For example, Professor Susan Lambert of Crown Family School studies how employer practices shape the lives of low-wage workers. Her research on the effects of precarious scheduling practices has led to policy changes and legislation regarding hourly job scheduling.
In his Midwest Study, Mark Courtney tracked the lives of more than 700 young people to find out what happens to them as they “age out” from foster care. His research was used as evidence to pass a federal bill that would give states the option to extend care from ages 18 to 21.
What is the history of social work?
Social work in the United States was born during the Progressive Era, when the country experienced rapid social reform from the 1890s to the 1920s. During this era, large waves of immigrants arrived in the United States in search of new opportunities. As factories and new industries sprang up, people flocked to cities in search of jobs. However, due to the influx of people, the city’s resources reached their limits. Overcrowding, poverty, and poor working conditions were increasing.
Historically, it was religious or charitable organizations that helped vulnerable people. But in the late 19th century, he said, social reformers began establishing institutions such as settlements and training schools dedicated to addressing these new social problems.
“In the Progressive Era, there are concerns about child labor. There are also concerns about working conditions in general. Do we need a 40-hour work week? Do we need public education?” Courtney said. “The reformers were saying, ‘There are things we can do through collective action.’ We need to act together.”
However, institutions providing aid remained segregated, both religious and secular. To fill the void from which they were excluded, people of color helped their communities through churches and other organizations. “In the black community, there was a mutual aid movement of black sororities led by black women,” Miranda Samuels said. “There’s mutual aid in both the indigenous community and the Latinx community. This has always existed.”
What is permanent housing?
In cities like Chicago, settlements emerged in the late 1880s. These were physical spaces inhabited primarily by middle- and upper-class women and serving those in need, especially new immigrants adjusting to American life. Although some settlements were religious, social reforms increasingly moved in a secular direction.
Hull House was founded by Jane Addams in 1889 and was Chicago’s most famous residence.
The settlement provided essential services such as kindergartens and public health programs. Its residents, including Crown Family School founder Sofonisba Breckinridge and sisters Edith and Grace Abbott, visited the surrounding area to understand how people really lived.
“A lot of the work I got from Hull House was investigating public health problems: Why do we get sick? Well, because poor areas have open sewers,” Courtney said. Ta. “A lot of early public health was actually social work.”
The data they collected served as important evidence of changes in the local, then federal, government regarding child welfare. Before 1899, children were tried and punished just like adults. Grace Abbott, a University of Chicago graduate, eventually joined the U.S. Children’s Bureau, where she wrote the first laws restricting child labor.
Inspired by Hull House, Reverend Graham Taylor founded the Chicago Commons Settlement House on Chicago’s northwest side in 1894. To provide more specialized training to the burgeoning field of social reformers, he founded the Chicago School of Civics and Philanthropy in his 1908 year. Edith Abbott served as its deputy director, and Breckinridge served as head of the research department.
Social work was becoming increasingly defined, with distinct “experts” leading the field. “Changes are occurring among teenagers and there is a lively debate at social work meetings: Are we a profession?” Courtney said. “By the end of the 1910s, we begin to see the development of formal institutions.”
Edith Abbott argued strongly that social work education should be conducted at the graduate level under university auspices. “Social work never becomes a profession unless you go through trade school,” she once said. “Not only do great social work schools require close collaboration with great universities, but modern universities also need such schools.”
Under the leadership of Abbott and Breckinridge, the Chicago School merged with the University of Chicago in 1920 to form the Crown Family School (formerly known as the School of Social Welfare Administration), one of the nation’s first schools of social work. did.
Who was the first social worker?
Learn more about some of the founders of social work.
- Laws that protect immigrants from exploitation
- Prevent mandatory reading and writing tests upon entering the country
- Enforcement of the first federal child labor law
- Passage of the Shepherd Town Act providing the first federal funding to support children’s social services
- Helped draft the Social Security Act of 1935
Edith Abbott (1876-1957) was a social worker, economist, and founder of one of the nation’s first schools of social work. Abbott was born into an activist family in Grand Island, attended graduate school at the University of Chicago, and earned his Ph.D. In 1905 he received his doctorate in economics.
She became assistant director of the Chicago School of Civic Philanthropy, working with Graham Taylor and Sofonisba Breckinridge, among others. Living at Hull House, she was a member of the “Great Ladies of Halstead Street”, including Jane Addams, Alice Hamilton, Florence Kelly, Julia Lathrop, and her own sister, Grace Abbott. ” was surrounded by.
Along with Breckinridge, she paved the way for the school’s merger with the University of Chicago. In 1924, Abbott became the first female dean of a graduate school in the United States.
Her curriculum included legal concepts, social impact of medical issues, and social management.Edith Abbott’s greatest contribution to public policy was her book Public Assistance—American Principles and Policiesthe result of many years of research and education.
Grace Abbott (1878-1939) was a social worker and political reformer who worked tirelessly to improve the lives of immigrants, children, and women. Edith Abbott’s sister, Grace, studied law at the University of Chicago, where she received her master’s degree in 1909. She lived in Jane Addams’ Hull House in 1908, the same year she became a director of the Immigrant Protection League. In 1917 she moved to Washington, where she joined the U.S. Department of Labor’s Children’s Bureau, which she soon became its director.
Abbott pioneered the process of collecting and incorporating sociological data into the legislative process. Her leadership helped fund more than 100 social research studies, many of which were conducted by the Crown Family School (then called the School of Social Services Management), which she remained with until her death. I held a professorship at the school.
Throughout her career, she has had the following responsibilities:
Sofonisba Preston Breckinridge (1866-1948) was an educator, social reformer, and lawyer who helped establish one of the first graduate programs in social work at the University of Chicago.
Breckinridge was born in Kentucky in 1866, educated at Wellesley, and then attended the University of Chicago, where she became the first woman to earn a Ph.D. She is in political science. She then enrolled in the first class of the university’s new law school, where she became the first woman to earn a law degree in 1904.
After graduation, Breckinridge was appointed professor in the university’s Department of Home Economics, where he introduced courses on the management of public institutions and public institutions for children. She became a resident of Jane Addams’ Hull House, where she helped found the Chicago Federation of Women’s Labor Unions and the Chicago branch of the NAACP.
Breckinridge led the research department of the Chicago School of Civics and Philanthropy, which eventually led to the merger of the University of Chicago and the University of Chicago to form the Crown Family School (then called the School of Social Services Administration).
How has social work influenced U.S. policy and culture?
Not only do social workers have a tangible impact on the lives of the individuals they serve, but their research and expertise has guided many U.S. policies since the profession’s creation. Many federal agencies, such as the U.S. Children’s Bureau and the Department of Children and Families, have been led by social workers.
“Many of the new ideas that end up making their way into federal policy are ideas that come about because social workers are involved and embedded in their communities,” Professor Courtney said.
The work of early social workers helped establish the safety nets and social welfare systems we take for granted today.
For example, while working for the U.S. Children’s Bureau, Grace Abbott was instrumental in enforcing the first child labor law passed in 1916 and issuing the first federal grants for the welfare of children and mothers in the United States. I tried my best. Sister Abbott and Breckinridge also helped draft the document. Social Security Act of 1935. It continues to provide Social Security benefits to Americans who are of retirement age or are disabled.