A STATEMENT
issued by
The National Association of Girls’ Clubs and Mixed Clubs,
30, Devonshire Street, London, W. I
October 1948
This Statement
There has been a great increase in the number of mixed clubs during recent years, and until recently, there has been no advisory body concerned solely with the problems of this type of club. The National Association of Girls’ Clubs & Mixed Clubs therefore set up the Mixed Club Committee to give guidance and advice needed by these clubs in their development, and to discover what services ought to be provided for them and what kinds of club programmes were particularly valuable for their members.
After three years of varied work, during which pamphlets and notes giving guidance about special problems and activities in the clubs have been issued, the Mixed Club Committee have reached the conclusion that there is still a need, as yet unfilled, for a concise statement about the general aims and functions of the mixed club, as distinct from the club for boys or the club for girls. One reason is the evidence received that there is still some doubt, even among those long associated with the club movement, about the reasons for the growth and rapid development of mixed clubs, as also about their special contribution to the needs of youth, although the boy and girl members are usually clear in mind about the reasons why they join clubs of this kind and the advantages which they hope will come from their membership. A second reason is that it is easier to summarise objectively the purpose of mixed clubs, now that they are firmly established in such large numbers, and need no longer be either defended or preached about as pioneer ventures.
This present statement is an attempt to give greater definition to our thinking and more purpose to our actions over the whole range of mixed club work. But it is bound to be a tentative statement since the clubs themselves are changing and developing as fast as each generation of club members is succeeded by the next. What is said here is offered in the hope that it may contribute a little to the development of a part of the service of youth which is steadily growing in importance.
The Purpose of a Club
Before defining the aims and functions of the mixed club, it is well to remind ourselves that the fact that it is, or should be, a good club is of greater primary importance than the fact that its membership is mixed. The mixed club must fulfil the same purpose as is fulfilled by good clubs everywhere before it can hope to deserve the special advantages which come from its containing both boy and girl members. This main purpose of a club can be defined in terms which have already met with general acceptance. It is so to help young people to educate themselves through leisure time activities that they may develop their physical, mental and spiritual capacities as individuals and members of society.
The Mixed Club
There are many different kinds of organisations which would say that they promote “ mixed clubs ” and the National Association of Girls’ Clubs & Mixed Clubs does not wish to claim any copyright in the term. Young Farmers’ Clubs, Church Youth Groups, Local Education Authorities’ Youth Centres, cycling and rambling clubs and sports clubs are all in the most obvious sense of the word mixed clubs. If there is little uniformity of function, there is still less in size; the term conveniently covers the very large mixed club found in big towns as well as the smallest village club for boys and girls.
But this statement deals primarily with the types of mixed clubs with whose welfare the National Association of Girls’ Clubs & Mixed Clubs is the body most nearly concerned, in which the majority of the members are between the ages of 16 and 21. We use the term to connote an organisation administered as a single unit to which young people of both sexes belong, as members having equal rights and duties, and together concerned in the running of their club.
The Job of the Mixed Club
We consider that the most specific and important function of the mixed club, after the primary purpose which it shares with any good club, is to provide a civilised and supervised meeting ground for boys and girls at the most rapidly developing and impressionable stage in their lives.
In pursuit of its primary purpose any good club aims at creating a community composed of young members and adult leaders and helpers, a community specially designed to enable those young members to learn to become good citizens in the wider adult com¬munity. The special advantage of the mixed club, in preparing its members for adult life, is that the membership is so composed as to give a particularly relevant preparation for the privileges and responsibilities of the adult community. The adolescent, standing at the threshold of the adult community finds it composed of men and women who take an equal share in its life and development. In the mixed club, the adolescent finds in the life and work of the club community the same mingling of the sexes. He can recognise very clearly that there is a direct connection between the club and the adult world that lies beyond it. Through the club he receives a mental and spiritual preparation for membership of the larger community.
Boy and girl members of a good mixed club absorb from the men and women who make up the other part of the club community, not only help and advice, but also the example of those of different sexes working in mutual companionship, tolerance and good manners for the same purposes. Just as the boy and girl members look on themselves and on each other as full members with equal rights and privileges, so the adults in the club will think and act in terms of all the needs of the boys and girls who, in combination and not as separate sections or separate interests, make up the membership of the club. Leaders and helpers in a mixed club, do not think of the interests and needs of men, young or old, as being in conflict with those of women, since this would break up the particular kind of community which the mixed club strives to foster
The mixed club is the place above all others in which young people can learn the essential social arts and which contribute so much to the happiness of the lives which they will lead as men and women. These social arts so easily caught and taught in the mixed club, range from the art of receiving or giving a cup of tea without awkwardness to the art of choosing a partner for life. The wealth of valuable lessons, in between these two extremes, which the mixed club can teach is almost inexhaustible. The mixed club has this great advantage because it is a place in which boys and girls meet in circumstances and against a background in which they can learn good manners; where they will learn to make and can be guided towards an intelligent choice of companions; where they meet each other as acquaintances on the firm common ground of membership with no taint of superiority or inferiority; and where acquaintanceship blossoms happily into companionship in the doing of pleasant and useful things together for their own benefit and in the interests of the club and of the wider community to which they belong.
