The Making of a Good White - E-thesis - Helsinki.fi

In 1942 the residents were allowed to organise a dance in the community
hall once a month. The social workers were concerned that only
the residents from Epping would attend and the residents would become
isolated, as experience had shown that the middle class rarely volunteered
to spend their free time with poor whites.
“It is a well-known fact in Good Hope Model Village that people
across the road in Brooklyn refuse to attend dances in the Martin Adams
Hall, because the hall bears the stigma of being a social Hall for
poor whites.” (CHL, SWR: 1942.)
The social workers were correct, and after first few dances the people
were left to spend their time among themselves. However, the dances
became vastly popular in the suburb, and are still organised.
For the rest, the resident activity tended towards the sporadic, and was
characterised by short, fervent periods of mobilisation and long periods
of oblivion and passivity. This tendency towards passivity was already
known to the social workers in the 1940s. They found it difficult to persuade
people to attend the stimulating activities that they co-ordinated
right from the start.
“Experience in Good Hope Model Village proved that if any organisation
depended for support on Good Hope Model Village Tenants only,
that undertaking was a hopeless failure.” (CHL, SWR: 1942.)
The social workers’ contempt and frustration are visible in this material.
But in the 1940s the optimism had as yet not disappeared completely.
“Tenants in Epping Garden Village differ from those in Good Hope
Model Village at the present time. They are still pulling together, but
with the years, the same attitude might manifest itself amongst tenants
and members of the public in that neighbourhood; and it is felt that
such an event as the Dance Orchestra competition would defi nitely
counteract this.” (CHL, SWR: 1942.)
The social workers’ fears were justified, and the careful optimism died
when within a few years a passive attitude also became the norm in EGV.
These first years were full of social workers’ attempts to organise group
work, and consequent disappointments.
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