{"id":5908,"date":"2019-06-14T14:32:23","date_gmt":"2019-06-14T14:32:23","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/infed.org\/mobi\/?p=5908"},"modified":"2024-07-03T11:46:15","modified_gmt":"2024-07-03T10:46:15","slug":"casework-and-the-charity-organization-society-2","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/infed.org\/dir\/welcome\/casework-and-the-charity-organization-society-2\/","title":{"rendered":"Casework and the Charity Organization Society"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Founded in 1869, the Charity Organization Society (COS) made a deep impact on social work through its advocacy and codification of emerging methods. This, with its focus on the family, and upon a scientific approach provided a key foundation for the development of social work as a profession in Britain.<\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p>The picture is of Dudley Street, Seven Dials &#8211; <a href=\"https:\/\/commons.wikimedia.org\/wiki\/File:Dudley_St.,_Seven_Dials_Wellcome_L0000881.jpg\">Welcome Library<\/a>, London and reproduced under a ccby4 licence<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>&#8212;&#8211;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The Charity Organization Society came into being in large part as a \n\tresponse to the competition and overlap occurring between the various \n\tcharities and agencies in many parts of Britain and Ireland. The general \n\tlack of cooperation between organizations not only led to duplication, it \n\talso involved what was seen at the time as indiscriminate giving. Not enough \n\tdetailed attention was given to examining the claims and needs of potential \n\tclients.&nbsp;\n      <\/p>\n\n\n\n<blockquote class=\"wp-block-quote is-layout-flow wp-block-quote-is-layout-flow\">\n<p>It was the human weakness of the social workers that was often to blame. Without training, and often without adequate preparation regarding the aims and purposes of the society they served, these good-hearted, somewhat sentimental workers all to often were taken in by apparent distress that they tended to give relief as a matter of course. This was put to put the best view on lack of discrimination, but less worthy motives were sometimes ascribed to them. It was said, for instance, that some churches competed with each other in gifts of soup and food tickets, in order to increase their congregations; that such was the competition among the relief societies working with the homeless that John Burns decided to clear the Thames Embankment of all charitable societies distributing relief there. (Young and Ashton 1956: 93)<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n<p>In addition, there was some concern about the impact of such giving \n\t\tupon recipients. The classic worry was that it could lead into what \n\t\tlater became known as a &#8216;dependency culture&#8217; and a great deal of \n\t\texaggeration in order to gain money and goods. Thus, it was that the \n\t\tpioneers of the Charity Organization Society saw two urgent needs: &#8216;that \n\t\tself-respecting families who were struggling to keep themselves from \n\t\tdestitution should be helped and encouraged, and that charities should \n\t\tbe organized and coordinated, so that the best use could be made of \n\t\tresources&#8217; (Rooff 1972).&nbsp;&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Other groupings had recognized some of these issues and sought to intervene (such as the Central Relief Society in Liverpool, established in 1863), but it was the formation of the Charity Organization Society in London that provided the focus and catalyst for action. Its formation flowed from a number of sources but two papers published in 1868 were of particular significance. The first was by <a href=\"http:\/\/www.infed.org\/thinkers\/solly.htm\">Henry Solly<\/a>, &#8216;How to Deal with the Unemployed Poor of London and with its Roughs and Criminal Classes&#8217; and Dr Hawksley&#8217;s &#8216;Charities of London and some Errors of their Administration&#8217;. Both writers were to be founder-members of the Charity Organization Society. While there is some dispute about the founding and who was involved, what is clear is that on 29 April 1869, the new Society&#8217;s function was agreed to be &#8216;Organizing Charitable Relief and Repressing Mendicity&#8217; (Rooff 1972: 29). Offices were established at 15 Buckingham Street, London WC. The early organization appears to have been a bit of a shambles. In 1870 C. B. P. Bosanquet became the first full-time Secretary and began to stabilize finances and the organization. By the time he left the post in 1875, a number of offices had been opened and coordinating relationships established with a number of bodies. The Charity Organization Society also had gained a reputation for the success of its propaganda activities.