Social Policy Midterm Review

Dorothea Dix****

A reformer and pioneer in the movement who succeeded in persuading many states to assume responsibility for the care of the mentally ill.

-beginning in the 1820's, she was responsible for improving conditions in jails, poorhouses and insane asylums throughout the U.S. and Canada.

-encouraged creation of institutions for mentally ill, who were largely held in prisons at the time

Jane Addams ***

1860-1935. Founder of Settlement House Movement.

-the founder of Hull House, which provided English lessons for immigrants, daycares, and child care classes

- First American Woman to earn Nobel Peace Prize in 1931

Josephine Shaw Lowell

One of the major leaders of the program in the Charity Organization Society

-leading advocate for the private sector, declared that public relief should be given only in cases of extreme distress, "when starvation is imminent."

-believed in determining who is "worthy" of aid

-pictured on the history website promising that "not one cent" of aid would go directly to the poor

Harry Hopkins

Former New York social worker who became an influential FDR adviser and head of several New Deal agencies, including the Federal Emergency Relief Administration and Civil Works Administration.

-began as a settlement worker

Mary Richmond ***

Charity Organization Society worker who advocated for the training of social work professionals.

-wrote Social Diagnosis, which presented theory and practice in how to identify clients' problems.

-Her work served as the foundation for establishing professional social work, case management

Franklin Delano Roosevelt (FDR)

Democratic president during Great Depression, most remembered for the New Deal

Clara Barton

Nurse during the Civil War; founder of the American Red Cross

Frances Perkins ***

U.S. Secretary of Labor from 1933 to 1945, and the first woman ever appointed to the cabinet.

Social Worker who was behind New Deal policies including:

-Social Security Act

-Housing Act

-Fair Labor and Standards Act

-Unemployment Act

Jeanette Rankin

First woman to serve in Congress. Suffragist and pacifist, voted against US involvement in WWI and WWII.

Julia Lathrop

Person who was named by President Roosevelt to head the newly formed Children's Bureau

-Instrumental in its establishment

-associated with Hull House and Chicago's School of Social Service Administration

Elizabethan Poor Law of 1601

English legislation that guided social welfare practices in England and the United States

- a distinction between the worthy and unworthy poor

- family was responsible first and foremost for the care of its members; only after the family cannot provide support would local authorities intervene

-only residents of a community were eligible to receive assistance

-assistance would be given only when dire necessity required it and would be terminated when the recipient achieved the ultimate goal of employment or marriage to someone who was employed.

Children's Bureau 1912

An agency created by Taft in 1912, that investigated and publicized problems with child labor.

13th Amendment (1865)

Abolishes and prohibits slavery except as punishment for a crime

14th Amendment (1868)

-Grants citizenship to "all persons born or naturalized in the US"

-forbids any state to deny any person "life, liberty or property, without due process of law" or to "deny to any person within its jurisdiction the equal protection of its laws."

15th Amendment (1870)

Prohibited voting restrictions based on race, color, or previous condition of servitude (slavery)

Sheppard-Towner Act of 1921

Funded state-managed programs for maternity care

Unemployment Insurance

A source of income for workers who have lost their jobs through no fault of their own

-Established by Social Security

-Universal benefit/entitlement program

Social Security Act of 1935

-Provided old-age pension (retirement)

-program of unemployment insurance (temporary aid to help people who lose jobs to find a new job)

-federal welfare program (emergency food programs)

-Aid to Dependent Children (ADC)

-Aid to the Blind

Most famous and important legacy of New Deal.

Settlement Houses

During Progressive Era, founded in economically depressed neighborhoods occupied mostly by recent immigrants.

Charity Organization Societies

During Progressive Era, provided coordinated relief giving and modeling of appropriate behavior by "friendly visitors"

-tried to eliminate poverty by discovering its causes among individuals, believed that poverty was rooted in personal character

-Objective techniques stressing scientific methods were considered the best way to solve the problem of poverty

-similar to casework

Calvanism

-promoted hard work, frugality, and self-discipline as religious duties

-success could reflect God's favor, while poverty could reflect moral failing

Mother's pensions

Progressive Era government support provided to mothers whose husbands had died, been disabled, or abandoned the family. Recipients had to meet standards of "respectability" defined by middle-class home visitors, but those who met approval got help in raising their young children.

