Vocational Adjustment Bureau.

The Vocational Adjustment Bureau (or Vocational Adjustment Bureau for Girls) began in 1919 as the Committee on Vocational Guidance and Employment, a part of Jewish Big Sisters. By 1922 the demand for guidance and placement services had grown so much that the committee was reorganized into VAB, a city-wide, non-sectarian organization under the direction of Blanche Ittleson (1875-1975).

Among its purposes were: "to conduct investigations into vocational opportunities for sub-normal and maladjusted girls; [and] to conduct a placement bureau for them." VAB provided training workshops, employment in its own workshops, placement services, and psychological and vocational tests.

By the late 1920s VAB had a full-time psychologist as director; merchndise produced in the workshops was sold in department stores. In 1936 it proposed an experiment "to educate teachers in mental hygiene practices." By 1941 the workshops had closed; by the fall of 1942 VAB was no longer working with female clients but concentrated on vocational rehabilitation for men "rejected by and discharged from the armed forces because of mental and nervous disabilities." This project continuted under the supervision of the National Committee for Mental Hygiene (NCMH); rehabilitation of veterans was transferred to other agencies by the fall of 1944. Joint minutes of VAB and NCMH continue through 1949; the last meeting of VAB was probably held in January 1951.

From the description of Records, 1919-1953 (inclusive). (Harvard University). WorldCat record id: 232007641