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Search Results for: war on poverty

Scientific Charity Movement and Charity Organization Societies

“Scientific charity built on Americans’ notion of self-reliance, limited government, and economic freedom. Proponents of scientific charity shared the poorhouse advocates’ goals of cutting relief expenses and reducing the number of able-bodied who were receiving assistance, as well as the moral reformers’ goal of uplifting people from poverty through discipline and religious education via private charity. In this model, individuals responded to charity and the government stayed out of the economic sphere.

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The Problem of Unemployment : January, 1935

Speech given by Aubrey Williams, Assistant Works Progress Administrator and Executive Director of the National Youth Administration before the Buffalo Council of Social Agencies. “You and I know that the problem of unemployment does not stem directly from industrial depression…it was spawned in an era of giddy expansionism…it is an inescapable concomitant of our type of civilization…its roots are now sunk in the very bedrock of our capitalist society.”

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Social Worker and the Depression

At this moment what are social workers saying concerning economic and political theory or the need for fundamental social changes to eliminate the cycles and seasons of unemployment? With infrequent exception, exactly nothing at all. On the whole, social workers know little and care less about economic or political theory and practice. Their lack of understanding can only be described as abysmal, tragic. Ignorance in very young social workers, of whom there are many, may be forgiven. It is hard, however, to defend the silence–sometimes the deception–of the old-timers….The poor themselves, when they are not so persistently protected from publicity by their social workers, are taking a somewhat more practical view of their situation. Nowadays, when relief is inadequate and they are hungry, they turn to stealing, begging, and standing on the public streets in bread lines. In fact, in one city where the professional social workers are too “ethical” to disclose the distress of those receiving charitable relief, the unemployed are participating in demonstrations, petitioning the city administration for more food, and in turn are being arrested by His Honor, the mayor of the city, on charges of vagrancy and disorderly conduct.

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Hunter, Robert

Hunter, (Wiles) Robert  (April 10, 1874 – May 15, 1942), Social Worker, Author and Socialist   Editor’s Note:  The career of Robert Hunter is a complicated journey through social work, social activism, research, field studies, politics, golf course design and academia.  Over the years he moved from being a prominent Progressive to a dedicated Socialist…

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United Way of America

United Way of America By John E. Hansan, Ph.D. Introduction: Describing the history of the United Way organization is complicated by the fact that in the latter part of the nineteenth century two separate but important historical trends were developing. Both of these trends were for the most part a response to the effects of…

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Black Richmond, VA (1934)

Significant straws in the wind point to social changes in Black Richmond. The findings of the Negro Welfare Survey, of which Mrs. Guild was director, the new Negro Welfare Council and the coming in of federal relief are outstanding factors in new racial attitudes in this colored city within a city. During 1928 and 1929 a Negro welfare survey was conducted in Richmond by a bi-racial committee, employing a Negro and white staff, under the auspices of the Council of Social Agencies. In itself this was an accomplishment in racial progress, if it be remembered that we are talking about the Capital of the Confederacy. The survey was not the result of sudden realization on the part of the community that almost a third of its population was miserably handicapped in every department of life and holding back the other two thirds. The survey simply represented the vision of a few social workers who needed a practical answer to a perplexing question: What are the priorities in the social problems pressing for attention in Black Richmond?

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Family Welfare Association of America

Family Welfare Association of America Editor’s Note: The Family Welfare Association of America was a forerunner of the Family Service Association of America.  This entry is a document prepared in recognition of Mary Wilcox Glenn who was the president of the association for 16 years. A two-part history of Family Service Association of America is located…

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Community Organization Movement

In this presentation immediately following WWI, Wm. Norton presents his views on why community organization is essential. In one part he said: “The intention of the new community organization therefore is not to supplant the old but to strengthen and to supplement it. It aims to gather all of these specialized agencies with their different approaches and conflicting personalities together into a single community-wide co-operative society, with the purposes of creating a feeling of comradeship among them, of eliminating waste, of reducing friction, of strengthening them all, of planning new ventures in the light of the organized information held by all, of swinging them in a solid front in one attack after another upon the pressing and urgent needs of the hours. It says to a Protestant, “We know you are a Protestant and have a right to be one. That man there is a Catholic and has a right to be one. And that man there is a Jew and has a right to be proud of that. Stick to the points in your work where race and religion tell you to differ from others but admit the others’ right to do the same and remember always that you are all of one clay, American citizens in this American community, and wherever you can do it without sacrifice of principle, work and plan as one.”

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Friendly Visiting, 1887

How To Get And Keep Visitors  By Zilpha D. Smith General Secretary, Associated Charities of Boston Editor’s Note: This is the third entry about Friendly Visitors, an important component of the Charity Organization Movement.  This entry is a presentation delivered by Ms. Smith at the 1887 annual meeting of the National Conference of Charities and…

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