Volunteer Visiting: The Organization Necessary To Make It Effective.

By Zilpha D. Smith

Registrar Of The Boston Associated Charities.

Editor’s Note: This is the first of three entries about Friendly Visitors, an important component of the Charity Organization Movement.  This entry is a presentation delivered by Ms. Smith at the 1884 annual meeting of the National Conference of Charities and Correction. As noted in her biography, Ms. Smith, as a very young woman, had the opportunity to reorganize the index of the Probate Court of Suffolk County, an experience which allowed her to further develop her organizing abilities as well as the capacity to analyze a problem with methodical skill. These traits contributed significantly to her successful career.

Before describing the committees that stand directly behind the work of the friendly visitors of the Associated Charities in Boston, I will state briefly the character of our society and some of the conditions surrounding its work. The Charities of Boston are associated for two purposes:

First, to exchange information privately between charities interested in the same family, through the records and written reports of the central office; and

 Second, to secure personal consultations on general subjects and about particular families.

 The records of the central office for the last year concerned nearly 11,000 families.

At the general conferences for the discussion of broad questions, there is usually a fair representation from the various charities of the city; but, as few charities divide their work by districts, it is impossible for those working throughout the city to be represented at each of the fourteen district conference meetings which are held each week. Consultations between the charities about individual families, therefore, must usually be brought about by our visitors or agents, who go from one person to another of those interested in a family, until we are possessed of full knowledge concerning it, and can act upon the advice received or give advice in our turn.

We are not a relief society. Under our by-laws, we can hold no fund for relief; and we believe that in Boston our society is better off without one. We are on the best of terms with almost all the relief-giving societies and agencies, and the number of those co-operating with us has increased constantly.

We now have over 600 volunteer visitors, who visit about 1,400 families. As a rule, these volunteers are not almsgivers. The conferences and the visitors possess various degrees of efficiency, but many of them are very successful. Were the visitors left to them selves, a large proportion of their work would be weak and fruitless, and perhaps given up entirely. It is of the organization of our district conferences, which strengthen and encourage the work of friendly visitors, that I wish especially to speak.

When we began, five years since, each conference was allowed to work its own way out, under the general plan of hearing reports of visitors at the conference meetings, and acting upon them there. As the number of families in our care increased, it was found that all the visitors could not be heard, and that each family needed more study than could be given in a conference meeting. Various plans were tried; and the one I now describe, proving the most successful, has been adopted by nearly all our larger conferences, and by smaller ones also, except that the work:of the case committee is by them included in that of the executive committee.

The executive committee elected by the conference is composed of the most experienced visitors and persons having special administrative ability, and the leisure to use it in this service.

The agent, also, should be one able to guide and inspire others, ready to step in and help when necessary in what is properly visitors’ work, but sufficiently patient with the imperfections and delays of volunteers not to usurp the visitor’s place.

The paid agent, always to be found at certain hours and giving all his time, naturally becomes the centre of the district work, receiving from both visitors and committee information and advice, to be transmitted from one to the other. His opinion is always important; but we think it a great misfortune when a committee falls into the habit of leaving decisions to its agent, or the agent neglects to use or urge volunteer work, because for the moment it is easier to do the thing needed himself. No one person can bring to such varied wants the resources of many volunteers; and responsibility must be placed upon these volunteers, to gain and keep their interest.

When a family is referred to our society for investigation and friendly visiting, any information already recorded at the central office about it is sent to the district office. To this is added the visit of the agent to the home and the results of outside inquiries, so that the committee has before it all the available knowledge necessary to decide present action, and to choose the visitor needed to form a permanent and helpful friendship with the family.

Visitors are secured chiefly by the personal efforts of those already engaged in the work. A few come in response to appeals at public meetings and in the newspapers.

