National Youth Administration

Poster for the Illinois branch of the National Youth Administration, 1937

National Youth Administration was a Vocational Guidance--brush-up classes to improve typing ability (Illinois).

NYA float, "Projects for Out-of-School Youth," Inaugural Parade, Washington, DC, January 20, 1937

The National Youth Administration (NYA) was a New Deal agency in the United States that focused on providing work and education for Americans between the ages of 16 and 25. It operated from June, 26 1935 to 1939 as part of the Works Progress Administration (WPA). Following the passage of the Reorganization Act of 1939, the NYA was transferred from the WPA to the Federal Security Agency. In 1942, the NYA was transferred to the War Manpower Commission (WMC). The NYA officially folded in 1943.

The NYA was headed by Aubrey Willis Williams, a prominent liberal from Alabama who was close to Harry Hopkins and Eleanor Roosevelt. The head of the Texas division at one point was Lyndon B. Johnson, who was later to become President of the United States.

By 1938, it served 327,000 high school and college youth, who were paid from $6 to $40 a month for "work study" projects at their schools. Another 155,000 boys and girls from relief families were paid $10 to $25 a month for part-time work that included job training. Unlike the CCC, it included young women. The youth normally lived at home, and worked on construction or repair projects. Its annual budget was approximately $58,000,000.

The NYA operated several programs for out of school youth.

See also

• American Youth Congress - The influential youth organization that fomented the creation with the NYA
• National Commission on Resources for Youth - A government project focused on youth development

References

Sources

• Lindley, Betty Grimes and Ernest K. Lindley. A New Deal for Youth: The Story of the National Youth Administration (1938)
• Halstead, Gordon (Project Director NYA Resident Work Center, Lima, NY), Work—Study—Live: The Resident Youth Centers of the NYA, The New Deal Network website (accessed June 25, 2007)
• Meriam; Lewis. Relief and Social Security The Brookings Institution. 1946. Highly detailed analysis and statistical summary of all New Deal relief programs; 900 pages
• Reiman, Richard. The New Deal and American Youth (1980)
• Tyack, David et al. Public Schools in Hard Times (1970)
• Weisenberger, Carol A. Dollars and Dreams: The National Youth Administration in Texas