The records have been arranged into four series: General Records, YCW Programs and Study Projects, Section Records, and Other Organizations. Together they mainly illustrate the local activities of the YCW during the late 1950s and early 1960s.
GENERAL RECORDS include general correspondence, a small amount of correspondence concerning arrangements for St. Therese's Day activities, chaplain's correspondence and lists of chaplains for individual sections, and financial records. The latter mainly date from the late 1950s and early 1960s and consist of cancelled checks and bank statements, a few form letter donation requests, miscellany, financial statements, statements of income and expenses, and federation and section treasurer's monthly dues and financial reports. There are minutes, agenda, and reports of meetings from Milwaukee participation in the YCW National Council and national study weeks, 1962-1963 state conventions; federation monthly meetings, 1956-1963; and section presidents' meetings. Also present are issues, 1962-1963, of Unity, a monthly newsletter published by the Milwaukee YCW; and two issues of Impact, published separately by the St. Veronica's section of the Milwaukee Federation. Other organizational matters are illustrated through an organizational chart and statistics; lists of officers; a long-range plan; statements of YCW policy, 1958; and reports to the Archbishop, 1957, 1962. YCW was closely tied to the Cardijn Center, and held meetings in the Cardijn Building; thus, the collection also includes articles of organization and by laws, 1948; minutes of board meetings, 1956-1959; and a few committee records of the Cardijn Center.
YCW PROGRAMS AND PROJECTS cover the variety of Milwaukee YCW activities. Much of the material is near-print, with a few reports, letters, and handwritten notes. Files include information on the “Basic Social Action Program,” workshops on dating, men's and girl's retreats, International Days and Weeks, “special inquiries” on migrant workers and racial discrimination, study days and weekends, and training courses. There is also a short history of the American YCW movement. There are three scrapbooks in the collection, one of a general nature. Another of the scrapbooks includes news clippings (some in Italian) and photographs documenting Milwaukee YCW participation in the September 1957 International Pilgrimage to Rome, when 30,000 Young Christian Workers from 87 countries gathered for two weeks of meetings and an audience with the Pope. This meeting was labeled a response to the August 1957 Communist Youth Festival in Moscow. A third scrapbook concerns the YCW Teachers' Group, with typewritten minutes of meetings, 1950-1952, pamphlets and other materials.
YCW SECTION RECORDS contain a folder of general membership lists; and reports of monthly meetings, 1962-1963, of each of the following sections: Good Shepherd, Menomonee Falls; Holy Spirit, Milwaukee; Immaculate Conception, Milwaukee; Mother of Perpetual Help, Milwaukee; Our Lady of Lourdes, Milwaukee; St. Aloysius, West Allis; St. Leo, Milwaukee; St. Mary, Fond du Lac; St. Mary, Menomonee Falls; St. Matthew, Oak Creek; St. Matthias, Milwaukee; St. Therese; and St. Veronica, Milwaukee.
Among the records of OTHER ORGANIZATIONS are correspondence, 1940-1943, concerning the establishment of the Milwaukee chapter of the Association of Catholic Trade Unionists; programs from the first and second national ACTU conventions, 1940-1941; reports of the National Director, 1941; a constitution; an ACTU catechism; the constitution of the Chicago chapter; and by-laws, constitution, and charter, 1941, of the Milwaukee chapter. There are small files concerning the Christian Family Movement, Milwaukee; College Young Christian Students; and miscellaneous labor and union pamphlets.
