Settlement movement

The late 19th century settlement movement, which began in London, England, emerged from a deep Victorian concern with urban poverty which gave rise to a subsequent movement whereby those connected to British universities sought to settle students within impoverished areas to live and work alongside local people. Through such efforts, settlement houses, or community centers, neighborhood houses, and social welfare agencies, were established to promote aspects of education, business, recreation, and the arts amongst society’s most underprivileged populations. The widespread establishment of settlement houses and the eventual settlement movement gave rise to many social policy initiatives that aimed to improve the conditions of society’s most excluded members. The movement would extend throughout Great Britain, the United States, parts of Western Europe, Southeast Asia and Japan.

History

The settlement movement began in 1884 with the founding of London’s Toynbee Hall by curate Samuel Barnett and his wife, Henrietta. 19th century London, a city rife with the widespread effects of industrialization, urbanization and immigration, saw consistent increases in crime and poverty levels, and a growing population of uneducated children and adults. Aiming to improve the impoverished conditions of, specifically, London’s East Side, the Barnetts invited a number of recent University graduates to live amongst the city’s poorest to help settle the dilapidated area of London’s Whitechapel neighborhood. Finding it their Christian duty and social obligation to provide education, fellowship and various social services to the impoverished population, the Barnetts worked to attract affluent Oxford University students to the area in hopes of their becoming active in and on the behalf of the city’s poor community. With its great success, Toynbee Hall attracted various philanthropists, social activists, educators and reformers from around the world to live and learn from the establishment. Early residents included Americans Stanton Coit, Vida Scudder, Helen Rand, and Jane Addams who would all play an influential role in the founding of the American settlement movement.

The British Settlement Movement

The British Settlement Movement came about with the founding of Toynbee Hall which provided London’s poorest population with services including tutorial classes, cultural clubs and organizations, and forums for discussion and debate. Residents proved able and committed to the philanthropic cause and included British reformers such as William Beveridge, R. H. Tawney, Clement Atlee, and Kenneth Lindsay who worked to address issues of class struggles, urban impoverishment and immigrant education. As the success of Toynbee Hall continued to grow, its influence also reached a political level, helping to direct local community residents toward political activism.

Following the establishment of Toynbee Hall was Oxford House in 1884 which retained strong ties to its denominational foundation, maintaining a spiritual influence in its social agenda. Later the Passmore Edwards Settlement, now the Mary Ward House, worked to establish London’s first playhouse and its first school for disabled children while Britain’s Bermondsey Settlement educated young children in the art of dance and folksong. In 1887 Britain’s first Women’s Settlement was established, the Women’s University Settlement, later Blackfriars, in aims to promote the social welfare and independence of women through education and recreation. London’s Kingsley Hall, established in 1915 by Muriel and Doris Lester, opted to meet the needs of Britain’s youngest population, devising certain programs for children and young people of all ages and sex.

The American Settlement Movement

The American Settlement Movement, an extension of the British Settlement Movement, also grew out of a deep concern for the nation’s poor. Unsanitary conditions which marked the already overcrowded cities of the United States threatened not only the health of the urban poor but the health of the entire industrial population. In addition, prevalent poverty and discontent also showed to threaten American civic life. In response to the conditions of the late 19th century, many American progressives believed the establishment of social settlements throughout the U.S. would help to alleviate squalid living conditions and help to avoid later social upheaval.

The movement began with the founding of the Neighborhood Guild by Americans Charles B. Stover and Stanton Coit, an early visitor to London’s Toynbee Hall. In 1886 Stover, former Park Commissioner of New York City, joined with Coit, a lecturer at the West London Ethical Society, to form the United States’ first settlement organization on the Lower East Side of New York City. The founding of the Neighborhood Guild, later the University Settlement, was followed by the 1889 founding of Jane Addams’ Hull House, considered the first U.S. settlement house established on Chicago’s West Side.

