Created by the Blue Ridge Institute for Southern Community Service Executives

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.

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