Big Brother and Big Sister Federation
Early in the twentieth century, men in both Cincinnati, OH and New York City began to serve as so-called volunteer big brothers, or friends and advisers to fatherless boys.
Continue Reading »American Seaman’s Friend Society
The ASFS was officially founded in 1828, with trustees from such port cities as Boston, Philadelphia, Charleston and Savannah. The first general agent was Reverend Joshua Leavitt, a temperance lecturer for the American Temperance Society and a revivalist who was an anti-slavery leader and a charter member of the Liberty Party of 1840. The…
Continue Reading »American Red Cross
Clara Barton and a circle of acquaintances founded the American Red Cross in Washington, D.C. on May 21, 1881. Barton first heard of the Swiss-inspired International Red Cross Movement while visiting Europe following the Civil War. Returning home, she campaigned for an American Red Cross society and for ratification of the Geneva Convention protecting…
Continue Reading »American Civil Liberties Union
The American Civil Liberties Union (1920-present) The American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) was founded in 1920 by Roger Baldwin, Crystal Eastman and others. The stated goal of ACLU is to “defend and preserve the individual rights and liberties guaranteed to every person by the Bill of Rights of the U.S. Constitution and laws of the…
Continue Reading »American Association of Public Welfare Officials
In 1930, as the financial depression progressed President Herbert Hoover appealed to the association to assist in developing public relief programs in the different states, counties and cities. Thus, the initial project of the new association was to help President Herbert Hoover’s Emergency Committee for Employment (later named the President’s Organization for Unemployment Relief) in gathering information on the need for emergency public relief and to develop plans on how to meet those needs throughout the country.
Continue Reading »Origins of the Settlement House Movement
Excerpt from “Legacy of Light: University Settlement’s First Century” by Jeffrey Scheuer. “The initial idea was simply to bring the working classes into contact with other classes…and thus to share the culture of university life with those who needed it most. An accompanying theme was that of nurturing the whole person…”
Continue Reading »The First Department of Public Welfare in the U.S.
In 1909, the Mayor of Kansas City, Missouri appointed a body of prominent community leaders with experience in dealing with social problems in the city and asked them to visit large cities all over the country and learn what was being done in those cities to deal with poverty and the unemployed. From the findings of their reports and their own ideas about what to do, the commission then set out to devise a plan to create a new agency: The Kansas City Department of Public Welfare.
Continue Reading »Locust Street Settlement House
Modeled after Jane Addams‘ Hull-House, Locust Street Settlement House opened in 1890 in Hampton, VA.
Continue Reading »Anderson, Mary
Mary Anderson (1872-1964): Advocate for Working Women, Labor Organizer and First Director of the Women’s Bureau in the U.S. Department of Labor.
Continue Reading »Abbott, Grace
Grace Abbott (1878 – 1939) – Social Work Pioneer, Reformer, Hull House Resident and Chief of the Children’s Bureau. Article by John Sorensen, Founding Director of the Abbott Sisters Project
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