History of Social Work

The History of Social Work
(1850-1925)
In the 1850s, Elizabeth Blackwell introduced "visitors" into the homes of New York's sick. Immigration accompanied by rapid urbanization and industrialization, increased city social problems. Poverty and its accompanying difficulties forced society to address needed services. As a result, new charities, both public and private, responded to the challenge. Many of the new relief efforts were inefficient and poorly organized. As charity resources expanded, experienced workers saw the need for improved organization and management and they began to apply order to the problems in their communities. The hardship and slow economy of the 1870s threw millions of men out of work and sparked riots and strikes. The strikes shut down most of the nation's railroad traffic and, as a result, commerce came to a halt. Elected officials, shocked and frightened by the poverty, destitution and general unrest, expanded local relief efforts hoping to moderate the depression's severity and to re-establish social order. During this time, a new movement of charitable organizations began to appear that we now associate more directly with the evolution of early social work.



The charity organizations were created to reorganize the public and private resources that had proliferated during the 1870s. In 1877, the first American charity organization society was established in Buffalo, New York. Over the next two decades the movement spread rapidly. At the turn of the century, virtually every major urban area in America hosted some form of charity organization society. Leaders believed poverty could be eradicated through planned intervention or treatment rather than by direct relief (i.e. monetary assistance) alone. Many were disturbed by what they saw as an inefficient and chaotic array of urban philanthropy. Therefore, a central record keeping system was created to track those who received assistance and prevented the indigent from receiving relief from more than one agency. Someone, though, had to perform the crucial tasks of investigation and treatment, and that someone was the “friendly visitor”, and yielded the birth of what would be the social work profession was born. In the early 1890s, Mary Richmond, then director of the Baltimore Charity Organization, began developing training programs. In 1898, the New York Charity Organization started the first school for social workers. The original curriculum was designed as a six week set of summer classes and included formal lectures and field work.
THE BIRTH OF SOCIAL WORK- The friendly visitors were women who were volunteers or missionaries and most from the upper class society. They strived to lessen the burden of the poor through direct service and prayer. The friendly visitors would first study and investigate relief applications, separate the recipients into deserving or undeserving classes and then treat them by making referrals and providing them with friendship. Friendly visiting put many members of the upper classes in close proximity with the other classes. This familiarity often forced them to confront situations where such broad factors as exploitive working conditions and industrial injury were more often to blame for poverty than character flaws or lack of morals among the poor. Some visitors began to see that poverty was a far more complex problem than they had been led to believe.
As the attitudes and policies of the charity organizations began to change, so, too, did the character of friendly visiting. As friendly visitors became more systematic and professional, a consensus spread that visitors needed training. In 1891, the charity organization movement in New York began publishing a journal to disseminate new ideas in the field. Training programs under the leadership of new professionals such as Mary Richmond sprang up around the country. In 1898 these activities culminated with the establishment of the New York Summer School For Applied Philanthropy. Soon the friendly visitors were replaced by, or became, "professional" social workers. Early on the now educated/trained friendly visitors began to refer to themselves as "caseworkers”. It wasn’t until the 1890’s that they began to use the term “social workers. The early professional social workers also broadened the application of their new skills to include other types of charity work through expanding "casework" practice into child welfare institutions and juvenile courts. By the beginning of the 20th century, the volunteer friendly visitor of the early charity organizations had evolved into what we now identify as social casework.
THE DEPRESSION -The 1890s economic slump was even more severe than the one that had occurred in the 1870s. Banks closed, unemployment soared, and three million men were idle due to unemployment. Racism, so often a symptom of class tensions, rose to disturbing levels. Traditional agencies such as the Children's Aid Society and the Salvation Army were overwhelmed, incapable of meeting the demands placed on their services. Faced with the grim realities of the depression, many charity organization leaders began to change and suggested the need for new thinking about poverty. Even the charity organizations stance to not simply provide direct financial assistance had to change. As a result, by turn of the century, two-thirds of all charity organization societies were directly involved with relief efforts.

