Foster Parents Plan International, Volume II

University Archives and Special Collections
15 Lippitt Road
Kingston, RI 02881-2011
Tel: 401-874-4632

email: archives@etal.uri.edu

Published in 2010

Collection Overview

Title:	Foster Parents Plan International, Volume II
Date range:	1937-1982
Creator:	Foster Parents Plan International
Extent:	101 linear feet
Abstract:	The records of Foster Parents Plan International span the years 1937 to 1982 and document the founding, early development, and international growth of the organization. Later records of PLAN, the bulk of which span the years 1980 to 1994, were removed from the organization's then international headquarters in Warwick, Rhode Island and deposited in the Special Collections Department in 1994. Those records were organized separately and are described in a separate finding aid. There is some overlap between the two groups of records. Researchers should consult the finding aids to both collections to insure that they have all of the material relating to a particular event or issue. These records consist of documents generated by or sent to PLAN headquarters by field officers, headquarters staff in the field, national organizations, government officials, consultants hired by PLAN and firms with which PLAN conducted business. Included are correspondence, memos, completed forms, operations manuals, agendas and minutes of meetings, reports, case histories, legal documents, and photographic prints and negatives.
Language of materials:	English
Repository:	University Archives and Special Collections
Collection number:	Mss. Gr. 117.2

Scope & content

The records of PLAN International (Foster Parents Plan International, Inc.) described herein were deposited in the Special Collections Department of the University of Rhode Island Library in 1986. The records span the years 1937 to 1982 (bulk dates 1937-1978) and document the founding, early development, and international growth of the organization. Later records of PLAN, the bulk of which span the years 1980 to 1994, were removed from the organization's then international headquarters in Warwick, Rhode Island and deposited in the Special Collections Department in 1994. Those records were organized separately and are described in a separate finding aid. There is some overlap between the two groups of records. Therefore, researchers should consult the finding aids to both collections to insure that they have all of the material relating to a particular event or issue.

The records in this group were originally organized by PLAN employee Henry Molumphy, who used them as source material for his 1984 history of the organization entitled For Common Decency: The History of Foster Parents Plan,1937-1983. They have been reorganized in order to allow researchers to use more easily the records in this group in conjunction with the more recently accessioned and processed records.

The records consist of documents generated by or sent to PLAN headquarters by field officers, headquarters staff in the field, national organizations, government officials, consultants hired by PLAN and firms with which PLAN conducted business. Included are correspondence, memos, completed forms, operations manuals, agendas and minutes of meetings, reports, case histories, legal documents, and photographic prints and negatives. The condition of the records varies widely. Foster child case histories, particularly those from China, Czechoslovakia, and Spain, are in poor condition. The same is true of original telegrams relating to the evacuation of Spanish children to Biarritz (See Series VII). The bulk of the remaining records are in relatively good condition.

After processing, the records were organized into eleven series as follows:

Series I, Board of Directors, 1938-1973, contains records documenting the activities of PLAN's governing board. Included are agenda and minutes of meetings, correspondence, memos, budget proposals and reports.

Series II, Committees, 1951-1972, contains records relating to the activities of standing and ad hoc committees of PLAN. Topics of committee interest include personnel and salaries, relocation of PLAN headquarters from New York City to Warwick, Rhode Island, and the establishment of PLAN programs in new countries. The types of records include agenda and minutes of meetings, correspondence, memos, and reports.

Series III, Subject File, 1939-1977, contains the administrative files of PLAN's headquarters staff and documents its activities. Included are correspondence, memos, reports, the by-laws of PLAN, grant proposals, conference proceedings, operations manual, policies and procedures manuals, brochures, and newspaper clippings.

Series IV, Quarterly Reports, 1953-1980, contains reports filed with PLAN headquarters by field directors in the various countries in which PLAN administered programs. Statistics compiled from the reports are grouped together at the end of the series.

