One Hundred Years of Social Work: A History of the Profession in English Canada, 1900–2000

ONE HUNDRED YEARS OF SOCIAL WORK

ONE HUNDRED YEARS OF SOCIAL WORK

A HISTORY OF THE PROFESSION IN ENGLISH CANADA 1900–2000

THERESE JENNISSEN AND COLLEEN LUNDY

This book has been published with the help of a grant from the Canadian Federation for the Humanities and Social Sciences, through the Aid to Scholarly Publications Programme, using funds provided by the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada. Wilfrid Laurier University Press acknowledges the financial support of the Government of Canada through its Canada Book Fund for its publishing activities.

Library and Archives Canada Cataloguing in Publication

Jennissen, Therese, [date]

     One hundred years of social work : a history of the profession in English Canada, 1900–2000 / Therese Jennissen and Colleen Lundy.

Includes bibliographical references and index.

ISBN 978-1-55458-186-3

1. Social service — Canada — History. I. Lundy, Colleen, [date]

HV105.J45 2011          361.3’0971         C2010-905169-6

Electronic formats.

ISBN 978-1-55458-280-8 (PDF), ISBN 978-1-55458-342-3 (EPUB)

1. Social service — Canada — History. I. Lundy, Colleen, [date]

HV105.J45 2011a          361.3’0971          C2010-905170-X

© 2011 Wilfrid Laurier University Press

Cover design by HandsDesign.ca. Cover image: Tenements (1945), by Pegi Nicol MacLeod. Photo © National Gallery of Canada, Ottawa. Reproduced with the permission of the artist. Text design by Daiva Villa, Chris Rowat Design.

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We dedicate this book to the memory of Ron Crawley (1951–2008)

Contents

Preface

Acknowledgements

Abbreviations of Organizations and Terms

CHAPTER ONE   Responding to Industrial Capitalism and Setting the Stage for Professional Social Work, 1880–1924

Child Welfare

Poverty

The Role of Religion

Planting the Seeds of Social Work

The Settlement Movement

Charity Organization Societies (COS)

Social Work in World War I

Postwar Social Unrest and Labour Conflict

Conclusion

Notes

TWO   Pursuing Professional Status, 1924–29

The American Influence

The Formative Years in Canadian Social Work Education

Formation of a Canadian Social Work Association

The Impact of Pursuing Professional Status

Conclusion

Notes

THREE   Face to Face with Poverty: Social Work in the Depression, 1930–9

Social Workers Respond to Unemployment and Poverty

The Relief Crisis

Social Workers Come under Attack

Housing Conditions

Stretcher Bearers or Political Activists

Left-Leaning Social Workers

Social Casework Challenged

Developments in the CASW

Conclusion

Notes

FOUR   Social Work in the War Years, 1939–45: Expansion and Consolidation

Contributing to the War Effort

The Continuation of Peacetime Social Work

Shortage of Qualified Social Workers

Growth and Consolidation in the CASW

Conclusion

Notes

FIVE   Postwar Reconstruction and Civil Defence, 1940–60

Social Work and Postwar Reconstruction

The Royal Commission on Dominion–Provincial Relations (Rowell-Sirois), 1937–40

Unemployment Insurance Act, 1940

Report on Social Security for Canada (Marsh Report), 1943

Advisory Committee on Health Insurance (the Heagerty Committee), 1942–43

The Committee on Housing and Community Planning (the Curtis Committee), 1944

The Family Allowances Act, 1944

The Dominion–Provincial Conference on Reconstruction, 1945

Keeping an Eye on Child Welfare

Social Work and Civil Defence in Times of Peace

Conclusion

Notes

SIX   Social Work in the Cold War Era, 1940–60: Radicalism and Repression

The Daycare Movement

The Peace Movement

The Canadian Peace Congress

Social Workers for Peace

The Case of Mary Jennison: A Victim of the Anti-Communist Witch Hunts

The RCMP Red List

Conclusion

Notes

SEVEN   A Conservative Era in Social Work: The 1950s

Formalizing a Code of Ethics

Welfare Planning as Social Action

Abolition of the Death Penalty

The Doukhobor Situation

Revisiting the Social Action Mandate, 1956–58

Conclusion

Notes

EIGHT   The Struggle for Workplace Improvements and Standards: The Role of Unions and Professional Associations

