SWRK 2040 Lecture Notes - Lecture 3: Social Work, Charity Organization Society, Settlement Movement

• School: University of Windsor
• Department: Social Work
• Course: SWRK 2040
• Professor: Kelly Ann Spezowka

Document Summary

Based on private volunteerism of friendly visitors . Belief that the right kind of people in society (i. e. white, middle class) knew what was in the best interest of all. Role of friendly visitors was to impose this vision on the poor through teaching them life skills and moral behaviour. Belief that poverty was due to personal deficiencies ; focused on individual level interventions (casework) which are the origins of clinical social work . Believed that poverty (and problems related to poverty) not caused by individual failures but by systematic forces. Established houses in poor communities to work with (rather than on or for ) people in poverty. Addressed community level problems (i. e. slum housing, crime, sanitation) that affected individuals. Basis of what we today call community organizing and community capacity building . Conventional social work: believes that social work can operate within the current system (current system may be flawed, but it should be preserved)