A New Deal for Youth - The National Youth Administration (NYA) - 1938
Front Cover, A New Deal for Youth: The Story of the National Youth Administration, 1938. GGA Image ID # 1531819509
The National Youth Administration was created in an attempt to find a solution or a partial solution for these four shortcomings in our social and economic life.
- There are not jobs enough to take care of the youth who need them and want them.
- Our educational system is not adequate, in size or character, to prepare multitudes of youth for the work opportunities that are available.
- Nationally speaking, there is not equal opportunity for education. Vast areas of the United States have inadequate educational systems. There are not enough free schools to take care of the youth population, and millions of youth and children are too poor to attend free schools and colleges even where they exist.
- There is a gap measured in years between the time a youth leaves school and the time he finds a job. During this period society completely abandons him. Most of our criminals are to be found in this social no-man's land.
It is this broad, tolerant, democratic approach to the problems of youth which I believe has made so effective the methods used by the National Youth Administration.
📖 Hope for a Generation: How the National Youth Administration Reshaped America’s Workforce
The National Youth Administration (NYA) was one of the most significant New Deal programs aimed at addressing the youth unemployment crisis during the Great Depression. Established in 1935 as part of the Works Progress Administration (WPA), the NYA provided job training, financial aid, and employment opportunities to millions of young Americans, helping them transition from school to the workforce.
This 1938 introduction to the NYA presents a comprehensive overview of its mission, achievements, and challenges. The foreword by Charles W. Taussig, chairman of the National Advisory Committee, provides an insightful analysis of the youth crisis in America, highlighting the economic instability, lack of education, and job shortages that plagued the younger generation.
For teachers, students, historians, and genealogists, this document is essential reading, offering:
✅ A firsthand account of the NYA’s efforts to combat youth unemployment.
✅ A deep dive into the social challenges faced by young people during the Great Depression.
✅ An exploration of government intervention in education and workforce training.
✅ A discussion of democracy, civic responsibility, and economic reform for youth.
Through government records, personal testimonies, and economic data, this historical document captures the spirit of Roosevelt’s New Deal and its attempt to secure the future of America’s youth.
📖 The National Youth Administration: A New Deal for America’s Youth
The National Youth Administration (NYA) was an essential component of President Franklin D. Roosevelt’s New Deal, designed to address the youth unemployment crisis during the Great Depression. This 1938 examination of the NYA’s role offers a firsthand perspective on how the program functioned, why it was needed, and its impact on young Americans.
The report provides insight into:
✅ The purpose and establishment of the NYA.
✅ The scale and reach of the program, affecting hundreds of thousands of students across the U.S.
✅ First-person observations from researchers traveling across the country to witness NYA projects.
✅ The involvement of Eleanor Roosevelt, one of the NYA’s most vocal advocates.
For teachers, students, genealogists, and historians, this document is an indispensable historical resource that captures how the NYA provided education, employment, and training opportunities for young Americans during one of the nation’s most difficult periods.
📖 Youth In Crisis: How the National Youth Administration Rescued a Generation
The Great Depression cast a long shadow over the millions of young Americans who found themselves without jobs, education, or opportunities for a secure future. The National Youth Administration (NYA) emerged as a beacon of hope, offering education, employment, and training to prevent a lost generation of workers.
"Youth Inherits the Depression" is a powerful exploration of the crisis faced by young Americans between the ages of 16 and 24, presenting staggering statistics on unemployment while underscoring the social consequences of mass idleness. The NYA’s response is highlighted as a pragmatic and humane intervention that provided youth with work experience, financial aid, and a renewed sense of purpose.
📖 Breaking the Cycle: How the NYA Gave Hope to Depression-Era Youth
The Great Depression left millions of young Americans without education, employment, or opportunity—a crisis that could have resulted in a "lost generation." The National Youth Administration (NYA) was a crucial intervention, providing part-time jobs, job training, and financial assistance to youth aged 16-24.
"Out of School and Out of Work" paints a gripping portrait of these young people, many of whom came from large families struggling on public relief. It explores the severe economic struggles that forced students to drop out of school, their bleak employment prospects, and how NYA work projects restored their dignity, financial independence, and hope.
This document is especially valuable for:
✅ Teachers & Students studying New Deal policies, labor history, and social welfare programs.
✅ Historians analyzing youth unemployment and job training programs during the 1930s.
✅ Genealogists researching family members who participated in NYA work projects.
✅ Sociologists & Economists examining the effects of long-term unemployment on young workers.
📖 Building Futures: The National Youth Administration’s Impact on Depression-Era America
The National Youth Administration (NYA) was one of the most transformative New Deal programs, directly addressing youth unemployment and skill-building in a time of national crisis. This article provides a fascinating, in-depth look at the scope of NYA work projects across the United States as of 1938, illustrating how the program provided real jobs, developed skills, and improved local communities.
This document is particularly relevant for:
✅ Teachers & Students exploring New Deal policies, government intervention, and labor history.
✅ Historians studying youth employment, community development, and Depression-era infrastructure projects.
✅ Genealogists tracing ancestors who participated in NYA programs.
✅ Economists & Sociologists analyzing the impact of youth job training on long-term employment prospects.
📖 Crafting a Future: How the NYA’s Workshops Trained America’s Youth for Skilled Trades
This fascinating account of the National Youth Administration’s workshop programs demonstrates the impact of hands-on vocational training for young men during the Great Depression. The article illustrates how NYA workshops provided practical experience in mechanics, carpentry, and other trades, helping young workers transition into private employment while contributing to community projects.