Social Work and Unions: An Uneasy Alliance

Social Workers, Staff Associations, and Unions

Vulnerability of Social Workers: A Case Example

Social Workers in High Demand and Short Supply

Inadequate Training

Salaries and Conditions of Work

Social Workers Prepare to Strike

Conclusion

Notes

NINE   Provincial Autonomy and Reorganization in the CASW, 1950–65

The Manpower Crisis in Social Work

Restructuring of Role and Function

Provincial Autonomy

The Move to Provincial Associations: British Columbia

Developments in Quebec

New Directions for the CASW

Conclusion

Notes

TEN   Advancing Social Work Education, 1950–70

US Influence on Social Work Education

Organizing Social Work Education in Canada

The National Committee of Canadian Schools of Social Work (NCCSSW)

Canadian Committee on Social Work Education (CCSWE)

Canadian Council on Education and Personnel for the Social Services (CCEPSS)

Social Worker Shortage and Social Welfare Workers

Meeting the Challenges in Social Work Education

The Unwelcoming University

Conclusion

Notes

ELEVEN   Legal Regulation of Social Work: The Last Stage in Professionalization

The Process of Professionalization

Legal Regulation: A Troubled Relationship with the State

A Patchwork of Regulatory Legislation

Convincing Government and Social Work

The Impact of Professionalization

Conclusion

Notes

TWELVE   Staying the Course: Choosing Professional Status over Progressive Politics

Selective Responses to Government Initiatives

Initiatives by Provincial Associations

The CASW Critiques Its Own Responses to Government

Silence on the Status of Women

Housing and Urban Renewal

The Absence of the CASW in Social Workers’ Political Struggles

Going It Alone: Bridget Moran’s Battle with British Columbia’s Social Credit Government

Accountability and Ethics in Social Work Practice: The Warrendale Affair

Exercising the Left Wing: Social Workers Promoting Social Change

Conclusion

Notes

THIRTEEN   Social Work in a Declining Welfare State, 1974–2000

Cutbacks to the Welfare State and Changes in the Profession, 1974–89

Malaise in the Profession

Social Work Practitioners Shift to the Left

Persecution of a Left-Leaning Social Work Professor

A Wholesale Attack on the Welfare State, 1989–2000

Responses from the Social Work Community

Social Work Demonstrates Its Relevance

Conclusion

Notes

FOURTEEN   One Hundred Years of Social Work: Looking Back and Moving Forward into the Twenty-First Century

A Time of Transformation

Social Work Entering the Twenty-First Century: An Uncertain Time

External Challenges

Challenges Internal to the Profession

The Ongoing Struggle to Address Our Inherent Contradictions

Losing Ground in the Workplace and in Society

Fragmentation of Social Work Bodies

Social Work Theory and the Question of Theoretical Robustness

Losing Our Historical Roots in the Peace Movement

Moving Forward

Maintaining and Improving Solidarity

Fighting for Control over Our Work

Returning to Our Legacy of Resistance

Reinvigorating Our Theory Base

Promoting Social and Economic Justice, Not Charity

Note

APPENDIX A   CASW Branches, 1927–58

APPENDIX B   CASW Presidents, 1926–2001

References

Index

Preface

Social work is in the last analysis [should be] a means of liberation.

—René Sand, 1936, in Anciaux (1988: 50)

This book, the first comprehensive history of the Canadian social work profession, examines the practices and policies of the Canadian Association of Social Workers (CASW) and the activities of individual social workers, from the turn of the twentieth century to 2000. During this time social work evolved from its roots in Christian charity to its current status as a mature and enduring profession. At the turn of the nineteenth century, expanding capitalist markets created opportunities for social work to develop into a profession. Social work, along with other occupations such as nursing and teaching, embarked on a route that would help it gain legitimacy and recognition, a trajectory already well established in the professions of medicine and law. Professionalization requires the identification, production, promotion, and control of a commodity (Larson 1977). For social work, the commodity was a set of social work skills, initially social casework, and members of the profession set out to ensure its development and promotion. The profession positioned itself as a central partner in the formation and development of the social welfare state in Canada.

