Vocational Adjustment Bureau
The Vocational Adjustment Bureau (or Vocational Adjustment Bureau for Girls) began in 1919 as the Committee on Vocational Guidance and Employment, a part of Jewish Big Sisters. By 1922, the demand for guidance and placement services had grown so much that the committee was reorganized into VAB, a city-wide, non-sectarian organization under the direction of Blanche Ittleson (1875-1975).
Among its purposes were: "to conduct investigations into vocational opportunities for sub-normal and maladjusted girls; [and] to conduct a placement bureau for them." VAB provided training workshops, employment in its own workshops, placement services, and psychological and vocational tests.
By the late 1920s VAB had a full-time psychologist as director; and merchandise produced in the workshops was being sold in department stores. In 1936 it proposed an experiment "to educate teachers in mental hygiene practices." By 1941 the workshops had closed; and by the fall of 1942 VAB no longer worked with female clients but concentrated on vocational rehabilitation for men "rejected by and discharged from the armed forces because of mental and nervous disabilities." This project continued under the supervision of the National Committee for Mental Hygiene (NCMH); the rehabilitation of veterans was transferred to other agencies by the fall of 1944. Joint minutes of VAB and NCMH continue through 1949; and the last meeting of the VAB was probably held in January 1951.
OCP Resources
Unpublished Reports
Vocational Adjustment Bureau, Records, 1919-1953 are held in the Schlesinger Library of the Radcliffe Institute for Advanced Study.
Vocational Adjustment Bureau, Records, 1919-1953.
- Folder #15:
- Lundy, Elizabeth B. A Study of 400 'problem' girls placed by the Vocational Adjustment Bureau for Girls: with special attention to the sex delinguents [sic]. 1925.
- Folder #19:
- Burr, Emily. T. A way out for misfits.
- Sheltered workrooms for nervous girls.
- Potter, Grace. Four block industrial survey. Vocational and Employment Section of Welfare Council.
- Burr, Emily T. Girl victims of the machine age.