A young family on relief
SETTLEMENTS-A NEW IDEA-In London, a new idea was formed that was focused on improving the circumstances and causes of poverty than the flaws of the poor. From this idea emerged the first settlement house, Toynbee Hall, which was established in 1884. It was located in the slums of London and was established to help bridge the gap between London's rich and poor. The Toynbee model provided a residence where university men settled. This provided an outpost of culture and education in the poverty driven neighborhood. The premise was that university students could learn as much from the poor as the poor could learn from the university students. In the mid-1880’s, a group of college-educated Americans visited Toynbee Hall. Upon their return to America, some of these students were so impressed by what they saw at Toynbee Hall that they created similar establishments in American cities. In 1886, Stanton Coit established a settlement house in New York (later to be known as University Settlement). In 1889, Vida Scudder opened another New York settlement staffed with recently graduated college women. In that same year, Jane Addams and Ellen Gates Starr opened Hull House in Chicago. These successes were quickly followed by others. Soon settlements were spread throughout urban America. By the mid 1890s there were fifty, and by 1900 there were more than a hundred recognized settlements. The efforts of the settlement worker were different from those of the friendly visitors who focused mostly on the so-called indigent population or those we refer to today as the chronically poor. The settlement movement, in contrast, devoted most of its energies in working with what we would today regard as the poorer segments of the working class, particularly immigrants. They sought to reform aspects of American society that they identified as problematic. Instead of focusing their efforts on changing the individual behaviors and values of the poor, settlement workers tried to change the neighborhoods and expand opportunities for working class people who were poor, but not indigent. The entry of the settlements and their residents in low-income immigrant neighborhoods brought new attitudes and perspectives to the charity field.
Settlement workers researched and surveyed the problems of the poor through studies that documented the systemic nature of the problem. They argued that the social problems were the result of structural circumstances based on the general situations in which the poor lived, rather than individual deficiencies. The studies had national impact that described the conditions and trials of a variety of groups including immigrants, working women, children, and the unemployed. Public education, juvenile courts, public playgrounds, citizenship, daycare, and cultural awareness programs are just a few examples of the reform activities adopted by settlement workers. Many found themselves pulled into union organizing and local politics as they searched for strategies to improve the lives of their neighbors.
In 1906, several New York settlements sponsored the friendly visitor concept for three school districts to deal with those whom neither the attendance officer, school nurse, or classroom teacher were equipped. The teacher or principal refereed children whose educational experience was obstructed by deficient scholarship, demoralizing home conditions, misconduct, physical defect and similar handicaps. After an examination into the background and personality of each child, the visitor used whatever personal influence or social adjustments were necessary to insure efficient performance.
Hull House was one of the most famous settlement sites. Many who lived there were immigrants from countries such as Italy, Russia, Poland, Germany, Ireland, and Greece. For these working poor, Hull House provided a day care center for children of working mothers, a community kitchen, and visiting nurses. Jane Addams and her staff gave classes in English literacy, art, and other subjects. Hull House also became a meeting place for clubs and labor unions. Most of the people who worked with Addams in Hull House were well educated, middle-class women. Hull House gave them an opportunity to use their education and it provided a training ground for careers in social work.

A Young Jane Adams

Led by young Hull House resident, Mary Kenny O'Sullivan, the settlement served as a hub for organizing shirtwaist workers and pushed for the passage of the Illinois Factory Act, a bill that provided protective policies for working women and children. As reform issues emerged from their work in the community, settlement workers would then take on broader issues. Their crusade expanded to include creating basic services such as kindergartens, playgrounds, nurseries, child labor and eventually, under the adept leadership of Florence Kelly, led to the establishment of The Women's Trade Union League and The Children’s Bureau.

Many groups had hope that government could be an instrument for improvement. This school of thought eventually led to the formation of the Progressive Party during Teddy Roosevelt's 3rd party campaign for the Presidency in 1916. Many of them, such as Lillian Wald, Florence Kelly, Jane Adams, and Paul Kellogg, rose to national prominence.

