Search Results for: war on poverty

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…”

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.

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…

Child Welfare

Child Welfare: A Brief History by Linda Gordon, Ph.D., New York University, New York, NY January 19, 2011 Children have been central to the development of welfare programs in the United States. Indeed, sympathy for poor and neglected children was crucial in breaking through the strong free-market individualism that has been mobilized repeatedly to…

Adoption

Written by Professor Ellen Herman, University of Oregon. “Since ancient times and in all human cultures, children have been transferred from adults who would not or could not be parents to adults who wanted them for love, labor, and property. Adoption’s close association with humanitarianism, upward mobility, and infertility, however, are uniquely modern phenomena.”

Founders

Founding Scholars Advisory Committee These distinguished scholars worked with John E. Hansan to shape the original Social Welfare History Project that launched in 2010. Their expertise as researchers and educators helped create the conceptual framework for the site, along with the scholarly articles they contributed. Allida Black, Ph.D., is a Distinguished Visiting Scholar at…

Burns, Eveline

As a staff member of the Presidential Committee on Economic Security in 1934, she helped formulate the specifics of the Social Security Act as it was eventually passed by Congress. She was later director of research for the Committee on Long-Range Work and Relief Policies of the National Resources Planning Board. The committee’s report published in 1942, shaped the public assistance and work programs as they developed throughout the 1940’s. Through her teaching at Columbia of comparative social security systems, she helped educate a generation of scholars in the United States who carried on important research in the 1950’s and 1960’s. Among the honors received by Dr. Burns, was a Florina Lasker Social Work Award in 1964 contributions “as an outstanding authority on social security systems throughout the world.”

Brace, Charles Loring

Charles Loring Brace (June 19, 1826 – August 11, 1890): Congregational Minister, Child Welfare Advocate, Founder of the New York Children’s Aid Society and Organizer of the Orphan’s Train Introduction Charles Loring Brace was born into a well-connected New England family. At the time of his birth, his father, John Brace, was principal of…

Barnard, Kate

Catherine “Kate” Barnard (1875-1930) — Social Reformer, Political and Labor Activist, and First Woman Elected to a State Office as Commissioner of the Oklahoma Conference of Charities and Corrections. Editor’s Note: This entry is a composite of information from two sources, which are listed below. Catherine “Kate” Barnard was born born in Geneva, Nebraska on May…

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