It is the duty of the committee and its agent to secure frequent reports from the visitors in its district and to make suggestions from their larger experience. To get frequent reports may sound like ” red tape,” but the strictest system can be administered in a friendly way. The agent or secretary does not write a note of this sort:

” Dear Miss White, — Your report about Mary and John Brown is due to-morrow.”  But rather a note like this:

“Dear Miss White, — How are the Browns getting on? I met Mary on her way to school yesterday, looking much brighter and cleaner than when we first knew her. This morning, Mrs. Lucas, one of our visitors, told me of a place for a boy that seemed easy enough for lame Johnnie; and I hope you can come to the conference tomorrow, and consult with Mrs. Lucas about it.”

Always at first, and sometimes for years, visitors need to report about their charges weekly or fortnightly. When the circumstances become thoroughly known, are not likely to change, and the visitor proves himself competent to carry out the course of action determined upon, the committee decides to ask for reports once a month only,- once in two, three, or six months, or sometimes once a year. This decision, systematically recorded and used by the committee and agent, is usually made known to the visitor only by the growing infrequency of notes from the agent,-a natural change. Thus, at every turn, we try to make our system so perfect that our work will be thorough and go smoothly forward; but we do not allow the system to hide the personal, friendly interest between the committee and the visitor, the visitor and the poor family.

For instance, a visitor is asked, ” now that the Browns are doing so well,” if she will not interest herself in poor, lame Miss Black, who does excellent laundry-work, but ought to be in a better neighborhood, and to have work found for her, since she cannot easily go about herself.

This means that the committee decided to ask a report about the Browns only once in three months, and to persuade the visitor to take another case.

New cases and the reports of visitors, either in writing or received verbally through the agent, are presented to the case committee, who considers each one of them, notes suggestions to be made or questions to be asked, and arranges them in the order of their importance for the meeting of the executive committee next day. To the case committee are also reported the names of visitors whose reports are due, but not received. The case committee is composed of the two or three members of the executive who can give most time to the work; or one member is changed at intervals of a few months, so that all the executive committee can gain experience in analyzing cases. There is danger that the decisions may fall into a few hands, –a bad policy in the long run, because, when experienced workers drop out, no one is prepared to take their places. It seems to be better that the chairman of the executive committee, whose duty it is to draw out the thought of every member, should not be one of the case committee, since it is difficult to preside well over one committee while reporting for another.

In the executive committee, the suggestions of the case committee serve the same purpose as motions before a legislative body, and, whether wise or not, lead to a better and quicker solution of the question. If there is not time for all, the arrangement of reports secures decisions on the more important ones, and the suggestions of the case committee are treated as decisions on the others.

In the conference meeting itself, where the visitors and other charitable workers are present, the executive committee brings up any cases where a principle new to the conference has to be decided, reports of successes to encourage other visitors, or questions that the committee found difficult. This plan takes from the conference meeting so much detail that there is time to discuss these cases fully, to hear visitors who prefer to report in the open meeting, and to consider general questions.

In some conferences, the executive committee meeting directly follows that of the case committee, or the conference follows the executive committee, but always there is a break in the three meetings,- an important break, because it gives opportunity for thought at home, which brings into the next meeting fresh suggestions.

The adoption of this plan has never failed to improve the efficiency of the conference; and, when faithfully carried out by efficient workers, it enables even inexperienced visitors to do good service, and increases the confidence of both the visitors and the co-operating societies in the work of the conference.

Zilpha Drew Smith (1852 – 1926) was a prominent social worker and social work educator. In 1879, Smith was appointed registrar of the newly formed Boston Associated Charities.  After her retirement from the agency in 1903, Smith became an assistant director of the Boston School of Social Work in 1904.  Smith retired in 1918 leaving a legacy of accomplishments in charity organization and social work education.   More information is available under the PEOPLE tab at www.socialwelfarehistory.org

Source: University of Minnesota, Twin Cities, Social Welfare History Archives. Minneapolis, MN: https://www.lib.umn.edu/swha

University of Michigan: http://www.hti.umich.edu/n/ncosw/

How to Cite this Article (APA Format): Smith, Z.D. (1887). Volunteer visiting: The organization necessary to make it effective. Presentation at The Annual Meeting of the National Conference of Charities and Correction. Retrieved [date accessed] from /?p=9144.