Florence Kelly
Jane Addams became one of the most well known figures in the nation. Such leaders continued their commitment to social change and reform. Until 1920, American women could not vote. Addams joined in the movement for women's suffrage (women's right to vote). Jane Addams also became involved in wider efforts for social reform, including housing and sanitation issues, factory inspection, rights of immigrants, women and children, creating kindergarten, playgrounds, child labor laws, anti-drug enforcement, pacifism, and the 8-hour day.
In Chicago, Mary McDowall helped create the National Consumer's League and hundreds of settlement workers joined the crusade for improving conditions of women and children workers led by Frances Kelly. Mrs. Kelly also became a leader in the early women's labor movement. In New York, settlement leaders such as Lillian Wald and Robert Hunter put social workers into public schools and promoted the idea of school-provided lunches. In some cities, leaders sought better housing for the poor. They gave keynote addresses at national conferences, wrote articles in national magazines and were commonly quoted in the nation's leading newspapers. Some of the more influential leaders developed interests in issues that extended beyond the neighborhood. An example of this type of national activity was the crusade to improve the circumstances of women and children which led to the creation of the Children’s Bureau.
The Country’s infant and maternal mortality rates were the highest of any industrial country, the growing number of orphans was overwhelming local resources, both the public and private foster homes and orphanage networks were overcome by the sheer number of new wards, and millions of children were working instead of attending school. The same leaders who fought so prodigiously for maternal and infant health programs and widows’ pensions were also prominent in the crusade against child labor. That problem proved to be more recalcitrant than either widow's pensions or health programs. Both industry and many poor families opposed laws that limited or prohibited young children from working. Industry for the obvious reason, were recruiting children to work, as they could pay child workers at a cheap rate. Poor families often needed the paltry contributions of their working children just to survive. Leaders soon became involved in many issues. They included advocacy of labor, civil rights, suffrage and peace.

Young Male Workers
Seeking change, Florence Kelly called for the creation of a national Children's Bureau in 1900. In 1906, they created the National Committee on Child Labor (NCLC) which sponsored investigations and lobbied for legislation protecting children. Child labor was not eliminated until new legislation was passed as part of the NEW DEAL. After bringing her concerns before President Theodore Roosevelt, Kelly along with Lillian Wald, Edward Devine, James West, and Homer Folks brought together more leaders from communities throughout America to address such issues. With the support of President Roosevelt, a White House Conference On Children was held in 1909. Reformers began the campaign for what was then known as a widow's pension. These leaders felt that most children should be cared for in their own home as opposed to the all too common practice of removing children from the homes of poor single parents. They felt that the government was paying more for a child's care in an asylum or orphanage than it would cost to pay the mother to take care of her children at home. The resulting publicity put child welfare on the national agenda and generated enough political pressure to force the creation of the Children's Bureau in 1912. Julia Lathrop from Chicago's Hull House was named to head the U.S. Children's Bureau in 1912.