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Bosanquet was succeeded by Charles Stewart Loch (1875-1914) whose <em>\n\t\tTimes<\/em>\n      obituary notice in 1923 read, &#8216;He made the COS; he was the COS&#8217; (Rooff \n\t\t1972: 35). Loch was both a good organizer and a prolific writer. His \n\t\tbook <em>Charity Organization <\/em>(first published in 1890) became an \n\t\testablished text in the field, and his article &#8216;Charity&#8217; in the tenth \n\t\tedition of the encyclopedia Britannica was an oft quoted piece. <em>\n\t\tCharity and Social Life<\/em> (1910) drew on this article and developed \n\t\tits themes. Loch served on several Royal Commissions and was made a \n\t\tProfessor of Economic Science and Statistics at Kings College, London \n\t\t(1904-08). However, he is often remembered for his opposition to the \n\t\tintroduction of statutory old-age pensions and the feeding of school \n\t\tchildren (he was worried that the universality of provision would ignore \n\t\tpersonal needs and remove responsibility from families for its members (<em>ibid<\/em>.: \n\t\t51). &#8216;Loch&#8217;s chief misfortune&#8217; Rooff (1972: 52) commented, &#8216;was to have \n\t\tbeen grounded in the classical economy and individualistic philosophy so \n\t\twidely accepted when the COS was founded. It was soon to be outdated. It \n\t\tmarked the end of an era&#8217;.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The essence of the\u00a0 Charity Organization Society&#8217;s method was thorough investigation. A corollary of this was the case-paper (Young and Ashton 1956: 103). They argued that <a href=\"http:\/\/www.infed.org\/thinkers\/ranyard.htm\">visiting<\/a> should only be undertaken for a specific purpose, &#8216;and at the invitation or with the consent of the client&#8217; (<em>ibid.<\/em>: 104). They also looked to a &#8216;follow through&#8217; &#8211; seeing that a case was successfully completed and what could be learnt about method.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n<blockquote class=\"wp-block-quote is-layout-flow wp-block-quote-is-layout-flow\">\n<p>In this way case-work methods, developed haphazardly through the nineteenth century, were gathered together, considered in relation to the declared purpose of the COS, developed into a coherent plan and taught to succeeding generations of caseworkers. Little that the COS taught was new. But it developed a body of transmissible knowledge, and lost no opportunity to pass it on, not only to its own workers, but to social workers and wherever they were to be found.(<em>ibid.<\/em>: 105)<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n<p>The Charity Organization Society developed links with like-minded societies and helped to establish similar agencies in different parts of Britain. Its emphasis on organization and upon investigation, when linked to notions such as the deserving and undeserving poor, and the significance of individual responsibility, excited considerable argumentAs Madeline Rooff (1972: 23) has commented &#8216;few societies have inspired such devotion; few have roused such bitter hostility&#8217;.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h4 class=\"wp-block-heading\">References<\/h4>\n\n\n\n<p>Roof, M. (1972) <em>A Hundred Years of Family Welfare<\/em>, London: \n\t\tMichael Joseph.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Young, A. F. (1956) <em>British Social Work in the Nineteenth Century<\/em>,  London: Routledge and Kegan Paul.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Acknowledgement<\/strong>: The picture is of Dudley Street, Seven Dials &#8211; <a href=\"https:\/\/commons.wikimedia.org\/wiki\/File:Dudley_St.,_Seven_Dials_Wellcome_L0000881.jpg\">Welcome Library<\/a>, London and reproduced under a ccby4 licence<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>To cite this article: Smith, M. K. (2002). &#8216;Casework and the  Charity Organization Society&#8217;, <em>The encyclopedia of pedagogy and informal education.<\/em> [https:\/\/infed.org\/dir\/casework-and-the-charity-organization-society-2\/. Retrieved: insert date].  Last update:  July 08, 2014<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p> \u00a9 <a href=\"https:\/\/infed.org\/dir\/mark-k-smith\/\"> <\/a><a href=\"https:\/\/markksmith.net\/\">Mark K. Smith<\/a> 2002. 2014&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Founded in 1869, the Charity Organization Society (COS) made a deep impact on social work through its advocacy and codification of emerging methods. This, with its focus on the family, and upon a scientific approach provided a key foundation for the development of social work as a profession in Britain. The picture is of Dudley &#8230; <a title=\"Casework and the Charity Organization Society\" class=\"read-more\" href=\"https:\/\/infed.org\/dir\/welcome\/casework-and-the-charity-organization-society-2\/\" aria-label=\"Read more about Casework and the Charity Organization Society\">Read more<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":24679,"parent":0,"menu_order":64,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"_lmt_disableupdate":"","_lmt_disable":"","footnotes":"","_wp_rev_ctl_limit":""},"class_list":["post-5908","page","type-page","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v27.4 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>Casework and the Charity Organization Society - infed.org<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/infed.org\/dir\/welcome\/casework-and-the-charity-organization-society-2\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_GB\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Casework and the Charity Organization Society - infed.org\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Founded in 1869, the Charity Organization Society (COS) made a deep impact on social work through its advocacy and codification of emerging methods. 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