A Social Work Timeline
1869 The first Charity Organization Society (COS) is established in London. The society coordinates fundraising and disbursement of funds to the needy.
1877: America’s first Charity Organization Society (COS) is established in Buffalo, New York. Volunteers, or “friendly visitors,” dispense advice rather than money and provide information to philanthropists and private relief agencies. Within a decade, COSs are established in most large cities, and many are giving direct financial relief as well.
1884 Toynbee Hall, the first settlement house for the poor, is established in London.
1889: In Chicago, Jane Addams and Ellen Gates Starr open Hull House, the first and most influential social settlement house in the United States. The goal of the settlement house movement was to provide a place for the educated to live among poor immigrants to help them become “good citizens.”
1898: The first school for social workers The New York School of Philanthropy, later to become the Columbia University School of Social Work, is established.
Early 1900s: As medical services are increasingly delivered in inpatient hospital settings rather than during home visits, doctors lose their window into the social conditions of their patients. This change leads to the development of hospital social work in order to add a bio-psycho-social perspective to the increasing medical focus of doctors.
Ida Canon formally conceptualizes the bio-psycho-social model of social work practice, which posits that biological, psychological and social factors all play a significant role in human functioning in the context of mental and physical disease and illness.
1905 A social services department is established in Massachusetts General Hospital in Boston to help patients deal with the social problems of their illnesses. Within the next decade, more than 100 hospitals hire hospital social workers.
1918 The American Association of Hospital Social Workers (AAHSW) is formed as the first specialty within the new field. The organization is renamed the American Association of Medical Social Workers (AAMSW) in 1934.
1919: The 17 schools of social work in the United States and Canada form the Association of Training Schools for Professional Social Work to develop uniform standards of training and professional education.
1928: The Milford Conference convenes to discuss whether social work is a disparate group of technical specialties or a unified profession.
1937: The AASSW declares that beginning in 1939 the requirement for social work accreditation will be a two-year masters degree program.
1955: The National Association of Social Workers (NASW) is created.
1968: National Association of Black Social Workers is founded, committing itself to enhancing the quality of life of people of African ancestry through advocacy, human services delivery, and research.
1982: The Global definition of social work states; “The social work profession promotes social change, problem solving in human relationships and the empowerment and liberation of people to enhance well-being. Utilizing theories of human behavior and social systems, social work intervenes at the points where people interact with their environments. Principles of human rights and social justice are fundamental to social work.”[1]
1998: The social work profession celebrated its Centennial.
2000: 15,007 individuals graduated with MSW degrees and 11,773 graduated with BSW degrees.
Today: According to the U.S. Department of Labor’s Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS), social work is one of the fastest growing careers in the United States. The profession is expected to grow by 30% by 2010; currently, nearly 600,000 people hold social work degrees.
[1] http://www.ifsw.org/en/f38000138.html