Waiting for the Orphan Train
Initially, the Children's Bureau's role was limited to conducting research and collecting data on children's issues. One of the first studies undertaken by the new organization was of maternal and infant mortality. Armed with statistics showing a shockingly high rate of maternal deaths, bureau workers began a campaign for programs to directly address the problem. The Sheppard-Towner bill was introduced in 1918 by Congresswoman Jeanette Rankin. Ms. Rankin was the first congresswoman in the U.S. Congress and a social worker. The proposed legislation provided funds to local health departments for maternal and infant health services and after considerable opposition from conservative legislators was finally signed by the president in 1921. This legislation was so successful that funding, initially due to expire in 1927 was extended for an additional two years. When the act finally expired in 1929, there were more than 3,000 local programs and maternal and infant mortality rates were significantly improved. In 1911, Missouri enacted the first widow's pension. By 1919, 39 states had similar programs
CHARLOTTE & MECKLENBURG COUTY-On August 4, 1919, The Mecklenburg Board of County Commissioners and the Board of Education organized the County’s Department of Public Welfare. The department was located in the Charlotte City Hall. The staff included the superintendent, Mr. Lucius H.Ranson and a secretary. The budget for the first fiscal year was $2,239.76. Public Welfare activities included enforcement of school attendance laws, child labor laws, and supervision of Juvenile Court. On October 29, 1919, The Commissioners appointed a 3-member Board of Public Welfare which held their inaugural Board of Public Welfare meeting on November 17, 1919.
Nationally, leaders also played an important part in combating racism and civil inequality. Plans were made for the creation of a permanent organization which then evolved into the National Association For The Advancement Of Colored People (NAACP). The NAACP's first central committee included William Walling, Jane Adams, and W.E.B. Du Bois. Adams also founded the American Civil Liberties.
CASEWORK-By the time America became involved in the First World War, casework had developed as a major force in the new field of social work. No longer regarded as a technique only suitable for private charities serving the poor, casework was identified as a broad skill applicable in a wide variety of arenas including mental hygiene, schools, hospitals, and juvenile courts.
Dr. Richard Cabot introduced a medical social services department at Massachusetts General Hospital in 1905. Seven years after founding the service, a specialty in medical social work was offered by the Boston School of Social Work. A number of hospitals, mainly in the Northeast, established medical social work departments.
Mental institutes also began to see the benefit of social services. Adolf Meyer, a prominent leader in the mental hygiene movement, believed that psychiatry needed to focus more of its efforts outside the asylum. He identified the social worker as a primary agent in providing a better understanding of the patient's social environment. By 1920, Social workers addressed mental hygiene problems in mental hospitals, outpatient clinics and juvenile courts.
In 1917 the National Social Workers' Exchange was formed. The Exchange dealt with a number of issues including employment, working conditions, and salaries. The success of the exchange provided evidence that there was a need for a national organization. By 1920, school social service programs were functioning Iowa, Massachusetts, and New York. In 1921 a group from the Social Workers' Exchange met at the National Conference and voted to change their name to the American Association of Social Workers. They opened their membership to accept everyone, trained or volunteer, who identified themselves as social worker.
By 1919 this program had grown and changed its name to the New York School of Social Work, later to become the Columbia University School of Social Work. The University of Chicago was offering extension courses on social work which grew into a full curriculum known as the Chicago School of Civics and Philanthropy. In 1920 it officially became the University of Chicago, School of Social Work. By 1920 there were 17 schools of social work that formed the Association of Training Schools of Professional Schools Of Social Work. The organization was the predecessor to what is now known as the Council On Social Work Education. The new field of social work was now ready to begin creating a true and widely recognized profession.

A group of social workers plan the next crusade
By the end of the 1920s, most of the states and larger cities used an executive based system of administration for supervising public charities. This shift reflected the growing role state and local governments were playing in the field of relief. Social casework's began to increase shortly before the 1920s.
NORTH CAROLINA- In 1921, the NC General Assembly enacted the first Welfare Law, which proscribes the duties of the Superintendent, including:
• Care & supervision of the poor, and administration of the poor funds
• Monitor the condition of persons discharged from hospitals for the insane and other State institutions
• Oversight of all prisoners in the County on parole and probation (adult and juvenile)
• Oversight of all dependent and delinquent children, especially those on parole or probation
• Promote wholesome recreation in the County and enforce laws regulating commercial amusement
• Assist the State board in finding employment for the unemployed
• Creation of a 3-member Black Advisory Board to study welfare problems of Blacks and requested that the Counties assist in serving them

Mary Richmond

(1925-1940)
World War I provided unique opportunities for social caseworkers to prove the utility of their skills on non-poverty populations. Mary Richmond's Social Diagnosis was the first definitive text on casework. Much more than just another book, Social Diagnosis, propelled casework from one of a number of approaches used by charity workers into a major form of practice.
In 1925, no longer would the social worker be viewed solely as a charity worker delivering relief and moral uplift, but rather employ new skills in aiding poor, middle class or even affluent clients. By 1926, the Red Cross had organized social service departments in federal hospitals. This in turn led to the establishment of a nationwide system of social services attached to Veterans Administration clinics, outpatient departments and hospitals.
THE GREAT DEPRESSION-The trauma created by the depression produced a new kind of government and a new way of thinking about poverty. The depression, with its high unemployment rates among willing workers, shattered the dominant view that poverty was the result of personal failure. Before the depression, most people thought of welfare as something poor people received from mostly private charities. After the depression, welfare became a widely recognized responsibility of the federal government, and poverty was better understood as a situation caused by forces beyond individual control. Before the depression, relief programs were relatively simple arrangements. After the depression, welfare programs became a complex array of services, benefits, and taxes that affect virtually everyone.