The Activities in a Mixed Club
A mixed club gives special opportunity for a rich variety of activities. In a great number of these activities boys and girls plan and work together in committees and group activities—community service, music, plays, discussions, hobbies, holidays and so on. In these activities there are opportunities for boys and girls to see one another in many settings and to get to know one another in times of difficulty and stress. There are other activities which boys will want to undertake in company with other boys and girls with girls; and the club must be prepared to give time and place for these in its programme ; not only will this hiving off from the main group come from the nature of the activities but also because boys and girls at times will want to do something on their own. This, we believe, provides the best training for adult life, for it is a situation which will face them when they have left the club; it is an essential condition of individual development, this give and take between individuals and groups. Both boys and girls learn that they cannot take more than a certain share in other people’s lives, that there are limits beyond which none can go and barriers which none should try to break down. So in mixed clubs are found activities in which boys and girls share in a common enterprise; and also things for boys to do on their own and for girls to do on their own. These things may happen in different rooms in a building used by the whole club or there may be occasions, especially where accommodation is limited, when boys or girls may meet separately at the club.
It is the job of leaders in mixed clubs to supply these special needs of young people, providing the opportunities for individual work and activities in groups however constituted, whether boy or girl or young or old.
Leadership in a Mixed Club
A mixed club requires the leadership of a man and a woman and these leaders are responsible for the general welfare of the boys and girls who together make up the club. So, although specific work with boys separately or with girls separately may be delegated to helpers who are specially fitted for it, the principle remains that the club is a mixed community in which all have equal claims on the leader or leaders. Nevertheless, if boys are to develop themselves fully, they require opportunities for meeting men and doing things together with them as their companions, and similarly girls need the help and friendship of women. It follows that only a blend of men and women leaders and helpers is rich enough to supply the needs of all the club members. Thus the good mixed club demonstrates in ‘every part of its life all that we mean by give and take between men and women and boys and girls, and its members are continuously familiarised with examples of adult co-operation and understanding. They learn this lesson, not by talk and lectures, but by the example set by their men and women leaders, and by their own experience in following that example.
The adult advisory committee should also be a mixed committee made up of men and women interested in boys and girls and make a valuable link with the larger society outside for which the club and all its activities are the preparation.
The mixed club should have a single central members’ committee made up of boys and girls responsible for the whole club ; that sub-committees may be set up to deal with activities for boys or girls only does not in any way lessen the work and responsibility of the main committee. On the committee the members of the club will themselves learn to play a part in the strengthening of the fellowship in the club, seeing ail members as equal and worthy of their regard and attention; they will not see the club as a group of boys with girls merely attending on social occasions or vice versa.
The Future of Mixed Clubs
The term Mixed Club is used to cover a wide variety of clubs, not all of which are of equal value.
The educational work of mixed clubs is closely related to the national policy laid down in the 1944 Education Act. But not only do mixed clubs provide opportunities for further education for those who have left school but they supply another particular need. Today a cheap aspect of sex experience is thrust at young people from all sides: the over-emphasis of this one aspect of human relationships is almost without counter-balance. The sound mixed club offers one of the few, of the very few, settings where a more balanced experience of human relationships can be explored. It is too early to make final judgments about the place of these clubs in society, and such judgments should not be lightly attempted until we have much longer experience of their working. By then our present members may well have become grandparents.
But long before that we and they will be judged by the kind of parents they become and the kind of children they bring up. We believe that when the quality of the lives of these parents and their families is appraised, the mixed club will be found to have made a specially valuable contribution. Some of the reasons for this belief have been given in this short statement which, though in no sense final, affirms that the omens are good and that we may go forward with a good courage.
How to cite this piece: National Association of Girls’ Clubs and Mixed Clubs. (1948). The Mixed Club. Its general aims and functions. London: National Association of Girls’ Clubs and Mixed Clubs. Available in the informal education archives: https://infed.org/dir/welcome/the-mixed-club-a-statement-of-its-general-aims-and-functions/
First available here: November 2025.
Today NAGCMC is known as UK Youth.
Click for some examples of current reports and publications. See, in particular, the research undertaken by Oscar Bingham and Solomon Rackham (2025). In Our Own Words. Research exploring the needs and preferences of young people and youth practitioners in England. London: UK Youth. https://www.ukyouth.org/wp-content/uploads/2025/03/In-our-own-words_Full-Report_UK-Youth_March-2025.pdf
updated: November 8, 2025