Hull House

settlement house founded by Progressive reformer Jane Addams in Chicago in 1889

-set the tone for settlements across the nation.

Scientific Charity

Movement that aimed to improve social conditions by applying scientific principles to philanthropy and social work. Emphasized investigation, education, and rehabilitation of the poor.

Social Diagnosis

first professional social work text written by Mary Richmond, an early COS leader, which presented theory and practice in how to identify clients' problems.

absolute measure of poverty****

- uses a fixed, predetermined amount below which people are defined as poor.

-used today in the US

relative measure of poverty****

-uses societal standards to assess the minimum needed for a reasonable living situation, and anything less than that standard is considered poor.

parens patriae

A legal doctrine that gives the state the authority to act in a child's best interest.

Boarding-out

the 19th- and early 20th-century practice of placing orphaned, destitute, or workhouse children into private foster families paid a government or charitable subsidy, serving as the direct precursor to modern foster care

-deliberate move away from large, sterile mass-institutionalization

Freedmen's Bureau

first federal welfare agency and, between 1865 and 1869 (Reconstruction), the major source of public welfare in the South.

- set up to aid former slaves in adjusting themselves to freedom. It furnished food and clothing to needy blacks and helped them get jobs

1935

Social Security Act

outdoor relief

providing cash assistance that allowed individuals to remain in their own homes, often reserved for "deserving poor"

Indoor Relief

assistance provided in an institutional setting, such as a poorhouse, almshouse, or workhouse

-increased with industrialization

Flexner Report (Abraham Flexner)

addressed the question “Is Social Work a Profession?” in a paper delivered to the National Conference on Social Welfare. His conclusion was that social work was not a profession because it lacked a unique methodology.

Almshouses

Houses designated to aid the widows and orphans of Philadelphia and New York

Friendly Visitors

members of Charity Organization Societies who entered the homes of economically disadvantaged people to model ideal behaviors for them

social insurance

-universal/entitlement program, do not need to prove eligibility

-contribute before receiving benefits

Progressive Era

(1890s to the 1920s) time at the turn of the 20th century in which groups sought to reform America economically, socially, and politically

-8 hour workday

-child labor laws

-Old age pension movement begins

-prohibition

-Women's suffrage

-Children's Bureau

-mothers pensions

-abolition of convict leasing

Settlement Movement

During Progressive Era, believed social workers should live among the people to best serve communities

- emphasized community and society

-Goals were to help socialize immigrants to their new homeland and alleviate the tremendous economic and social disparity between the new-comers and the established wealthier classes

Industrialization

-created wider wealth disparities

- urban crowding gave rise to social conditions that demanded attention

-changes in the workplace led to worker dependence on the owners of businesses, giving rise to concerns about unemployment, job-related disability, health care, and the care of dependents when a worker was disabled or died.

- led to more acceptance of the federal, state, and local governments having key roles in maintaining the social well-being

social control theory

public assistance as a tool to quell social unrest and reinforce the employment system.

-By creating a residual social welfare program and keeping benefits low, the powers that be ensure that most people will not be inclined to rely on public assistance but will instead be willing to work, even at low-paying jobs.

Principles of Charity Organization Societies

(1) Urban poverty was rooted in moral and character deficiencies of the individual

(2) once people living in poverty had been helped to recognize and correct their flawed characters, poverty could be abolished

(3) the goal of ending poverty could only be reached if the Charitable Societies cooperated and organized so as to stop providing overlapping resources

Criticisms of Charity Organization Movement

-focus on individual change in spite of terrible economic and social conditions was not sufficient to eradicate poverty - theory was paternalistic and blamed the individual for their condition

-did nothing to change the environmental conditions that contributed to impoverishment, unequal opportunity, illness, and lack of social support.

public assistance

Aid to the poor; "welfare"

-means tested, must demonstrate need

Public Assistance in Social Security Act

-Old Age Assistance

-Aid to Dependent Children (ADC)

-Aid to the Blind

Social Insurance in Social Security Act

-Social Security (OASDI)

-Unemployment Insurance

Professionalization

-the historical and ongoing process of transforming social work from informal, charity-based community help into a recognized, regulated academic discipline and clinical profession

-Critics argue that heavy professionalization and clinical licensing shift focus away from community roots, grassroots organizing, and structural social change toward individual diagnosis and therapy