The Great Depression left important marks on the social work profession. Largely due to the leadership of individuals who began their careers in settlements and moved into public service in the twenties, social work took its place on the national stage. Protégés of such early settlement leaders as Florence Kelly, Jane Addams, and Lillian Wald were major architects of what is now recognized as watershed public welfare policies. Harry Hopkins, Frances Perkins, Molly Dewson and Aubrey Williams not only led social work's advance into public welfare, but became public figures that greatly enhanced the public’s previously low opinion of welfare and the social work profession.

A young migrant mother worries about the future.
President Herbert Hoover, along with most American leaders, assumed that the depression would be of short duration. Hoover refused to do anything until unemployment rates were inordinately high. By the early 1930s the nation was in crisis. Unemployment in some cities was over 40 percent and bankruptcy was a common occurrence. Thousands of unemployed males, called hobos or simply "Bo's", roamed the country in a fruitless search for work. Farmers from all over the heartland were losing their land. Farm prices were so low that farmers were selling their produce for less than it cost them to transport the goods to market. Meanwhile, New York's Governor Franklin D. Roosevelt (FDR) was not afraid to act. FDR had a number of very gifted social workers on his staff, largely refugees from the settlement movement. Some, such as Frances Perkins, his state secretary of labor, he had inherited from previous governor Al Smith. Others, such as Harry Hopkins, he had recruited from private charities. Governor Roosevelt, with the help and encouragement of his social workers, crafted both unemployment and public works programs that were quickly imitated in other states.
Social workers realized the seriousness of the depression before most other professionals. Their work put them in a unique vantage point where they had an all too clear a picture of the people's plight. Social workers were also among the Great Depression’s earliest victims. Faced with the dual hardships of increased demand and decreased donations, a third of all private agencies were forced to close their doors.

Unemployed men

Poor but clean.

THE NEW DEAL-The nation was in crisis when FDR became president in 1933. Millions were unemployed. Farms were abandoned, banks were failing, industrial output was a trickle, and most public and private relief programs were out of money. The president wasted little time. In his first 100 days in office, he and congress passed an unparalleled number of bills designed to do something about the depression. Taken as a whole, these programs became collectively known as the New Deal. The Federal Emergency Relief Act (FERA) was designed to pump new money into state welfare programs; the Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC) put thousands of young men to work in national forests and parks; the Public Works Administration (PWA) started public works such as schools, courthouses and bridges, employing thousands of construction workers. The National Recovery Administration (NRA), dubbed the BLUE EAGLE, created a network of policies and programs to help small businesses, and the Agriculture Adjustment ACT (AAA) promoted policies to help farmers.

THE SECOND NEW DEAL-By 1935, the nation had regained some of its confidence and economic indicators were improved. However, for much of the nation the depression continued to be a grim reality. Payrolls were still less than half of 1925 levels. Millions of the unemployed continued their fruitless search for work. It became obvious that the depression was going to be more stubborn than many hoped. In this context, Roosevelt and his inside group of planners put together a set of programs designed to be more permanent than the prior emergency measures. Those programs, taken as a group, quickly became known as the Second New Deal. Arguably, the most prominent (and in some ways the most infamous) of the new programs was the Works Progress Administration (WPA), headed by the social worker Harry Hopkins. The WPA was a work-relief program designed to replace the FERA. It reflected the strong bias of both FDR and Hopkins that work programs were a much superior solution to the problems associated with poverty than did welfare. The WPA eventually employed more than 8 million Americans.

Throughout the early years of the depression many in FDR's administration had advocated for a youth program. First Lady Eleanor Roosevelt was especially concerned about the plight of what she termed "America's unwanted youth". The CCC responded to this group in a small way but there were still millions of teens out of school, out of work, and out of luck. FDR issued the executive order creating a works program for these youths in the summer of 1935. The National Youth Administration (NYA) was headed by a young woman, Aubrey Williams, who was a protégé of Harry Hopkins and had been a staunch advocate for programs for women and children.

