SUBJECT FILES, 1931-1983

Summary: Reference material concerning areas of investigation and advocacy by the Council for Human Services in New Jersey and other organizations.

Document types include correspondence received, copies of correspondence sent, pamphlets, surveys, news clippings, minutes, newsletters, statements, conference materials, copies of actual and proposed legislation, and reports. Subjects covered include aging, child welfare and protection, civil rights, community home care, compulsory health insurance, crime and corrections, the developmentally disabled, housing, juvenile delinquency, mental health, migratory education and labor, narcotics and addiction, public health, reconciliation of married couples, residency laws for public assistance, slum clearance, the state budget, and the role and purpose of the Council.

Documents projects in which the Council was involved, often in conjunction with other agencies, such as the Advisory Committee on Migrant Education of the Migrant Labor Board, in which Consumers League of New Jersey participated, the Warren County Health Survey (1958), with local agencies, and reform of public assistance regulations (1951-1952) with the New Jersey League of Women Voters. An early project of note was a study sponsored by the Department of Institutions and Agencies on poor relief in Newark (1931).

Of particular interest is an incident in 1950 where the Board of Directors of the Council passed a controversial resolution advocating Compulsory Health Insurance, where many members felt the Board had overstepped its authority. Also of interest are the Mental Health files (1957-1978) which include material generated by the New Jersey State Commission on Mental Health (1961-1963), created to revise laws affecting the mentally ill and disabled; and documentation of the Public Policy Forum on Civil Disorders (1968), which contains reports on the racial uprisings of the late 1960s.

Also includes reports from many state public and private agencies such as the Morrow Association on Correction, the Central New Jersey Chapter of the National Multiple Sclerosis Society, a Construction Report from the Newark Housing Authority (1956), extolling public housing in Newark, and a study of poverty in Somerset County (1965).