Social Welfare History Project Social Work Page 9

Social Work: Community Organization

If we define community organization in its broadest sense, as a recent writer has done, as “deliberately directed effort to assist groups in attaining unity of purpose and action… in behalf of either general or special objectives,” it is clear that a substantial part of community organization falls even outside the broader field of “social welfare,” of which the whole of social work is an integral part. But it is also clear that another substantial part, whose function has been described in a recent report as that of creating and maintaining “a progressively more effective adjustment between social welfare resources and social welfare needs,” certainly belongs within the “social welfare” field. But does this practice of community organization for a “social welfare” purpose conform to our criteria of generic social work practice?

Social Work Training: A 1905 Report by Graham Taylor

In 1903-4 announcement was made of the establishment in London at the initiative of Mr. C. S. Loch and the Charity Organisation Society of a “School of Sociology and Social Economics.” The same year the New York Charity Organization Society supplemented its summer school by winter courses arranged chiefly for charity workers employed during the day.
Encouraged by the demand for training, the existence of which was demonstrated by such partial advantages as had been offered, the “New York School of Philanthropy” was opened the same year with a curriculum extending through eight autumn and winter months and including a full rounded course of training, with many lines of specialized study.

Haynes, George Edmund (1880 – 1960)

Southern segregation policies were granted legitimacy by the Supreme Court’s “separate but equal” ruling in Plessy v. Ferguson. The alternatives for former slaves were limited. They could work for white farmers as tenants or sharecroppers, barely a step above slavery, or they could leave the South. Many opted to migrate and moved north to find a better life. Two people stepped forward at this time to provide leadership and help build an organization dedicated to empowering African Americans to enter the economic and social mainstream – one Negro, one white; one man, one woman – and together, they founded the National Urban League.

Social Work: Group Work and Change – 1935

Social work in its various forms addresses the multiple, complex transactions between people and their environments. Its mission is to enable all people to develop their full potential, enrich their lives, and prevent dysfunction. Professional social work is focused on problem solving and change. As such, social workers are change agents in society and in the lives of the individuals, families and communities they serve. Social work is an interrelated system of values, theory and practice. (Grace Coyle, 1935)

Frazier, Edward Franklin

Edward Franklin Frazier (September 24, 1894 – May 17, 1962) — Advocate for social justice, administrator, author and
social work educator. Written by Angelique Brown, MSW

Washington, Forrester Blanchard

Forrester Blanchard Washington (1887-1963) — Social Work Pioneer, advocate for African Americans and educator. Written by Angelique Brown, MSW.

Philadelphia Training School for Social Work – 1908

Over a hundred years, the growth and development of what became today’s School of Social Policy and Practice of the University of Pennsylvania reflects the changing environment and the evolving role of charity, philanthropy and professional social work in our society. It is therefore noteworthy to list the various names this great institution of learning has carried over time:

* 1908 — Philadelphia Training School for Social Work
* 1914 — The Pennsylvania School for Social Service
* 1921 — Pennsylvania School of Social and Health Work
* 1933 — Pennsylvania School of Social Work
* 2005 — School of Social Policy and Practice of the University of Pennsylvania.

Warner, Amos Griswold

Amos Warner’s greatest contribution to the professionalization of social work was a system for the statistical analysis of cases. The majority view at his time was that heredity was the cause of personal inadequacy. He was a pioneer in his views that poverty and personal misfortune were not the result of a single cause, but a plethora of causes, many of which could be outside the control of the individual. He set about developing a series of categories to be used in conjunction with a weighted score that allowed for the prioritization of family problems. Additionally, he developed a listing of the possible causes of poverty, categorizing them as subjective (within the individual) or objective (attributed to environmental causes such as industrial or economic conditions).

Schiff, Philip: 1958 Memorial

The Metropolitan Washington Chapter of NASW held a special memorial meeting for Philip Schiff on September 25, 1958, at which Dean Inabel Lindsay of the School of Social Work of Howard University presented this paper.

Social Work: A Definition – 2000