THE BIRTH OF SOCIAL SECURITY-The real keystone of the second New Deal was an ambitious set of social insurances and permanent relief programs. These programs were welded into the 1935 Social Security Act. Certainly, the most important single piece of domestic legislation in the 20th century, the Social Security Act was far more encompassing than the program which now bears its name. Created by the Committee On Economic Security, this legislation was largely the product of social workers Harry Hopkins and Frances Perkins who worked closely with FDR throughout the process. Eventually a number of policy experts and legislators were involved in creating a broad set of programs that put the national government permanently in the business of welfare. The major components of the Social Security Act were the Social Insurance and the Public Assistance Programs
SOCIAL INSURANCE-The Social Security Act provided federal support for two social insurance programs that had been already initiated in many states. Unemployment Insurance and Workers' Compensation were crucial components in this set of provisions. However, the most ambitious part of the social insurance provisions was the creation of a federally administered program that provided limited insurance to workers in their old age. Officially this program was the Old Age Survivors and Disability Insurance (OASDHI) but is now known generally as Social Security. Together this set of social insurances was conceived as a matrix of programs offering working people some guarantees against economic and social problems beyond their individual control.

Men wait for their unemployment checks
The Social Security Act created two major elements. One provided aid to people with disabilities and the other granted aid for widows and their children.

Women wait for their relief checks
The New Deal marginalized African Americans, Women, Hispanics and Asian-Americans. While the two New Deals were able to temporize some of the Great Depression's worst effects and created a welfare infrastructure that would serve the nation for the rest of the century, they failed to solve the economic problems that created the crisis. In retrospect, we now recognize that the various emergency measures, deemed so dramatic and radical in their time, were too meager to pull the country out of the depression. It took the enormous deficits created by World War II finally put an end to the depression.

The emergency relief programs and the later creation of the Social Security system had a profound impact on the social work profession. First, it pushed the profession into the arena of public welfare. The crisis pulled thousands of social workers out of private agencies and into administrative and supervisory roles in the new public programs.

Another important impact created by the proliferation of public programs, was the increased number of people practicing social work. Thousands were recruited into social work through the gates of public programs. Many of these new social workers came from backgrounds quite different from their more experienced cohorts from established private charity programs. Most came from working class rather than upper class families.

As the 1930’s came to a close, social work had been transformed and had taken its place as an essential component of society.

Jane Addams was one of the first women to receive a Nobel Peace Prize, which was awarded in 1931 as many of her ideas are adopted during the New Deals.
Selected Jane Addams Quotations
• Nothing could be worse than the fear that one had given up too soon, and left one unexpended effort that might have saved the world.
• Our doubts are traitors and make us lose the good we often might win, by fearing to attempt.
Other DSS Historical Notes
1945: Wallace H. Kuralt becomes Director of Public Welfare in Mecklenburg County.

1949: The total budget was $957,020 of which $51,372 was the approved budget for salaries and operating expenses. Mecklenburg DSS consisted of the Director and 64 staff.

1962: DSS Staffing reaches 100 positions.

1969: Changes to the NC General Statutes abolished the Director of Public Welfare and established the position of DSS Director.

1970: Medicaid was implemented in North Carolina.

1973: Commodities (surplus food distribution) program abolished; Food Stamps program established.

1991: DSS staffing is at 955 positions.

2005- Mecklenburg DSS Celebrates its 85th birthday

The following persons served as superintendent or director:
1. Lucius H. Ranson 1919-1924
2. Matt Grey 1924-1935
3. Louise Nikirk 1935-1945
4. Wallace H. Kuralt 1945-1972
5. Edwin H. Chapin 1972-1989
6. Merlene K. Wall 1989-1993
7. Richard W. Jacobsen 1994-present


DSS Staff Locations since inception in 1919:
1919: At the rear of Old City Hall, along with Police and Fire
1940: Court Arcade, Trade Street
1961: County Office Building (now CCOB)
1969: Dupont Building, West Fourth Street
1975: 301 Billingsley Road opens

DSS now has services located at Kuralt Centre, CCOB, Charlotte East, Walton Plaza, Interstate Street, 22 Senior Nutrition sites, hospitals, and partner agencies