Catholic Youth Organization

1936 - ?

In 1936 Archbishop Cardinal Hayes called for the creation of the Catholic Youth Organization (CYO) under the auspices of the Archdiocese’s Catholic Charities. Based on its predecessor, the Catholic Boys Club of Chelsea, which organized a group of boys to participate in social and religious activities together, the CYO became an important institution for the predominantly Irish children and teenagers in Chelsea. The CYO was organized by parish, with each area having its own leaders and planning its own programming, but the Chelsea building held the Manhattan offices and functioned as a community center with a game room and spaces for children to meet after school. The CYO was explicitly religious, teaching spiritual lessons alongside classes and sports. A director was always on site to plan activities and do outreach in the neighborhood and during the Great Depression a number of workers from the Works Progress Association helped the CYO to expand its reach and address increased need for education and support. In the 1950s it became a contracting agency of the New York City Youth Board, joining with other organizations that were concerned about juvenile delinquency in their neighborhoods. Today, the CYO exclusively runs sports leagues and is no longer based in Chelsea.

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Details

Category
Organization/Association
Audience
Children, Teenagers
Corporate Body
Archdiocese of New York
Tags
Catholic

Connections

Location

  • 353 W 17th St, New York, NY 10011, USA
    ? - ?

Archival Collections

References

  1. Federal Writers’ Project. New York City Guide: A Comprehensive Guide to the Five Boroughs of the Metropolis. New York: Random House, 1939.
  2. Gentemann, Sister Mary Immaculate. “A Descriptive Study of the Catholic Youth Organization in the Archdiocese of N.Y.” Masters thesis, Columbia University School of Social Work, 1942.
  3. Letter from Patrick Cardinal Hayes Announcing the Establishment of the Catholic Youth Association. December 27, 1936. http://cyony.org/Page.asp?n=75197&org=DJZDNHFMIWKMOTM.CYONY.ORG. Accessed April 15, 2018.
  4. Long, Joseph L. “On the Waterfront: Irish Life in Chelsea and Greenwich Village, Part I.” New York Irish History 26 (2012): 3-20.