Transcript The Evolution of Social Welfare and Social Work in the United States

The Evolution of Social
Welfare and Social Work in
the United States
Chapter 2
Maintaining Government
Responsibility
NASW reaffirms the essential role of government
in developing policies and programs that expand
opportunities, address social and economic
injustice and enhance social conditions of the
nation’s communities.
 Inhabitants of the United States live in a land of
freedom wherein democracy and democratic
processes are prevalent. Stress is on the
interdependence of people in society, and it is
generally recognized that the well-being of one
person affects the well-being of neighbors and
others.

The preamble of out Constitution, spelled
out by the Founding Fathers, contains the
immortal words, “to promote the general
welfare.”
 The worth of the human personality and
the importance of individual adjustment
and the well-being are significant aspects
of the American way of life.

Social Welfare

Social welfare, according to The Social
Work Dictionary, is “a nation’s system of
programs, benefits, and services that help
people meet those social, economic,
educational, and health needs that are
fundamental to the maintenance of
society.”
President Kennedy, in his statement to Congress,
stressed the importance of the family unit and
its preservation.
 He indicated that a united attack needed to be
made on the problem of family breakdown, and
then continued, “unless such problems are dealt
with effectively, they fester and grow, sapping
the strength of society as a whole and extending
their consequences in troubled families from one
generation to the next.

European Roots
In 1536 a law was passed in England stating
that alms collected by local authorities and by
churches on Sundays were to help to relieve the
sick and poor.
 To deter people from openly begging, the law
stipulated that “the mayor of every town and the
Church wardens of every parish were to collect
alms every Sunday, holiday or festival in
common boxes,” which were then to be utilized
by those in need.

This law marked the shift in poor relief from an
ecclesiastical to a secular system.
 The act had several significant provisions,
including the illegality of begging, responsibility
of society to help, assistance by and through the
local community, and voluntary alms, with
clerical assistance, but under the direction of the
state.
 In 1572 overseers of the poor were appointed as
civil officers. The Parliamentary enactment at
this time provided for a direct public tax for the
purpose of assisting the poor and destitute.

The London Charity Organization Society was
established in 1869.
 It proposed:

– The coordination of the work of the various charitable
societies in London so as to prevent duplication.
– An acquaintance by each of the work of other
agencies
– A bureau of registry for all cases
– Personal service to promote independence of spirit
rather than the giving a material aid
– A devotion to measures for the prevention of
pauperism.
Elizabethan Poor Laws
An act was passed in 1598 and revised in 1601
that provided a systematic plan for helping the
poor and established a system of public
responsibility implemented through local care.
 The act of 1601 established legislation that
differentiated three classes of the poor: the
able-bodied poor, who were to be provided with
work, or with punishment is prison or the stocks
if they refused to work; the impotent poor, who
were to be kept in almshouses; and dependent
children who were to be apprenticed unless
parents or grandparents could support them.

For the dependent children group, the
boys were to be apprenticed until they
were twenty-four years old and the girls
until they either twenty-one or married.
 Monies to finance these laws were
provided by taxes levied on lands, houses,
and tithes, from money left for charitable
purposes, and from fines levied for the
breaking of certain laws.

The Elizabethan Poor Laws provided the
basis for public social welfare in England
with only minor changes until the Poor
Law of 1834 was passed.
 This act provided for centralized
administration with a pattern of uniformity
throughout the country.

Beginnings In the United States
In colonial days in America the basic
pattern for assisting the poor and
unfortunate followed the poor laws and
activities of the mother country.
 The first almshouses for the care of the
poor and indigent was established in
Massachusetts in 1662.
 New York City had a city physician for the
poor as early as 1687.

In 1644, the Boston Latin School was
established and was the foundation
underpinning free public education in this
country.
 Beginnings in the child welfare movement
go back to 1729 in New Orleans when
Ursuline Sisters established an institution
for children of parents massacred by
Indians.

In March 1841, the famous Dorothea Dix by
chance visited the East Cambridge,
Massachusetts, jail and was shocked at the
deplorable treatment of the insane inmates.
 She devoted the rest of her life to improving
services for those who were mentally ill.
 As the result of her campaign many state
hospitals for the insane were established or
enlarged and great improvements in treatment
in poorhouses and jails took place.