The research for this study is based on archival data, oral histories, and secondary sources, including texts, social work journals, and conference proceedings. In Canada, we visited a total of fourteen provincial and university archives that hold social work and other relevant records. We also researched materials in two US archives—the Sophia Smith Collection at Smith College in Northampton, Massachusetts, and the Social Welfare History Archives at the University of Minnesota. Key sources of information at the National Archives of Canada were the records of the Canadian Association of Social Workers (CASW), the Canadian Welfare Council (CWC), the Canadian Association of University Teachers (CAUT), and the Canadian Security Intelligence Services (CSIS) file on Mary Jennison, obtained through Access to Information.

We have attempted to capture some of the regional and cultural diversity in Canada and its role in shaping the profession. We did not have the opportunity, however, to address social work developments in Nunavut, the Northwest Territories, and the Yukon. Nor did we fully explore social work practice with Aboriginal peoples. And while we recognize the cultural and linguistic distinctiveness and national character of Quebec, the book includes the history of social work that primarily reflects developments of English-speaking social workers in the province. A full accounting of the history of social work in Quebec would involve a more thorough engagement with the French tradition and French sources—important research that was beyond the scope of our project.

Our theoretical framework is derived from feminist political economy that recognizes the primacy of material conditions in determining social, legal, and ideological structures and processes in society. We regard the evolution of social work as an outgrowth of the development of capitalism and industrialization as well-meaning citizens responded to the misery and exploitation of the working class. We also emphasize that social work is a women’s profession and that gendered social relations were integral to the pursuit, formation, and development of the profession. It is through this lens that we document and understand social work’s development and responses to myriad political, economic, and social issues of the times.

Social work has been shaped by changing social, economic, and political conditions, and this context is central to our historical analysis. Since its inception the profession has declared its primary obligation as the pursuit of social justice but this objective was lost in the quest for professionalization. We examine this lasting tension between social work’s commitment to social action directed toward social change and the lure of professional development.

In preparing this manuscript we became keenly aware that this is just a beginning of the documentation of a complex history. There is room for a great deal more research on this topic and we hope that this project will encourage students, professors, social workers, and others interested in history to pursue this area of research further. By writing a book that covers a large time span, we have had to focus on broad themes that we believe are important in the history of the profession. A benefit of this approach is that the reader is given an overview of a subject about which not much has been written. A drawback, however, is that this type of project does not provide adequate space to probe many of the issues in detail. For example, we were not able to give sufficient space and recognition to numerous social work pioneers from across Canada. In the process of our research we discovered that in most regions of the country there were local social work pioneers who have contributed significantly to the development of the profession. Most often they were women, usually front-line social workers whose contributions were not recorded in archival sources. Also, through our use of this wide-angle lens, we did not focus on the development of social work among particular populations such as the Acadians. We trust that we have built a solid foundation upon which many more studies can be developed.

We hope that this book will be of interest to social work students, both undergraduate and graduate, social work practitioners, and educators and colleagues who are interested in social work history. Knowledge of the history of our profession, the strategies taken, and the policies adopted during these definitive years can be used to inform the future course of direction for the social work profession in Canada.

Acknowledgements

We are indebted to many people for their assistance with this book. This was an ambitious project that spanned eight years and took us to numerous archives, agencies, and personal records spread across Canada and into the US. While we gathered a vast amount of historical data, we know that there are still many records to locate.

We are grateful for the assistance of people too numerous to mention at the public archives we visited: National Archives of Canada, British Columbia Archives, Provincial Archives of Alberta, Saskatchewan Archives Board, Archives of Manitoba, Archives of Ontario, Public Archives of New Brunswick, Public Archives of Nova Scotia, and the Public Archives of Newfoundland and Labrador. In addition, we extend a thank you to the resource personnel at the University of British Columbia Archives, Library–Special Collections; University of Regina Archives and Special Collections; University of Toronto Archives; the Thomas Fisher Rare Book Library; McGill University Archives; Smith College Library; and the Social Welfare History Archives, University of Minnesota.

We extend our appreciation to Eugenia Moreno, executive director, France Audet, and staff at the Canadian Association of Social Workers (CASW) and Louise Carignan, executive director, and staff at the Canadian Association of Social Work Education (CASWE) for providing access to their files. We are also indebted to the staff of the provincial social work associations that maintain their own historical files and granted us access to them. In particular, we are grateful for the generosity of the Newfoundland and Labrador Association of Social Workers, Nova Scotia Association of Social Workers, Professional Corporation of Social Workers of Quebec, Manitoba Association of Social Workers, Alberta Association of Social Workers, and the British Columbia Association of Social Workers.