Series V, Case Histories, 1937-1982, consists of records relating to the foster children served by PLAN in its program countries. Contents of the case histories vary widely, but usually include at least a case history questionnaire and correspondence.

Series VI, Photographs, 1942-1977, documents in photographic images the activities of PLAN throughout the world. Included are photographs of foster children, PLAN headquarters and field office staff, celebrity foster parents and photographs used for publicity purposes and in PLAN publications.

Series VII, War in Europe, 1937-1945, documents the activities of PLAN (then known as Foster Parents Plan for War Children) in rescuing and providing care for children displaced, orphaned, or injured during the Spanish Civil War and, later, World War II. Included are correspondence, reports, brochures, completed questionnaires, lists of children in the various "colonies" in Spain, France, and England supported by PLAN, and correspondence of PLAN co-founders John Langdon-Davies and Eric Muggeridge.

Series VIII, Publications/ Publicity, 1940-1976, contains records relating to the various ways in which PLAN publicized its work and appealed for funds to support it. Included are "appeal letters," brochures, press releases, reports by public relations firms, stories written by foster children, and copies of newspaper and magazine articles about PLAN and its work.

Series IX, Miles for Millions, 1968-1978, contains records relating to a program initiated by the Canadian government to focus worldwide attention on the needs of people (the "millions") in underdeveloped countries. PLAN received funding through this program for a number of its projects in underdeveloped countries. Included are correspondence, memos, newspaper clippings, committee reports, and project proposals.

Series X, Donor Countries, 1949-1979, documents the activities of the national organizations of PLAN in industrialized nations where funds were raised and foster parents recruited to support PLAN's activities in underdeveloped countries. Included are correspondence, memos, agenda and minutes of meetings, budgets, procedures manuals, copies of national organization publications, reports, grant proposals, and newspaper clippings.

Series XI, Program Countries, 1947-1978, documents the activities of PLAN in underdeveloped countries where it initiates and supports programs designed to assist children and their families to better their lot in life. Included are copies of the agreements between PLAN and the governments of the host countries allowing PLAN to operate in those countries, correspondence, memos, reports, photographs, financial statements, operations manuals, and program proposals.

Arrangement

After processing, the records were organized into eleven series as follows:

• I. Board of Directors
• II. Committees
• III. Subject File
• IV. Quarterly Reports
• V. Case Histories
• VI. Photographs
• VII. War in Europe
• VIII. Publications/Publicity
• IX. Miles for Millions
• X. Donor Countries
• XI. Program Countries

Historical Note

PLAN International describes itself as a "private, voluntary child-sponsorship organization that serves children in ... developing countries." Through its various programs, PLAN provides direct benefits to more than 650,000 children, their families and their communities.

PLAN was founded in 1937 in England as the Foster Parents Scheme for Children in Spain by English journalist John Langdon-Davies. He and Eric Muggeridge, an English social worker, conceived the idea of providing financial support and hostels for children orphaned or made refugees by the Spanish Civil War.

The organization changed its name to Foster Parents Plan for Spanish Children in the summer of 1939 and was chartered as a New York corporation to avail itself of fundraising opportunities in the United States. The organization continued to evacuate Spanish orphaned and refugee children from Spain, first to France and later to England. The organization again changed its name in the fall of 1935, this time to Foster Parents Plan for War Children, Inc., and continued its work of providing aid and assistance to children whose lives were disrupted by the Spanish Civil War and World War II.

When World War II ended in 1945, the organization extended already existing programs in France, England, and Italy and expanded into the war-ravaged countries of Austria, Belgium, Czechoslovakia, China, Greece, the Netherlands, and West Germany. In addition to enrolling children orphaned or made refugees by the war, PLAN began to enroll an increasing number of children who lived with their families with the goal of keeping those families together.

As European economies began to recover in the post-war years and individual countries became able to assume responsibility for their own needy children, PLAN began to phase out its European operations and looked to lend assistance to undeveloped countries where the needs of children were the result of causes other than war. To reflect this change in focus, the organization changed its name once again from Foster Parents Plan for War Children, Inc. to Foster Parents Plan International, Inc. and began to establish field offices and programs in Latin America, South America, Africa, and Asia.

