The University of Chicago Settlement was established in the packing-house area in the fall of 1894 by a group of faculty members of the University of Chicago. In what is known as the “Back of the Yards” area, the heterogeneous foreign-born population had a peculiar quality that appealed to the new University: This was a place where peoples of different backgrounds might work together.
Continue Reading »Article by Louise C. Wade. “Close cooperation with neighborhood people, scientific studies of the causes of poverty and dependence, communication of the facts to the public, and persistent pressure for reforms that would “socialize democracy”—these were the objectives of the most vigorous American settlements. According to one worker, the three R’s of the movement were residence, research, and reform.”
Continue Reading »Volunteers “are the phalanx for a changed public attitude.”1 These words best characterize the career and contribution to volunteerism made by Robert E. Bondy (1895-1990). Bondy spent the majority of his career with the American Red Cross, overseeing disaster relief efforts together with implementing programs and services to deal with returning U.S. veterans who served in the two world wars. Bondy ended his illustrious career as director of the National Social Welfare Assembly and, finally, as chairman of the Health and Welfare Advisory Council of the AFL-CIO.
Continue Reading »Mr. Boehm is known as a social work educator whose pioneering work was in curriculum development in the U.S. and social work in Canada. He taught at the University of Minnesota from 1958 to 1963. He also taught at the Graduate School of Social Work at Rutgers University and was the dean from 1963 to 1972. Dr. Boehm enjoyed a varied and highly respected career as a practitioner, academic administrator, and scholar, and for almost half a century he provided leadership to Social Work education. He is best known for having directed a landmark study on Social Work curriculum development for the Council on Social Work Education from 1955-1960.
Continue Reading »Although it might seem presumptuous to encompass in a portion of a paper so vast a topic as the scope and function of social casework, it is necessary to attempt at least a sketch of this. The reason is that social casework is in constant flux. As it responds to two sets of influences, changes in society and the findings of the social and biological sciences, it takes on a role which I believe makes it quite different from what it was twenty or thirty years ago.
Continue Reading »This entry was in the files of Charles Richmond Henderson (1848 – 1915), a notable sociologist and prison reformer. The new note that it struck was its emphasis upon the fact that all the interests of society were affected by the existence of the depraved and unfortunate classes, and that therefore the work in their behalf was a social task which must be shared by the whole community.
Continue Reading »“…their object, as stated in their Preamble was to discover “such degree and modes of punishment” as might restore our “fellow creatures to virtue and happiness.” In the spirit of the Founder of Christianity they proposed to extend compassion toward the fallen by “alleviating” the unwholesome conditions in prisons and by mitigating the “unnecessary severity” of punishments.”
Continue Reading »Edward Livingston (May 28, 1764 – May 23, 1836) — Jurist, statesman, elected official and prison reformer
Continue Reading »Zebulon Reed Brockway (April 28, 1827 – October 21, 1920) — Progressive penologist and originator of the indeterminate sentence and parole system.
Continue Reading »Biography of Katherine Stuart van Wormer, MSSW, Ph.D., a Professor of Social Work at the University of Northern Iowa.
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