Soul Fera

The Federal Emergency Relief Association (FERA) camps, also called She-She-She Camps, were camps established in the United States to aid unemployed women by providing jobs and training. The camps were organized by Eleanor Roosevelt as a women-focused counterpart to the Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC) programs, which catered solely to unemployed men. Roosevelt found that the CCC program's men-only focus left out young women willing to work in conservation and forestry and prepared to spend the six-month program living away from family and close support. Therefore, she lobbied for a sister organization to the CCC that would cater to young women. Roosevelt proposed that this program would consist of camps for jobless women and residential worker schools. The FERA camps, referred to as She-She-She camps by certain detractors, were funded by presidential order in 1933. Labor Secretary Frances Perkins championed one such camp after Roosevelt held a White House Conference for Unemployed Women on April 30, 1934, and subsequently Roosevelt's concept of a nationwide jobless women's camp was achieved. While the public largely supported New Deal programs such as the CCC, FERA camps reached a maximum of about 5,000 women annually by 1936 and served 8,500 women, thanks to Roosevelt's support. This compares to more than 3 million men who participated in the CCC.