RESEARCH AND COMMUNITY POLICY
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       out new programs, to carry out special research projects, to rise above politically partisan issues. Through the functions described above, voluntary associations exercise important influence on community policy.
       Such organizations are now rapidly increasing their utilization of knowledge and research techniques from the social sciences in forming program goals and in developing methods and techniques of operation.
       A large proportion of social research on behalf of such organizations is applied rather than basic. More specifically, although the research techniques are equally exacting in either case, the problems to be investigated arise out of the need for new knowledge to confront practical problems rather than out of the gaps in knowledge which need to be filled in order to further theoretical understanding. Although this distinction should be made, it should not be overstated, for actually there is often considerable overlapping of the two approaches.
       Although some kinds of applied social research have little direct relation to community development as such, other kinds are directly pertinent. Several types of community-based voluntary citizens organizations are making increasing use of it. These include community welfare councils, city planning and housing associations, and associations to combat certain problems such as juvenile delinquency. (It is interesting to note parenthetically that each of these types of organizations has its approximate counterpart in government: public welfare departments, city planning commissions and housing authorities, and youth boards. These public agencies also are making increasing use of knowledge and research techniques from the social sciences).
       To illustrate the function of social research in the part played by voluntary citizens’ organizations in influencing community policy, the Social Research Service of the New York State Charities Aid Association will serve^ as an example. The State Charities Aid Association is a voluntary citizens’ organization with approximately 166 local affiliated citizens groups on the county and city level in New York State. It operates in the field of health, public welfare, and mental health.
       Although the structure of the State Charities Aid Association is extremely complex, it provides for effective operating programs on both the state and local levels. It is important at this point to stress the very great influence on public policy which this organization exercices, for this constitutes a basic channel through which social research influences social policy in New York State. A few examples over the years since its founding in 1872 will illustrate the effectiveness of this organization. It founded the first hospital training school for nurses in the United States. It was largely responsible for the drafting and passing of the New York State public welfare and public health laws, important milestones in the development of social welfare in the United States. Much earlier (in 1890), it had been successful in securing passage of