Colleagues in other universities were generous with their time and we appreciate having access to the records of faculties and schools of social work, including the records of the following: Faculty of Social Work, University of Calgary; Faculty of Social Work, University of Manitoba; Faculty of Social Work, University of Toronto; School of Social Work, Carleton University; School of Social Work, McGill University; and the Maritime School of Social Work, Dalhousie University.

Our deep appreciation goes to Wanda Thomas Barnard, Claire Bowley, Eryl Court, Bill Devine, Margriet Fidler, Gayle Gilchrist James, Gweneth Gowanlock, John Graham, Mary Hill, Anna Larsen, Helen Levine, Gil Levine, Brita Mickelburg, Brian Ouellette, Dick Ramsey, Linda Turner, Baldwin Reichwein, Gilles Rondeau, and Marlene Webber. These individuals shared with us their published and unpublished work, engaged in discussions about our research, directed us to important sources, or agreed to be interviewed.

The research for this book was supported by a grant from the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council (SSHRC), which allowed us to travel across Canada and to select sites in the US in search of archival sources. Thanks are also due to the staff at Wilfrid Laurier University Press.

We want to acknowledge the importance of our collaborative working relationship and our friendship, both of which sustained us to the completion of this project.

Finally, a time-consuming work of this nature places demands and sacrifices on family. So the support, encouragement, and technical assistance of Therese’s partner, Bob, was very important, as was that of Colleen’s compañero and loving partner, Ron. Sadly, Ron isn’t able to share in the joy of this final product; he passed away in March 2008. We dedicate this book to him.

Abbreviations of Organizations and Terms

CHAPTER ONE

Responding to Industrial Capitalism and Setting the Stage for Professional Social Work, 1880–1924

The social work profession in Canada emerged from the efforts of local citizens responding to the needs of their neighbours, many of whom were recent European immigrants in search of better lives. Industrial capitalism of the mid-1800s created misery for many people who migrated to urban centres in search of work. The newly established waged labour system provided employment for some, but conditions of work were often difficult, dangerous, and low paid. The trends of industrialization, urbanization, and immigration introduced myriad interrelated social problems, including deplorable housing conditions, diseases and ill health, unemployment, and poverty. These problems were considered to be the responsibility, first and foremost, of individuals and their families. Those not able to look after their own needs or who were unable to find support from their families relied on the goodwill of the community or the local church. Unemployment, often leading to poverty, was particularly problematic because many of the unemployed were strong, healthy men who were unable to find work that could sustain them. Herbert Ames’ 1897 study of poverty in Montreal found that of the cases of poverty he examined, 64 percent included a man in the family who was able and willing to work, and that if employment were available for these families, they would soon adopt a better scale of living (Ames [1897] 1972: 77).

This social distress caught the attention of well-meaning citizens, primarily women from wealthier backgrounds, who responded to the underprivileged through charity work based in Christian morality. Both the Charity Organization Society (COS) and the Settlement House Movement (SHM) were part of this tradition. Charity work was an acceptable activity for women because it was regarded as an extension of the caring role assigned to them: As guardians of the home, their natural charitable and benevolent abilities could be applied to society’s problems (Daly 1995: 9). The organized charity responses initially focused on the problems of neglected and delinquent children and chronic poverty.

