The National Youth Administration was a New Deal program created in 1935 to provide jobs and assistance to unemployed Americans between 16 and 25. It was encouraged by Eleanor Roosevelt and provided job training and work-study programs. The program included jobs for young women and was discontinued in the 1940s.
The National Youth Administration was part of the New Deal initiative designed by the US government to provide jobs and assistance to Americans affected by the Great Depression. The program focused, as the name suggests, on poor and unemployed people between the ages of 16 and 25. President Franklin Roosevelt was encouraged to include them in New Deal programs by his wife, Eleanor Roosevelt. The agency was part of the Works Progress Administration (WPA).
President Roosevelt’s New Deal policies began in 1933 and included such work programs as the Civilian Conservation Corps. Eleanor Roosevelt was concerned for young Americans who were suffering the effects of the depression. Rampant unemployment meant that many young people of the 1930s never had a job. Eleanor has been involved in the American Youth Congress, an independent organization that advocates for youth rights. Americans under the age of 21 were not considered legal adults at the time and did not have the right to vote.
At the urging of the first lady, the Roosevelt administration implemented the National Youth Administration in 1935. The executive director was Aubrey Williams, a prominent Southern liberal and friend of the Roosevelts. Lyndon Johnson, a Southern liberal who later became president after John F. Kennedy was assassinated in office in 1963, headed the agency’s Texas office.
While the Civilian Conservation Corps had provided temporary jobs for millions of young people at the start of the New Deal, a major drawback was that such jobs did not translate into lasting employment. Williams and other National Youth Administration architects drew on these lessons and focused on giving young people work that would be useful after the Depression and in their later lives. The program helped achieve this by providing job training and work-study programs that allowed participants to earn while continuing their education.
Jobs provided by the program included construction and building renovations, agricultural work, community services, and factory jobs. Unlike the Civilian Conservation Corps, the agency also included programs for young women. While the pay was low, it was still an improvement for many, and room and board were also provided for some participants.
Like many New Deal programs, the National Youth Administration was opposed by those who felt federal jobs programs reeked of socialism. It was discontinued in the 1940s, replaced by burgeoning employment in war industries. The program has provided training and direction to nearly 1 million young Americans during its operational deployment.
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