Hull House, considered the most influential of American settlement houses, was founded by social activists Jane Addams and Ellen Gates Starr after a brief visit to London’s Toynbee Hall. Upon their return to the United States, Addams and Starr founded Chicago’s Hull House, offering programs of cultural refinement, immigrant education, and various health care services. Later residents sought to advocate for specific legislation regarding immigrant rights and workplace conditions, while providing daycare services for working mothers, social clubs for boys and girls, and a trade union meeting house.

Following the founding of Hull House, American educator Jane E. Robbins opened in the same year the College Settlement of New York City, which was followed in 1891 by the founding of Andover House, later the South End House, in Boston, Massachusetts by former Toynbee resident Robert A. Woods. In 1893 philanthropist Lillian Wald would found one of America’s largest settlement houses, New York’s Henry Street Settlement and by 1900 there would be more than one hundred settlement houses established throughout the United States. In 1919 the United Neighborhood Houses of New York would be founded to unify the more than thirty-five settlement houses then present within the city. This concept was further extended in the 1930’s by the Catholic Worker Movement founded by social activist Dorothy Day.

In their earliest years, American settlement houses often worked on the behalf of exploited industrial workers and new immigrants. Much of their interest was directed toward the regulation of child labor, the creation of a juvenile court system, and the establishment of mother’s pensions and workmen’s compensation. In the early 20th century the need for social settlements would be replaced by more active political intervention, and the number of such establishments would decline throughout the United States. Despite a significant decline in operations, many settlement houses continue to exist today, providing a wide range of services to needy candidates throughout the U.S.

Contemporary Social Settlements

Though numbers have declined, social settlements continue to serve as community-focused organizations and provide a range of services in generally underserved urban areas. Certain services offered by contemporary settlement houses can include informal family counseling and home visits, the sponsoring of social clubs, classes, recreational activities, or special interest groups, and the employment of certain professionals such as caseworkers, psychologists, physiatrists, or home economists to meet more specialized needs. As such, many contemporary settlement houses are staffed by professional employees rather than students, and may no longer require that employees live alongside those they serve.

Worldwide, most developed countries have some form of a national settlement organization, such as the United States’ National Federation of Settlements and Neighborhood Centers, or the British Association of Settlements and Social Action Centers. In 1922, the first International Conference of Settlement Workers was held in London, followed by the 1926 founding of the International Federation of Settlements and Neighborhood Centers in the Utrecht, Netherlands, an organization represented by observers at the United Nations.

References

ISBN links support NWE through referral fees

• Walkowitz, Daniel J. Social Work and Social Order: The Settlement Movement in Two Industrial Cities, 1889-1930. Journal of Social History, 1994.
• Encyclopædia Britannica. Social Settlement. Encyclopædia Britannica Online. 2007. 12 Mar. 2007.
• Barbuto. D. American Settlement Houses and Progressive Social Reform: An Encyclopedia of the American Settlement Movement. Phoenix, Ariz. : Oryx Press, 1999. ISBN 1573561460.
• Smith, Mark K. Settlements and Social Action Centers. InFed Encyclopædia. January 28, 2005. Retrieved 26 March, 2007.

External Links

• British Association of Settlements and Social Action Centres (BASSAC) website
• International Federation of Settlements website
• Toynbee Hall website
• Aston-Mansfield website
• Oxford House website
• United Neighborhood Houses of New York website
• United South End Settlements (Boston, Massachusetts)

Credits

New World Encyclopedia writers and editors rewrote and completed the Wikipedia article in accordance with New World Encyclopedia standards. This article abides by terms of the Creative Commons CC-by-sa 3.0 License (CC-by-sa), which may be used and disseminated with proper attribution. Credit is due under the terms of this license that can reference both the New World Encyclopedia contributors and the selfless volunteer contributors of the Wikimedia Foundation. To cite this article click here for a list of acceptable citing formats.The history of earlier contributions by wikipedians is accessible to researchers here:

• Settlement_movement  ^history

The history of this article since it was imported to New World Encyclopedia:

• History of "Settlement movement"

Note: Some restrictions may apply to use of individual images which are separately licensed.