Blue Ridge Institute for Southern Community Service Executives Records

The Blue Ridge Institute for Southern Community Service Executives was founded in 1927 by Arthur Alden Guild, Director of the Community Fund of Richmond, Virginia. The Institute was conceived for the benefit of voluntarily-supported and public-supported agencies in the health, welfare and youth-serving fields by having their executives meet for discussion of topics that affected their daily work. The avowed purpose was to improve existing leadership and create a desire in communities for better-trained people.

The first session, promoted as "A Vacation Institute for Southern Social Work Executives," was held on August 1-12, 1927, at the YMCA Blue Ridge Assembly in Black Mountain, North Carolina. 56 social work executives from 15 states attended. Since then, the Institute has met every year except one - the 1944 session was cancelled due to a polio epidemic in North Carolina. Each institute has been held at the Blue Ridge Assembly, except for the 1943 session, which was held at the Green Park Hotel in Blowing Rock, North Carolina, due to wartime difficulties. The Blue Ridge Institute has contributed to the national health, welfare, recreation and community organization literature on a variety of important subjects. For example, the 1957 proceedings on "Staffing our Community Health, Recreation and Welfare Services" was completely exhausted during the fall of 1957, in preparation of the U.S. Report to the United Nations on the use of personnel. Also, the 1967 proceedings, "The Thrust for Community Betterment - Whose Responsibility?", became the source of information for Public Affairs Pamphlet No. 413 - "New Ways to Better Communities."

The Blue Ridge Institute has been largely nurtured and developed in a unique way by the volunteer services of the Community Service Executives who attended it. In the early years the national association of Community Chests and Councils assisted with some secretarial services and part-time professional consultation. This relationship ceased in 1968 and the institute leadership took over all responsibilities. Attendance at the Blue Ridge Institute is by invitation only. The invitation list is developed by the Board of Directors, which is made up of the officers and representatives from each state attending the conference, taking care to ensure broad representation from all service fields. Programs have covered all aspects of community organization and human services, and after the first few years a summary of the institute proceedings and presentations have been published annually.