The Nineteenth Century: The Era of Moral Reform

The Nineteenth Century: The Era of Moral Reform Early English legislation required local parishes to provide relief to poor people if they were elderly, ill, or disabled. The Poor Law of 1601 and its reform in 1832 carefully distinguished between two types of relief: one for the elderly or sick, who...

The Nineteenth Century: The Era of Moral Reform Early English legislation required local parishes to provide relief to poor people if they were elderly, ill, or disabled. The Poor Law of 1601 and its reform in 1832 carefully distinguished between two types of relief: one for the elderly or sick, who could receive relief in almshouses or poorhouses, and one for the able-bodied poor, who were made to labor in workhouses in exchange for relief. Deserving poor – people designated as deserving poor were seen as being of good moral character and only temporarily out of luck through no fault of their own. The deserving poor did not ask directly for help and were clean and tidy. Undeserving poor – the undeserving poor were those individuals deemed to be lazy or morally degenerate. Relief, rarely provided as cash but rather in the form of food or other necessities, was usually given in return for work. Overtime, these agencies developed training programs for their volunteers, which formed the basis for the University of Toronto’s Social Services Program, established in 1914. The Charity Organization Society In 1869, proponents of better organization for charitable assistance in England for the London-based Charity Organization Society to coordinate the efforts of the various charities. As these visitors became more familiar with standardized techniques of providing assistance, they began practicing what came to be called social “casework”. The Settlement House Movement The aspect of social work concerned with community work has its roots in the settlement house movement. The term derived from the notion of “settling in,” whereby relief workers would take up residence in the very neighborhoods they were helping. The purpose of settlement houses was to bring the youth of the educated middle class and the charitable gentry to love among urban residents – a kind of mission to the poor. Canon Barnett, the found in England, explained that the idea was “to bridge the gap that industrialism had created between rich and poor, to reduce the mutual suspicion and ignorance of one class for the other, and to do something more than give charity...They would make their settlement an outpost of education and culture”. The first house, Toynbee Hall, was established in 1884. The Dawning of Public Welfare Social work occurs within a socio-political environment, and, therefore, understanding the historical context ensures an appreciation of the roots and progression of social work practice. The Canadian ideology spectrum “emphasizes the notion of equality of condition through cooperative, collective actions, displacing the liberal emphasis on equality of opportunity with its connotation of competitive struggle”.