times. The agency achieved this by providing grants to youth in exchange for part-time work positions in various sectors of the education system, including administration, janitorial work, and cafeteria services. These efforts stemmed from a twofold mission to develop the youth's talent, while simultaneously keeping them from flooding the already-suffering and compromised labor markets.Woolner, "Saving a 'Lost Generation Through the National Youth Administration" Aubrey Williams, who headed the Administration, felt that the solution to the problem youth faced was to give these teenagers and young adults socially useful and constructive work so that they may become assets rather than liabilities to society. Secondly, the NYA was committed to providing training and employment for long-term value and advancement. Young people were provided with work experience and learning-by-doing training in a wide variety of fields, including recreation, public service, education, the arts, research and development, agriculture, and construction. By 1937, more than 400,000 youth were employed or participating in occupational training under the NYA. These vocational programs and occupational placements were put to the ultimate test with the onset of World War II. The 1939 outbreak of war in Europe provided the perfect testing grounds to observe the effectiveness of NYA's training and initiatives in many fields that were related to the

war economy A war economy or wartime economy is the set of contingencies undertaken by a modern state to mobilize its economy for war production. Philippe Le Billon describes a war economy as a "system of producing, mobilizing and allocating resources t ...

. The war effort increased the program's reach and saw a substantial surge in young, trained workers contributing to the defense industry. On a larger scale, the program enabled American youth to contribute to the war effort, stimulate the American war economy, and effectively turn the United States into an international powerhouse of production.

Aubrey Williams

The NYA was also fundamental in bringing considerations for African Americans into the dialogue surrounding aid to workers and maturing youth. This platform was strongly pushed by Aubrey Williams' leadership in the agency. He was a forerunner in addressing unemployment and access to education among

African Americans African Americans (also referred to as Black Americans and Afro-Americans) are an ethnic group consisting of Americans with partial or total ancestry from sub-Saharan Africa. The term "African American" generally denotes descendants of ens ...

, creating the

Office of Minority Affairs An office is a space where an organization's employees perform administrative work in order to support and realize objects and goals of the organization. The word "office" may also denote a position within an organization with specific d ...

. His goals emphasized increasing their economic well-being through labor opportunities, increased educational attainment, and maximizing potential. More generally, Williams was influential in emphasizing the program's broad reach and positive implications on the future. His public addresses adamantly expressed that the transition youth experienced when adjusting from elementary years to greater independence and work positions was always rough, yet the economic situation of the Depression aggravated the transition and threatened to derail reaching final aspirations of work. Consequentially, it was the NYA's duty to provide access to education, advancement, and sense of occupational achievement through its interactive initiatives and agendas. Williams' emphasis on turning America's youth into productive citizens was further supported by President Franklin Roosevelt's proclamation that the "yield on this investment he establishment of the NYAshould be high." Providing the youth with the foundation they needed would enable them to contribute to America's future development, the nation's strength, and progress and acceleration forward.

Opportunities for the Youth

The Federal Government, through the combined efforts of the National Youth Administration and the

, provided work for nearly 5 million youth during the Great Depression and World War II years. These figures included more than one million young women. By the end of June 1938, the National Youth Administration had constructed 125 schools and libraries, as well as improved and made repairs on an additional 4,459. NYA constructed 59 gymnasiums and dormitories, repairing another 233. Youth contributed to the construction of 74 warehouses, courthouses, offices, and administration buildings, along with repairing 352. In addition to buildings, NYA workers also built 5,149 athletic fields, baseball fields, and grandstands, along with the improvement of 12,697 more. In addition, NYA created over two thousand handball and tennis courts and improved an additional two thousand. NYA_worker_assembling_street_signs

The NYA also trained youth in various workshop skills. They built or renovated over 481,000 pieces of various furniture, repaired almost 1 million toys, and salvaged or crafted about 26,000 pieces of playground equipment, 177,344 pieces of mechanical equipment, and over 853,000 articles made of concrete, such as concrete blocks for building. Over 9.5 million feet of highways and roads were built by the groups of male youth, along with almost 4 million feet of road shoulders. Nearly 2 million feet of sidewalks and paths were built by these young men. Young women were just as influential as male youth. They made up about 43 percent of the National Youth Administration's total enrollment. Their accomplishments included serving over 31 million lunches to school children, making over 2.5 million articles for hospital supplies, and producing over 3 million articles of clothing for distribution to needy families. National_Youth_Administration_Staff_Members,_Dexter,_Maine

National_Youth_Administration_Staff_Members,_Dexter,_Maine

End of the NYA

As the home effort of

gained momentum, the NYA's crucial role quickly dwindled. The booming munitions and war industry economy was recruiting large numbers of workers, and the agency was no longer vital for ensuring work opportunity and growth among the population. This was specifically true for lesser-skilled workers who previously needed a support network to secure work or the skills needed to get their careers under way.Reiman, 175. NYA_Woman

The program officially ended on January 1, 1944, per the Labor-Federal Security Appropriations Act of 1944 and the Second Deficiency Appropriations Act of 1943. The various impacts which came from the program were immense; with having employed 2,677,000 young men and women in its out-of-school work program and 2,134,000 in its student work program.

Achievements and legacy

Overall, the NYA helped over 4.5 million American youths find jobs, receive vocational training, and afford higher standards of education. More significantly, it provided the means necessary for this "struggling generation" to overcome the economic adversity that threatened to overrun the country. Through the NYA's initiatives, the youth triumphed and maintained their dignity by contributing to society, growing personally, and stimulating advancements in America that eventually proved crucial to pulling the country out of a period of domestic strife. The NYA had positive effects on the skilled labor supply, decreased the proportions of mismatched workers and employers, and improved America's capacity for production, growth, and economic stimulation. During other times of economic hardship, unemployment, and fears of declining education, activists have agitated for a similar program to be reestablished.

References

External links

* {{Authority control 1935 establishments in Washington, D.C. 1939 disestablishments in Washington, D.C. Government agencies disestablished in 1939 Government agencies established in 1935 New Deal agencies Youth organizations based in the United States Works Progress Administration History of youth