Child Welfare

Industrial capitalism involved the restructuring of work and the family, and introduced a new concern about neglected and delinquent children. This social concern led to the establishment of the Society for the Protection of Women and Children in 1881 in Toronto and, in 1891, J.J. Kelso formed the first Children’s Aid Society in Toronto. The society provided a children’s refuge, a separate trial for juvenile offenders and young girls, and later the first probation services in Canada.¹ In 1893 the provincial Child Protection Act was passed, J.J. Kelso was appointed superintendent of neglected and dependent children in Ontario to administer the act, and the child welfare movement was under way (Jones and Rutman 1981). Similar developments in child protection and child saving took place in other provinces. In 1882, the Nova Scotia Court gave the Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals (SPCA) guardianship of neglected children. Over twenty years later, in 1905, a number of the concerned citizens in Truro organized the Children’s Aid Society of Colchester County (MacKinnon 2004). In the same year, J.J. Kelso was asked to study the situation in Halifax, and based on his recommendations, the first Child Protection Act was passed in 1906 and the Children’s Aid Society (CAS) of Halifax County was founded. However, around 1912 the CAS suddenly and inexplicably disappeared and the SPCA resumed the care of neglected children until 1923, when the CAS of Halifax was re-established. This may in part reflect the tenuous nature of funding and resources. Until 1938 neglected children could be indentured to families for their board and care or placed in orphanages.² The child-saving movement and its focus on the prevention of juvenile delinquency was also a major concern in the western provinces, and legislation to protect children was enacted in the early part of the last century (Coulter 1995: 138). Again, J.J. Kelso assisted in drafting the first Child Protection Act of Saskatchewan in 1908, modelled after the Ontario act, and services to children were handled by private agencies such as the CAS until after World War II. Similarly, in British Columbia, the Children’s Protection Act was passed in 1901,³ followed closely by the establishment of the Children’s Aid Society of Vancouver (Canadian Welfare 1951: 20–24.) A Children’s Protection Act also was passed in Alberta in 1909, establishing the beginning of the trend away from indenture in that province (Krewski 1979: 11). Changing societal views concerning children and child welfare, and the gradual acceptance that society had a responsibility for its children and youth was most clearly indicated by the establishment in 1920 of the Canadian Council on Child Welfare (CCCW).

Poverty

At the time of Confederation, the four provinces of the new Dominion of Canada (Upper and Lower Canada, New Brunswick, and Nova Scotia) had already established their unique approaches for addressing poverty. Upper Canada (Ontario) adopted English civil law, but explicitly excluded the poor law. This meant that the responsibility for the poor rested with the individual, the family, or the community, and when this failed, the poor relied on voluntary associations or fraternal organizations and agencies. Both Nova Scotia and New Brunswick adopted the Elizabethan Poor Law, which gave local authorities responsibility for care of the poor (Fingard 1975). Eventually when the western provinces joined Confederation, care for the indigent in these sparsely populated regions was typically in the form of public programs run by municipalities (Osborne 1985: 1). These varying traditions carried on well into the next century.

Some of the harshest manifestations of the Poor Law existed in Nova Scotia and New Brunswick. In these provinces, overseers of the poor were appointed by the justices of the peace in every parish and town on an annual basis, and were authorized to care for the resident poor (Whalen 1972). The service of the overseers was compulsory and if they refused to hold office, they were fined. Once a poor person, a pauper, came to the attention of the overseer, she or he would be assessed for eligibility for outdoor relief such as food, clothing, and fuel. If deemed worthy of aid, the person would be placed on a paupers list. The primary institutional options, or indoor relief, for the poor were alms houses or poorhouses, orphanages, and homes for boys and girls.

Taxpayers in some counties refused to pay for alms houses and instead continued the exploitative practice of contracting out the poor to farmers or shopkeepers, who were paid a yearly sum by the parish to house, feed, and clothe them. In response, farmers were entitled to use their labour in any way they chose. In order to expedite this contract system, the overseer of the poor used the inhumane practice of the public sale or auction of poor women, men, and children, or the white slave trade as it became known. The last paupers auction in New Brunswick took place in King’s County in 1898, and the King’s County Almshouse was opened in 1899 to provide shelter for the poor (Whalen and Oppen 1976; The Telegraph Journal 1977). Nova Scotia followed this example and stopped auctioning off its poor in 1900 (Wallace [1950] 1995). However, in counties where there was no institutional care, the poor continued to be victims of the contract system until the late 1920s (Whalen 1972).

In Quebec, or Lower Canada, care of the poor was primarily the responsibility of the Roman Catholic Church. This responsibility dates back to the colony of New France when missionaries tended to the sick, aged, and orphaned. Sister Marguerite Bourgeoys, founder of the Sisters of the Congregation of Nôtre Dame, focused on educating women and children and converting the Iroquois to Christianity. The Church was well suited to assist the poor since it espoused a philosophy of Christian obligation for almsgiving and the preponderance of the population of the provinces was Roman Catholic. Through the next two centuries, the Church’s role in Quebec continued to gain influence in the field of social welfare, health, and education (Bellamy and Irving 1995: 90–91).

The Role of Religion

Although the Catholic Church played the dominant role in the economic and social development of Quebec until the Quiet Revolution of the 1960s, there existed alongside it Jewish and English-Protestant ethnocultural traditions that had their own approaches to poverty and social dislocation.

