By John E. Hansan, Ph.D.

Charity Organization of NY, 1909

Background
Founded in 1869, in Great Britain, the Charity Organisation Society (COS) played a significant role in the development of social work as a profession and social casework as a method of social work. The genesis of the COS movement had its roots in urbanization and the loss of “community” and mutual aid prevalent in rural areas of Western countries. By their very nature, urban areas fostered industrial accidents, diseases, unemployment, poverty, family breakdown and other social and economic problems. When afflicted by unemployment, sickness, old age or a physical disability, individuals and families without relatives or financial resources had few options: apply for public relief, appeal to private charities or beg help from strangers.

The problems of dealing with urban poverty increased significantly when an area suffered an economic depression, labor strife or some other event that left large numbers of able-bodied men and women without a source of income. A vast number of independent groups had formed to ameliorate the problems of poverty caused by rapid industrialization, but they operated autonomously with no coordinated plan. The primary emphasis of the COS movement was to employ a scientific approach to cope with the expanding problems of urban dependency, the proliferation of private philanthropies and growing evidence that some individuals and families had learned to “game” the system by successfully appealing to multiple organizations for help.

The COS emphasis on a scientific approach led to the use of investigation, registration, and supervision of applicants for charity. It resulted too in community-wide efforts to identify and coordinate the resources and activities of private philanthropies and the establishment of centralized “clearinghouses” or registration bureaus that collected information about the individuals and families receiving assistance. These innovations were later incorporated into the casework method of social work, the organization of Community Chests and Councils, and the operation of Social Service Exchanges.

In 1877, the first Charity Organization Society in the United States was established in Buffalo, New York. The impetus for the Buffalo COS was a decade of severe economic depression and industrial strife in the 1870s. By 1877 the United States was entering its fourth year of a depression closely related to a collapse in the railroad industry. The railroads were the advance agents of industrialism, opening a national market for the first time and themselves providing a market for iron, steel, coal, and the products of related industries. Great wealth had been produced by the railroads, and hundreds of thousands of people derived their financial support directly from the wages paid employees. In 1877, construction of new track and rolling stock had virtually halted, related industries were sagging, and wages were slashed for railroad workers. Newspapers began to report cases of starvation and suicide attributed directly to unemployment and despondency. Many able-bodied men became tramps and roamed the state seeking the means of survival.

These social and economic conditions were exacerbated in Buffalo because it was a manufacturing and shipping center. In the summer of 1877, T. Guilford Smith, assistant minister at St. Mary’s Episcopal church, traveled to London to observe and learn about their COS. From that experience, he became convinced the COS model was the answer for coping with Buffalo’s poverty and unrest. With the support of business and community leaders the Buffalo Charity Organization was launched. In a very short time, other cities followed its lead and the movement became very popular and widespread in the U.S.

Methods and Operation

The principles of Social Darwinism and the widespread public conviction that relief promoted dependency contributed to the attractiveness of a COS. Instead of offering direct relief, the societies intended to address the cycle of poverty. According to their literature, a COS was based on seven fundamental ideas: inter-agency cooperation, community education, individualization, adequacy of relief, repression of mendicancy, preventive philanthropy and personal service.*

COS leaders wanted to reform charity by including a paid agent’s investigation of the case’s “worthiness” before distributing aid. They believed that unregulated and unsupervised relief caused rather than cured poverty. The paid agent, usually a male, made an investigation and carried out the decisions of the volunteer committee concerning each applicant, including maintaining records. A volunteer or “friendly visitor” was recruited to offer advice and supervise the family’s progress. COS visitors sought to uplift the family and taught the values of hard work and thrift to individuals and families. The COS set up centralized records and administrative services and emphasized objective investigations and professional training. There was a strong scientific emphasis as the COS visitors organized their activities and learned principles of practice and techniques of intervention from one another. COS views dominated private charity philosophy until the 1930s and influenced the face of social welfare as it evolved during the Progressive era.

• Encyclopedia of Social Work Vol.1, Seventeenth Issue (Washington, D.C. National Association of Social Workers, 1977) p.97.