Welfare Committee (Craigwood Board)

Title: Series 6: Welfare Committee (Craigwood Board)

Dates of creation: 1954-1978
Note: Further accruals are expected

Physical description: 40 cm of textual materials

Administrative history: Craigwood (known as the Ailsa Craig Boys Farm until 1964), located 1.6 km south of Ailsa Craig, Ontario was a home for the rehabilitation of delinquent boys. The Craigwood provincial charter was issued on 21 Jun 1955. Mennonite Central Committee (the Canadian branch, located in Ontario) took over management of the project. Harvey Taves was made acting director, while Jack and Anne Wall took on the role of on-site house parents. Ed Driedger became director around the time of the departure of the Walls in 1959. Mennonite Central Committee Ontario assumed responsibility after its creation in 1964.

The board was made up of representatives from every constituent conference of MCC Ontario: the Mennonite Conference of Ontario, Western Ontario Mennonite Conference, Mennonite Brethren Conference of Ontario, the United Mennonite Conference of Ontario and the Brethren in Christ. Three additional members were co-opted from the constituency. The Welfare Committee or Welfare Section was one of the five sections of MCC Ontario. The board usually met approximately 10 times a year. The four committees of the board were the executive committee, personnel committee, property committee and nominating committee.

By 1971, longstanding financial problems led to the takeover of the home by the Ontario government. Craigwood Youth Services was incorporated separately as a children's mental health centre in 1983, and Mennonite institutional involvement concluded.

Custodial history: Most files were transferred from Mennonite Central Committee Ontario in 1982; some came from J. Winfield Fretz upon his retirement from Conrad Grebel College.

Scope and content: Contains minutes, report and correspondence of the Craigwood board.

Notes: Craigwood newsletters were published as Boys Farm Bulletin and Craigwood Bulletin as special sections of The Canadian Mennonite. Copies are located in the Milton Good Library.

Photographs related to Craigwood can be located through the Mennonite Archival Image Database.

Additional administrative history information from Steiner, Samuel J. In Search of Promised Lands.

File list:

Box 1. Minutes, Correspondence, Financial Statements, etc., 1954-1978

1. Minutes, correspondence, financial reports, 1954-1960
2. Minutes, correspondence, financial reports, 1961
3. Minutes, correspondence, financial reports, 1962
4. Minutes, correspondence, financial reports, 1963
5. Minutes, correspondence, financial reports, 1964-1966
6. Correspondence re Joseph Axt Estate, 1964
7. Ailsa Craig Loans, 1958-1966
8. Undated materials
   Note: This file number was formerly assigned with the title "Minutes, 1966 (J. Winfield Fretz files." These materials were duplicates of materials found in file XIV.3.6.1/5 and were discarded in 2011.
9. Minutes, 1967-1969
10. Minutes, 1970-1971
11. Minutes 1972
12. Minutes 1973
13. Minutes 1974-1975
14. Minutes 1976
15. Craigwood Information and Treatment Manual
16. Combined Financial Statements, March 1978
17. Correspondence, 1978
18. Financial Statement Reports, 1973-75
19. Policy documents
    Scope and content: File contains:
    Personnel policies and job descriptions, Jun 1967, Jan 1968
    Board manual [19--]
    "Role of the administrator" / by Edwin Peters
    "Guide for board organization and administrative structure" / prepared by Elizabeth Glover. --New York : Child Welfare League of America, 1966
20. Craigwood study, 1969 
    Scope and content: This study was conducted to provide information on boys who left Craigwood between 1965 and 1968.
21. Dedication services, 1955, 1963, 1965
22. Publicity materials