The Jewish tradition of charity existed in larger cities such as Montreal and Toronto. In 1869 Jews in Canada numbered 1,186 and most of them had settled in Montreal. The first Jewish social agency in Montreal, the Hebrew Philanthropic Society (HPS), was formed in 1847 to provide resettlement services for the growing population of Jewish immigrants fleeing from the political unrest and persecution in Europe. It endured for almost fifteen years, but eventually succumbed to the heavy demands placed on it, and by 1862 was no longer functioning (Weiss 1984: 11). Shortly after its demise in 1863, the Young Men’s Hebrew Benevolent Society (YMHBS) was established based on motivation to help others and contribute to social justice and, in 1877, the Young Women’s Hebrew Philanthropic Society was instituted in Montreal. The societies provided assistance in meeting basic needs, as well as activities to enhance the cultural, educational, and social development of newcomers to Canada. The YMHBS became one of the most renowned welfare institutions in Montreal, and for the first forty years of its operation it provided almost all of the social welfare services in the Jewish community in Montreal, as well as in other parts of the country. Around the turn of the century, the YMHBS began to diversify its services beyond relief giving. Its activities included the provision of services for orphaned children, care for the aged and infirm, and assistance to transients (Weiss 1984). In the last decade of the nineteenth century, the main funding source for the YMHBS was the Baron de Hirsch Institute,⁴ and in 1891 the name of the YMHBS was changed to the Baron de Hirsch Institute and Hebrew Benevolent Society of Montreal.

In these early years, the Baron de Hirsch Institute was also engaged in philanthropic work and provided a free library and a Free School. In 1916, the institute spearheaded the development of the Federation of Jewish Philanthropies, a community-based fundraising body; the federation continued to operate as the Allied Jewish Community Services (AJCS), a coordinating body for over seventeen social work agencies (Weiss 1984).

Another social work tradition with a basis in religion was the social gospel movement. As part of a widespread movement in Europe and North America that promoted a progressive Christian response to social problems, it flourished in English Canada from 1890 to 1939. It was comprised primarily of Anglican, Presbyterian, and Methodist leaders, a number of whom identified as socialists (Allen 1971). These churches took up the struggle for social reform. In 1907, the Protestant-led Moral and Social Reform Council of Canada, an alliance of Church and labour, was formed and jointly headed by J.G. Shearer and T.A. Moore, both progressive church leaders of the Presbyterian and Methodist churches respectively. James Simpson, a social gospeller and a socialist, was vice-president. As the council broadened its mandate and perspective, it was renamed the Social Service Council of Canada in 1914.⁵ The council was a federation of social welfare and social work organizations, was organized under eleven provincial units, and included Newfoundland and Bermuda. The name change in 1914 marked the shift from religious groups to include social reform groups such as the Trades and Labour Congress, the Women’s Temperance Union, and the National Council of Women.

The Social Service Council became a powerful lobby for social reform and actively advocated for social welfare legislation, mothers’ pensions, unemployment insurance, old age pensions, working conditions, and child welfare. During this era some of the first social programs were developed. In 1914, the first Workmen’s Compensation Act was introduced in Ontario and in 1927 the federal Old Age Pension Act. The introduction of mothers’ allowances was intended to offset the inadequacy of relief and to provide assistance to worthy and competent mothers (for example, widows). By 1925, mothers’ allowances were introduced in almost all US states and in five provinces—Manitoba (1916), Saskatchewan (1917), Alberta (1919), Ontario and British Columbia (1920) (Kierstead 1925).

In 1918, Charlotte Whitton became assistant secretary to Dr. John Shearer of the Social Service Council of Canada; she soon became recognized as one of Canada’s strongest proponents of social work. In 1920, the Canadian Council on Child Welfare (CCCW) was formed as a national federation of social agencies established to promote the development of child welfare programs across Canada. Charlotte Whitton was appointed honorary secretary, and the newly formed council assumed the child welfare activities of the Social Service Council. The council’s journal Social Welfare provided a forum for discussion and dissemination of current concerns, and from 1918 to 1924 the Social Service Council embarked on a program of research, publicity, and advocacy and was influential in social reform in Canada.

