Social Policy:Historical Perspective

Cultures Across the WorldElements of Commonality

• Each culture developed a system or institutionalized method to address vulnerable populations

• Historically charity was defined as a religious duty

• Accepting charity was non-stigmatizing• (Chapin 2011)

Notions of Philosophical Difference

• Would rewarding beggars discourage working?

Are there those that deserve our assistance and those that do not?

Are the poor different?

What is the role of government in addressing social welfare?

Religious Traditions

• Religious tenets that explore a duty/commitment/ideal to address poverty

• Fill in the blank with postings• Native American religions reflect a ________approach to

using the tribe’s resources.• The practice in Islam of almsgiving is called_________.• The Torah commands Jews to_________ for people living in

poverty.• Christianity addresses this issue throughout the New

Testament instructing people to serve God by ________for each other.

Ring Around A Rosie

• Have you ever played this game or sang this rhyme as a child?

– Ring around a rosie– Pocket full of posies– Ashes, Ashes – We all fall down!

English Poor Laws

• Feudal System– Black Death

• Rise of the Merchant Class– Guilds and Apprentice System

• From Farm to Town– Land use– Poor Harvests and Famines

Poor Law of 1601

• What does this have to do with 2012?

• A uniform system to address poverty and unemployment– Outdoor Relief Public and Private– Workhouses Public– Almshouses Private

English Colonies

• What is the intersection of poverty, economic enterprise, religious sects and power holders?

• How do the establishment of colonies address social issues of the day?

The Puritans

• Calvinism

• Reverend Cotton Mather:– The Responsibility of Doing Good Bonaficius– Dispute with Reverend Thomas Hooker

Slavery and Indentured Servants

• Control of Human Labor to benefit and profit the ruling class.

• Sometimes people agreed to become indentured to pay off their passage.– What current illegal system in the U.S. is identical

to this?• Slavery the ownership of people who are

understood to be property

The Worthy and Unworthy Poor

• Worthy: widows with children, aged, orphans, blind– What current U.S. document that we fill out

annually asks us if we are a) blind and b) aged?• Unworthy: drunks, indolent, persons of ill

repute (prostitutes, gamblers) • It depends: the unemployed, the injured, ill,

veterans,

The Sanchez Family

• How do we understand the Sanchez family in the context of Worthy/Unworthy Poor?

• “What historic factors do you think contribute to the Sanchez family more willing to receive help through their church than through public social service agencies? (Chapin,2011, 56)”.

The Constitution and Civil Rights

• Group Breakout:

– Open another browser– With your group select one of the Bill of Rights

Prepare to discuss how this issue or constitutional protection is reflected in as a current policy issues

For example: unreasonable search and seizure: if a child welfare worker suspects the family is using meth can they demand a drug test on the children without the parents consent?

Racism, Westward Expansion and Waves of Immigrants

• African-Americans and the Self-Help Tradition– Racism– Left Out– Jim Crow Laws– Self-Help– Mistrust of the Public System

• Native Americans– Treaties– Removal Policies– Genocide– Issue of Tribal Sovereignty– Homestead Act of 1862

The Child Saving Movement

• What to do with those children running wild on the streets?– Orphanages– Apprentices– The Shakers– Charles Loring Brace and Orphan Trains• www.orphantraindepot.com

The Dichotomy of Social Work’s History

• What women noticed during the Abolitionist Movement to end slavery.

• Charity Organization Society– Mary Richmond

• Settlement House Movement– Jane Addams and Ellen Gates Starr

Famous Social Work Founders

• http://www.naswfoundation.org/pioneer.asp• http://www.pendletonhistoricfoundation.org/

– Mary Richmond, Jane Edna Hunter, Florence Kelley, Ellen Gates Starr, Lillian Wald, Grace and Edith Abbott, William English Walling, Abigail May Alcott, Jane Addams, Janie Barrett and Doctor Alice Hamilton.

– Who’s missing from the Social Work pioneer’s list and why to do think this is so (critical thinking)?