The first South American field office was established in Bogota, Colombia in 1962. The Bogota program was rapidly followed by programs throughout South America and Latin America in the 1960s. Programs in Africa and Asia followed in the 1970s and 1980s. Some programs were also terminated during this period, either due to improving economic conditions as in Hong Kong or deteriorating political conditions as in Ethiopia, Nicaragua, Liberia, and Vietnam.

As PLAN expanded it also changed its focus from a child welfare organization to a community development organization. Though PLAN continued to emphasize the welfare of individual children, it did so in the context of a community development approach that seeks to strengthen families and communities in order that they may better support their children's needs.

With the change in emphasis came a change in organizational structure. By the early 1970s, it had become apparent that PLAN's relatively informal administrative structure was no longer adequate to meet the needs of a rapidly growing organization. This realization resulted in the establishment of PLAN International in 1973 as the administrative arm of Foster Parents Plan International, Inc. with its headquarters in Warwick, Rhode Island. The International Executive Director, responsible to the International Board of Directors, was to manage the operations of PLAN with the assistance and support of a senior management group. The national organizations in Australia, Belgium, Canada, Germany, Japan, the Netherlands, the United Kingdom, and the United States enjoyed relative autonomy in raising funds from individual foster parents and corporations. These funds were then funneled through International Headquarters to the various field offices.

PLAN continued to grow throughout the 1970s and 1980s and its organizational structure continued to evolve as well. In response to complaints from field directors that PLAN management had become too centralized and unresponsive to the needs of the field offices, International Headquarters began to decentralize its management structure. Beginning in 1987, PLAN established a series of regional offices in order to move the operational decision making process as close as possible to the programs and field offices. By 1992, the process was completed and six regional offices oversaw the management of program activities in the field offices responsible to them.

The evolution of PLAN's administrative structure continued into the 1990s. After twenty years in Rhode Island, the International Executive Board, at the recommendation of new International Executive Director Max van der Schalk, agreed to move its International Headquarters to England. The move, approved in 1993, was completed in late 1994.

The return to England in a sense brought PLAN full circle. It was two Englishmen, John Langdon-Davies and Eric Muggeridge, who began the effort to assist children displaced by the Spanish Civil War. Though Langdon-Davies and Muggeridge might not recognize an organization that raises funds in eight industrialized nations to support programs in thirty underdeveloped countries in Latin America, South America, Asia, and Africa, they would still recognize its driving force: assisting children to make a better life for themselves, their families, and their communities.

Access & Use

Access to the collection:	Any qualified person doing scholarly research is permitted to use material housed in the Special Collections Unit.
Use of the materials:	Photocopying and scanning of materials is a fee based service available in the repository and is allowed at the discretion of the Archivist when in compliance to the Unit's policy on copyright and publication.
Preferred citation:	Records of Foster Parents Plan International, Volume 2, Mss. Gr. 117.2, University of Rhode Island, University Archives and Special Collections.
Contact information:	University Archives and Special Collections 15 Lippitt Road Kingston, RI 02881-2011 Tel: 401-874-4632 email: archives@etal.uri.edu

Administrative Information

ABOUT THE COLLECTION
Acquisition:	The records of PLAN International (Foster Parents Plan International, Inc.) described herein were deposited in the Special Collections Department of the University of Rhode Island Library in 1986.
ABOUT THE FINDING AID
Author:	Finding aid prepared by Eric Barden and Kevin J. Logan
Encoding:	Finding aid encoded by Hailie D. Posey 2010 December 01, updated by Erin C. Mullen on 2011 Dec 05 and 2014 May 06, updated by Mark Dionne on 2020 April 10
Descriptive rules:	Finding aid based on Describing Archives: A Content Standard (DACS)

Additional Information

Inventory

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Inventory