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Search Results for: war on poverty

Current Issues and Programs in Social Welfare

American social welfare, thanks to Franklin Delano Roosevelt and the Social Security Act of 1935, is furthered currently by two major categories of cash support programs: social insurances? and public assistance. Social insurances are based on the prior earnings and payroll contributions of an individual, while public assistance, commonly known as “welfare,” is based on the financial need of an individual.

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Framing the Future Social Security Debate

Having recently completed work on a documentary history of the Social Security program1, several insights suggest themselves which might be useful in framing the (inevitable) future debates over Social Security policy. The first and most salient realization is that to a remarkable degree the policy debates in Social Security seem to contain some hardy perennials.

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When Budgeting Was A Casework Process

The people who staffed the Charity Organization Society made major contributions to the growth of social casework. It was not a development they eagerly embraced. Their goal was to provide material relief after a thorough investigation of who was or was not entitled to help. They gradually found that confirming need and certifying moral worth did not achieve the rehabilitation results they desired.

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Towle, Charlotte: A Perspective

Charlotte Towle came into my work accidentally and peripherally. I saw her from a variety of standpoints she didn’t share: as an historian, as a feminist, as a citizen of the Reagan era–although her experiences with McCarthyism would have given her some preparation for the last.

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Widows’ Pensions

Widows’ Pensions by Dr. June Hopkins, Armstrong Atlantic State University   Note: This article is an excerpt from Dr. Hopkins’ book, Harry Hopkins: Sudden Hero, Brash Reformer. “There is always the danger that in our dread of making people dependent we shall cease to do good for fear of doing harm.” Harry Hopkins, 1914 The Origins…

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Widows Pensions: An Introduction

Adhering closely to the Progressive credo of scientific investigation into municipal problems, the Bureau of Municipal Research in New York City conducted numerous studies of social, economic, and political issues in the early twentieth century. It was largely a male preserve, which sought to apply scientific and business practices to urban government. Following the passage…

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Settlement Houses: An Introduction

Written by John E. Hansan, Ph.D. ” The establishment and expansion of social settlements and neighborhood houses in the United States corresponded closely with the Progressive Era, the struggle for woman suffrage, the absorption of millions of new immigrants into American society and the development of professional social work.”

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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…”

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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.

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The Widows’ Pension Movement and its Connection to Orphanages

Widows and Waifs: New York City and the American Way to Welfare, 1913-1916 by June Hopkins, Ph. D. Associate Professor, Armstrong Atlantic State University Background In New York City, during the early decades of the 20th century, progressive reformers made deliberate use of the child-saving impulse to initiate a new welfare methodology. This had a…

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