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

1
The Evolution of Social Welfare and Social Work
in the United States

• Chapter 2

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
  nations 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.

3

• 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.

4
Social Welfare

• Social welfare, according to The Social Work
  Dictionary, is a nations 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.

5

• 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.

6
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.

7

• 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.

8

• 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.

9
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.

10

• 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.

11

• 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.

12
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.

13

• 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.

14

• 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.

15

• 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.

16

• 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.

17

• 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).

18

• 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.

19
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

20

• 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.

21

• 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.

22

• 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.

23

• 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.

24

• 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.

25

• The Personal Responsibility and Work Opportunity
  Reconciliation Act of l996 signed by President
  Clinton ushered sweeping changes to the nations
  public welfare system.
• Loss of individual entitlement
• Loss of an economic safety net for children and
  their families

26

• 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.

27

• 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.

28
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.

29

• 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.

30
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.

31

• 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.