American Social Welfare

Though American social welfare was not fully realized into the social work profession until the early twentieth century (Day, 2013), its beginnings can be traced back hundreds of years to early considerations of public service and social good.
The historical development of social welfare and cultural responses to emerging social problems can provide critical insight for how a selected social problem evolved and morphed into the public’s consciousness. As Glicken (2010) explained, “Social work, social problems, and the organizations that were developed in an attempt to cope with those problems have had almost a parallel history.”
To start thinking about the social problem you selected from a historical lens, in this Discussion you will research a historical time period for how the culture and forces of that time period would (or did) impact the view of your selected social problem.
To prepare:
Research one historical time period before 1900. You can use the following resources from your Learning Resources as a starting point:
• The Interactive Timeline from the National Association of Social Workers.
• The Social Welfare History Project from Virginia Commonwealth University.
• The article by Day.
• The chapter by Glicken.

Post a response to the following:
• In 1–3 sentences, identify the pre-1900 historical time period you selected for research.
• In 3–5 sentences, describe the social, cultural, political, and economic climate of this era.
• In 3–5 sentences, explain how this climate would or did impact the view of the social problem you identified.
• In 2–3 sentences, explain the social welfare response to the social problem in this era.

References

National Association of Social Workers. (n.d.). Interactive timeline.Links to an external site. https://www.socialworkers.org/News/Facts/Interactive-Timeline-of-Social-Work-and-NASW

VCU Libraries. (2016). Social welfare history project.Links to an external site. https://socialwelfare.library.vcu.edu/