Unit members lived in two large modern cottages.  The school permitted married CO couples who both worked to live together “on the condition that if a wife became pregnant she would leave”.  Ruth Lehman, who had joined her husband at the hospital, later recalled “this happened to one of our number.  The rest of us were very careful”.  (Goossen p. 58)

Members dedicated Tuesday evenings to religious services.  The men and women also participated in local churches.

The unit enjoyed good relations with the community.  At first, the members experienced “definite opposition from the children”, evidently as a result of influence from some of the regular employees. 

CPS unit members became keenly aware of the lack of public knowledge and understanding of patients labeled as mentally retarded.  One of the COs, Arnold Krause provided leadership for unit members as they prepared a manuscript, Forgotten Children.  They sent it to the CPS Mental Hygiene Program, which was working to increase public understanding of those now described as developmentally disabled.  When the National Mental Health Foundation took over the CPS program, it converted Forgotten Children into an attractive pamphlet, regularly used by state agencies, training schools and the public.  The concluding paragraph follows.

Though the American people have been called the greatest philanthropists in the world and the best informed of all people, this generosity and understanding somehow hasn’t extended to their feebleminded children.  Too often they have been “forgotten children”.  When they have been remembered at all, it has too often been for the wrongs they do with no consideration of the wrongs done to them.  Their greatest handicap is not their low mentality, but the public’s lack of sympathy and understanding.  Painstaking research over the past 100 years has found the key that can unlock the door to their welfare and happiness.  Will we lose the opportunity?  Or will we remember these “forgotten children”?   (in Sareyan p. 82-83)

Vineland hosted a training school conference sponsored by the Mental Hygiene Program of CPS for representatives of CPS units, superintendents and church committee representatives February 23-24, 1945.  Fifty-seven people attended the session. 

Before they left Vineland, unit members prepared a carefully worded report for Board members and the State Commission.  The eight page report, described by Gingerich as “carefully worded, objective, restrained but nonetheless critical”, recorded their observations from the beginning of their service at Vineland, noting that the institution was not currently living up to its reputation.  Given their education and experience, the men and women felt that the training school could provide a better experience for the children.  From their perspective it had lost its vision and as a result was moving “from a training school to a custodial institution”.   (p. 237)

In a 1988 survey, one of the COs recalled his experience after a return visit to the school.

Strong personal friendships had been formed by the men in our unit at the Vineland Training School and the “students” confined to this facility for the developmentally disabled.  Nearly 40 years later, I returned for a visit and met some of my former students.  They still remembered the personnel of our CPS unit.  They were eager to learn about the former members of the unit who had tutored them and with whom they had built warm and long-lasting friendships. (in Sareyan p. 253)