Religion clearly had a strong role in shaping society’s understanding of social problems and the strategies that were adopted to respond to them. Over the years a slow process of secularization began to develop in English Canada and later in Quebec, although the influence of religion was not entirely absent until much later.

Planting the Seeds of Social Work

Early secular responses to the conditions of the poor were organized primarily through either the housing settlement movement or the charity organization movement, both of which originated in England and emerged around the same time in the late 1890s and early 1900s in Canada. Both the settlement movement and the charity organization societies focused on alleviating despair among the population by engaging in different strategies. The settlement workers advocated for improved social and economic conditions, aligned with labour and other progressive movements, and supported social action. The Charity Organization Society (COS) workers, on the other hand, stressed the identification of those who were considered the worthy poor and the efficient administration of charity to them. With these two institutions, the seeds of social work were planted. The settlement workers contributed to the development of group work and community organizing, while the strength of the charity workers was in the direct application of casework theory and practice. Women were prominent in both movements as leaders and participants. Men were highly represented in the social gospel movement and as administrators of charitable agencies and foundations.

The Settlement Movement

Reform-minded volunteers established settlement houses in the inner cities and lived among the most deprived members of the community. In the UK, Toynbee Hall, named after social reformer Arnold Toynbee, was the first settlement established in London, England, and became a model for those to follow. Settlement houses were often affiliated with universities in an effort to educate students through first-hand exposure to the conditions of the poor and to engage in social reform. Settlement workers saw that an effective response to those suffering harsh social conditions was related to housing, employment, general social support such as recreation centres, and schools and public policy. They were reformers who served as agitators and organizers and helped extend the social welfare function of government in the city, the state, and the nation (Davis 1967: xiii). Settlement workers often lived in the community and provided services to those whom they referred to as neighbours in need (Lundblad 1995), and social problems were reflected in the day-to-day conditions of their own neighbourhoods. Settlement houses in the US quickly grew in numbers from six in 1891 to over 400 in 1910, prompting the establishment of the National Federation of Settlements in 1911 (Davis 1967).

Jane Addams (1860–1935) was one of the most renowned leaders in the settlement movement and in social work in the US (Addams 1897). While in England, she visited Toynbee Hall and, along with her partner Ellen Gates Starr, became inspired to found Hull House in Chicago on her return. Established in 1889, Hull House grew to include twenty-six apartments and twenty-seven rooms and covered two city blocks (Trolander 1975).

Addams associated with others who shared her commitment to social equality and social justice. She supported the activities of W.E.B. Dubois, an African-American scholar, noted Marxist, and civil rights activist, and was a founding member of the National Association for the Advancement of Coloured People (NAACP) in 1910 (Dubois 1968: 218, 260). There was a constant flow of visitors going to Hull House for inspiration. It was at Hull House that child welfare advocates J.J. Kelso and William Lyon Mackenzie King, future prime minister of Canada, were introduced to the problems of the poor. Addams quickly became a key figure in social work. In 1909 she became the first female president of the National Conference of Charities and Corrections, breaking a thirty-five-year tradition (Lasch 1965; Glowacki and Hendry 2004).

There were similar developments in Canada. The first Canadian settlement at Dorset Mission was established in Toronto in 1870 by St. Andrews Presbyterian Church and another mission followed in 1883, later to known as the Fred Victor Mission, still open today (Bellamy 2005). Others credit Evangelia as the first settlement founded in 1902 in Toronto by Sara Libby Carson (Irving et al. 1995: 23). In 1910 the University of Toronto’s Young Men’s Christian Association, influenced by the social gospel, established the University Settlement (Irving et al. 1995: 85). The contradiction on when the first settlement was founded may reflect a slight distinction between the definition of a mission and settlement. In Montreal, the University Settlement, founded in 1909 by McGill graduates with support from Professor James Dale, was situated in a part of the city where housing was substandard and poverty-stricken families were forced to live in crowded conditions. Families who were already in overcrowded space would sublet a room so that they could afford the rent.⁶ In one case a man, his wife, and nine children took two roomers to share the five-room flat (The McGill News June 3, 1921). The settlement owned two houses in the neighbourhood that were used by resident workers and students. The University Settlement provided social, educational, and recreational activities for all races and creeds. Specific services included boys’ and girls’ clubs, a mothers’ club, the largest free library for children in the city, a gymnasium, garden plots, baby clinics, and fresh milk for purchase. By 1920, there were a least thirteen settlements across Canada, most of them initiated by members of the social gospel (Allen 1971).