In the latter part of the 18th century, a
new system of prison discipline called the
Pennsylvania System, was established.
 This innovation provided for individualized
attention and treatment of prisoners
accompanied by housing in separate cells.
 The new philosophy and practice were an
attempt to treat and rehabilitate rather
than merely to punish or seek retribution.

The first Charity Organization Society in
the United States was established in
Buffalo, New York, in 1877.
 The function of this type of agency was
urgent because of the numerous
independent welfare agencies that were
springing up and mushrooming in the
population centers.

Closely allied to the community welfare council
movement has been the one for federated
drives, collecting money for several agencies at
one time.
 Historically the first such drive took place in
Liverpool, England, in 1873, and the original one
in the United States occurred in 1887,
spearheaded by the Associated Charities in
Denver.
 In the last forty years the trend has been toward
establishment of united fund agencies (now
called United Way in many communities).

Another significant development in social
services in America has been that of the social
settlement house.
 The first American settlement was organized in
New York City in 1886, and three years later the
most famous one, Hull House, was established
by Jane Addams in Chicago.
 These centers provided recreational, health and
welfare needs of boys and girls, young men and
women, particularly in deprived areas.

Public Assistance and Social
Welfare Emerge

During the Great Depression numerous
attempts were made to assist the poor
and the unemployed and to bolster the
economy.
– Federal Emergency Relief Administration
– The Works Progress Administration
– The Civilian Conservation Corps
The monumental Social Security Act of
1935 altered the total plan of helping
persons in need.
 First time the federal government
assumed major responsibility in assisting
the needy.


The major provisions of the act:
– A national old-age insurance system with survivor
provisions added in 1939.
– A federal-state unemployment insurance system.
– Grants-in-aid to the states for old age assistance, aid
to families of dependent children and aid to the blind.
– Services for aiding maternal and child health, crippled
children, child welfare, vocational rehabilitation, and
public health measures.
Major significant changes were made in
social security legislation in the enactment
of Public Welfare Amendments of l962 –
Public Law 87-543.
 The importance of preventive, protective,
and rehabilitative services in public welfare
was significantly recognized.
 75% of funding came from the federal
government.

Medicare was established in l966 to
provide economic security and protection
against high costs of medical care.
 Medicaid was enacted under Title XIX of
the Social Security Act.
 Volunteer programs (Peace Corps, VISTA)
were developed to have impact in the
areas of education and social welfare.

In 1972, social workers shifted from
providing maintenance of social services
to attempting to assist individuals and
families with personal, family, and
community problems.
 Social welfare spending expanded from
$14 billion to nearly $1,434 billion in l994.


The Personal Responsibility and Work
Opportunity Reconciliation Act of l996
signed by President Clinton ushered
sweeping changes to the nation’s public
welfare system.
– Loss of individual entitlement
– Loss of an economic safety net for children
and their families
The philosophy of the new act was based
on the notion that the old welfare system
had failed by creating an entire class of
people in our society who would
perpetuate dependency and an
“unproductive lifestyle”.
 Personal responsibility and work
opportunity will be the themes of public
welfare for at least the next decade.


At his inauguration, President Clinton
emphasized the importance of change:
“We must do what no generation has had
to do before. We must invest more in our
own people, in their jobs and in their
future… We must do what America does
best: offer more opportunity to all and
demand more responsibility from all.”
Services of Volunteers
In 1973 the United Way of America made
a quantitative study of volunteer activities.
 Findings:

– 2.4 billion volunteer persons-hours per year
– 80% of volunteer activities were in the
provision of direct services.
In 1988 contributions to voluntary
organizations in the United States
exceeded $100 billion, and 80 million
people volunteered a total of 14.9 billion
hours, worth at least another $150 billion.
 By l995, it was reported that more than a
third of the U.S. population – 89 million
people – were participating in
volunteerism.

Social Work Appears
In 1898 education for social work was initiated
in a summer training course given by the Charity
Organization Society of New York at Columbia
University.
 By 1921 the American Association of Social
Workers was established.
 In l955 the National Association of Social
Workers was created.
 This professional body now enrolls 160,000
members.

Social workers today are employed in every kind
of setting of social welfare.
 They are given the more difficult tasks to
perform and many gravitate to administrative
and supervisory positions.
 In 1974 the Council on Social Work Education
approved the accreditation of the undergraduate
programs in social work or social welfare with
the understanding that they would be upgraded
and would provide the first level of practice in
social work.