This document is particularly relevant for:
✅ Teachers & Students studying New Deal programs, vocational education, and workforce development.
✅ Historians analyzing the role of federal job programs in shaping American labor practices.
✅ Genealogists researching family members who may have participated in NYA trade programs.
✅ Trade & Labor Scholars examining the impact of federally funded apprenticeship programs on skilled labor.
📖 Serving the Nation: How NYA Youth Transformed Public Services & Community Work
📖 "Serving the Nation: How NYA Youth Transformed Public Services & Community Work"
This insightful chapter from A New Deal for Youth explores how the National Youth Administration (NYA) provided vital public service jobs for young men and women, benefiting both participants and their communities. The program extended public agency services, improved local infrastructure, and gave youth real-world job experience—a win-win model for social progress during the Great Depression.
Who should read this?
✅ Teachers & Students studying the New Deal, workforce development, and social services.
✅ Historians analyzing government intervention in public service labor.
✅ Genealogists researching ancestors who worked in NYA’s public service programs.
✅ Social & Economic Policy Scholars examining federal employment initiatives.
Girls in Home Economics - NYA Program - 1938
These facts stood out blatantly: there are few employment outlets for girls with sixth, seventh, and eighth grade educations. There are thousands of NYA girls in this group. Fourteen percent of the women employed in the United States are in professional occupations, which are a sealed door to these girls.
The Community Youth Center Emerges - 1938
Most communities in the United States offer meager recreational facilities for young people who are out-of-school and out-of-work. And they are the very young people who need most the normal spare-time activities of youth—athletics and games, dancing, music, dramatics, hobby clubs—or just some place to meet friends.
A Day's Work Was Beginning in a NYA Carpentry Shop - 1938
Forty boys were making school furniture. Some were cutting lumber, some were working at the lathe, others at power saws. One boy was carefully shellacking a bookcase. We watched the foreman as he went from boy to boy, stopping here only a minute, and staying five minutes, perhaps, with the next young man.
WPA Co-Operates with the NYA - 1938
NYA boys and girls are advised about the wide range of adult education courses conducted by WPA teachers throughout the country. In some instances, WPA assigns teachers for special NYA courses related closely to the work the youth are doing.
Cooperating for an Education with the NYA - 1938
Courses of study, not the regular college courses, but especially designed for these youth, are given in subjects related to the actual work they are doing. Plans have been completed for NYA boys to build a dormitory similar to the two constructed by WPA.
Unharnessing Youth at Quoddy - NYA - 1938
The Quoddy NYA project is sometimes called a vocational finding school. The aim is not to turn out skilled workers but to give boys a chance through actual work experience and related training to make an intelligent choice of the occupations for which they show interest and potential ability.
Finding the First Job Assisted by the NYA -1938
Connecting the boy or girl with the job is one of the objectives of the NYA work program. Because of their lack both of education and of work experience, young people from relief families have even greater difficulties than other groups of youth in finding work.
Junior Guidance and Placement - NYA - 1938
The services of these Junior Divisions are available to all youth, regardless of their relief status. Two questions naturally present themselves concerning Junior Employment Divisions. First, why should they be separate units in State employment services? Second, why should they come under NYA?
NYA Boys and Girls Tell Their Stories - 1938
The faces of the thousands of NYA boys and girls we have seen, flash through our minds. What does it mean to be young in these last, lean years of depression? What is it like to grow up in a relief family? What kinds of homes did these boys and girls leave in the morning when they came to work?
NYA Youths Speak for Themselves - 1938
Many NYA youths speak out about their situation, their job at the NYA project, their family life, and their accomplishments. Often the National Youth Administration has helped them progress to pursuing their goal of employment or education.
New Democracy in Education - NYA Program - 1938
With the advent of the depression, the number of students partly or entirely dependent on their own earning capacities sharply increased, and the number of jobs open to them sharply decreased. Most institutions made all the concessions that their own often dwindling resources permitted to promising students with little or no money.
College & Work Projects - NYA - 1938
Devising suitable work projects for NYA students has been a challenge to the ingenuity of college authorities. At the out- set many of the work projects undoubtedly were routine in character or were frivolous "boondoggling" or were hardly more than camouflage.
Caliber of NYA Students - 1938
Information as to the scholastic standing of NYA students was collected in 1935–36 from 270 colleges in 31 States. 168 reported that, on the average, NYA students made higher grades than non-NYA students.
School Aid - National Youth Administration - 1938
In the fall of 1935, NYA instituted a Nation-wide program of aid to needy school students 16 years of age or older. The main features of school aid were copied from the already tested college aid, but the maximum monthly payment to any individual student was fixed at $6.00.
Challenge to Education - NYA - 1938
The 500,000 young men and women, 18 to 25 years old, who have been on the NYA out-of-school program in the last two and a half years have on the average attained only eighth grade education. Among all these youth, few have had any kind of occupational training in school or in work.
The Balance Sheet for NYA - 1938
The NYA program is in a fluid, changing state. It is an emergency measure, designed to provide some of the less privileged youth with at least a measure of participation in the economic, social, and educational life of an era which frequently seems to have no place for many of them.
Images of the National Youth Administration in Action - 1938 (In Progress 2020-05)
Most of these pictures were taken by NYA supervisors or by photographers for the Works Progress Administration. They give an idea not only of the scope of the NYA program but of the types of young people who are employed on it, which means the types of young people who today are unable to find jobs in private employment or to continue their education without NYA part-time work.