The Neighbourhood Workers’ Association (NWA), originally connected to the settlement movement, distributed private relief and became established as a social work agency engaged in casework, family, and community work. It later became the Family Service Association of Toronto. In 1918, a Methodist minister and social gospeller, Frank Neil Stapleford, was hired to reorganize the NWA and to form the Federation for Community Services. This federation worked alongside the Federation of Jewish Philanthropies, established in 1917, and the Federation of Catholic Charities. He remained in this position until his death in 1952 (Wills 1995: 68–69).

Charity Organization Societies (COS)

Private charities responded to the plight of the poor with either indoor relief (shelter in a poorhouse or a workhouse) or outdoor relief (the provision of food, clothing, and fuel brought to the home). Based on the philosophy of the Poor Laws, relief was always provided in kind and never in cash. In 1869 the Charity Organization of London, England, was formed to bring order out of the chaos of the city’s charities by offering district conferences at which the agencies could discuss their common problems and coordinate their efforts; and of insisting on careful investigations of appeals for help and a city-wide registration of applicants (Bruno 1948: 98).

The Charity Organization Societies, guided by the motto Not Alms but a Friend, advocated for scientific philanthropy based on the premise that relief contributed to pauperism by promoting dependence and a reluctance to work. Shortly thereafter, the charity organization movement migrated to North America, where it was supported by the Protestant middle and upper echelons. The US National Conference of Social Work was established and included representatives of boards of public charities across the United States and Canada.⁷

Mary Richmond (1861–1928), the director of the Baltimore (Maryland) Charity Organization Society (COS), advanced friendly visiting, a case-by-case response to rehabilitation of the poor. She quickly rose to social work prominence. Her four books recorded the developments of social work and guided social work practice for decades: Friendly Visiting among the Poor (1899) addressed the process of conducting charitable work in the homes of the poor; The Good Neighbor (1908) focused on a community response to human difficulty; Social Diagnosis (1917) offered a process of fact-finding and diagnosis; and What Is Social Case Work? (1922) introduced casework and demonstrated its relationship to other forms of social work. A system of relief was barely established when questions over its coordination became an important consideration. Herbert Ames first raised this concern about lack of organized effort among the charitable bodies in Montreal in the late 1890s. He suggested that There should be a sort of clearing house in respect to relief effort, where every needy case could be assigned to the organization responsible for it and whereby a family already in receipt of help from one source should not be further assisted by another (Ames [1897] 1972: 77–78).

A coordination of services began, but it was motivated largely by the desire to avoid duplication of benefits to the poor. The associated charities served as clearing houses for the local dispensation of relief. Many social service agencies in Canada became members of the US National Association of Societies for Organizing Charity (NASOC), established in 1911 and funded by the Russell Sage Foundation.⁸ By 1922, the association had two hundred member societies and would assist in finding social workers, gathering information on special problems, and answering inquiries in an advisory capacity.⁹ Also, it was these types of organizations that guided social work practice in these early years.

By 1912, Toronto, Montreal, and Winnipeg had formed Associated Charities and joined NASOC. In order to be admitted as a member, it was necessary to have at least one full-time paid worker for cities with populations greater than 10,000, to maintain individual case records, to sign a transportation agreement for consultation visits, and be willing to respond to inquiries from other member charity societies.¹⁰ However, the degree to which communities were prepared to fulfill these criteria varied across the country. When Calgary applied for membership, Howard Falk, the general secretary of the Associated Charities in Winnipeg, wrote to the associate secretary in New York in confidence, expressing his views that the standards of the NASOC would be lowered if Calgary were admitted as a member. He argued that they would not be able to meet the bare requirements because of the lack of records and methods. The man who did most of their local relief work was described as homeless and a drunk who made house to house visits with his pockets full of money, giving it where he thought he should.¹¹

Those delivering relief often lacked an adequate knowledge and skills. According to J.S. Woodsworth, a social reformer and member of the Social Gospel, many charity workers in western Canada did not have the faintest idea of the principles that should guide Associated Charity work and former policemen were regularly put in charge of the city relief department. In 1914 he wrote:

Here in Saskatoon for instance, I found many ex-policeman decidedly military in appearance waxed pointed moustache etc. in a bar