Settlement movement

Hull House Workshop Poster, 1938

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 Dutton Scudder, and Jane Addams who would all play an influential role in the founding of the American settlement movement.

In the early twentieth century the need for social settlements would be replaced by more active political intervention, and the number of such establishments would decline throughout Europe and the United States. Such decline began with significant decreases in the number of volunteers willing to work in such settlements. As more opportunities presented themselves for individuals to be employed in aspects of social work, the number of settlement residents significantly declined. In addition, political initiatives directed toward assuaging urban poverty and increasing education helped to solve many of the problems that proved the basis of settlement operations.

The British 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 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.

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.

International Movements

In the 1870’s, the settlement movement reached parts of France in the founding of the Centres Sociaux. The late 1880’s saw the spread of the settlement movement to Canada where Toronto’s Fred Victor Mission and Vancouver’s Alexandra Community Activities society aimed to improve the living and workplace conditions of urban industrial workers. Similar settlements appeared in Amsterdam amid the 1890’s including Ons Huis, Toynbee Associations, and the Volkshuis.

The first settlement house in Japan was founded in 1897 in Tokyo City and named Kingsley-Kan after London’s Kingsley Hall. The movement would spread quickly in response to a post World War II influx of industrial workers to the country’s largest cities. By 1926 Japan had established more than 40 settlement houses throughout the country. Later settlement houses would also appear throughout regions of Germany, Austria and Hungary, and would include various Jewish Settlements that promoted Jewish politica and social affairs throughout areas affected by World War II.

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.

East Side House Settlement

East Side House Settlement is a Non-profit organization located in the Mott Haven section of the South Bronx. It has served the Mott Haven section of the Bronx since 1963, and currently has a staff of over 200, with an emphasis on programs serving children and families.

East Side House was founded in 1891 as a settlement house on New York's Upper East Side. In 1963, the organization moved to its current South Bronx location.

Henry Street Settlement

Henry Street Settlement was founded in 1893 by nurses Lillian Wald and Mary Maud Brewster in Manhattan's Lower East Side. It continues to provide services to residents of the Lower East Side, and offers programs in 11 facilities including the Abrons Arts Center. Programs include arts classes for children and adults, shelter services, health services, senior services, a workforce development center, day care centers, and after school and summer youth programs.

Hudson Guild

Hudson Guild is a multi-service, multi-generational, community-based organization rooted in and primarily focused on the Chelsea neighborhood of Manhattan, New York. It was founded in 1895. Through a variety of programs and services, including after-school care, professional counseling and community arts, the Guild seeks to empower all individuals and families, particularly those in economic need, to achieve their highest potential.

History

In 1895, Dr. John Lovejoy Elliott, a young man greatly influenced by the growing settlement house and Ethical Culture movements, planted the seed for what became Hudson Guild, organizing the “Hurly Burlies,” a social and recreation club for young men in the Chelsea neighborhood. In the next few years, Dr. Elliott established numerous clubs and programs for other groups, including young boys, young girls, working women, and families. Dr Elliott's disparate programs merged to form Hudson Guild in 1897. Hudson Guild provided a springboard for organizing residents to improve neighborhood living conditions.

The Guild’s history is marked by innovation and cutting-edge thought. Among Hudson Guild's early advocacy successes were lobbying for a Model Tenement House Law (1901); the creation of Chelsea Park, the first recreational space in the area (1907); and the approval of new, low-cost, city-funded housing in Chelsea (1938). At the same time, the Guild was offering a widening range of direct programming and services to Chelsea residents, opening the first free Kindergarten in New York City (1897); starting the first Summer Play School in the City (1917); opening dental (1919), prenatal, and well-baby clinics (1921); founding the Elliott Neighbors Club for Senior Citizens (1947); opening one of the city’s first community mental health clinics (1948); and the first offerings of English-as-a-Second-Language classes (1950).

The Guild also advocated for anti-poverty programs, including Neighborhood Youth Corp, VISTA and Head Start (1966); worked with other settlement houses and the City of New York to merge Head Start and daycare in New York City (1993); founded the Chelsea Community-Supported Agriculture co-op (2000); and successfully advocated for affordable housing inclusion in West Chelsea redevelopment plans (2005).

Programs

Each year, Hudson Guild provides a service for over 11,000 people. Because of its roots in the settlement house tradition, Hudson Guild takes an integrated, holistic approach to service provision and community building. Hudson Guild has five main program areas: Children and Youth Services, Adult Services, Arts Program, Community Building, and Mental Health. None of these program areas exist separately; they work together to provide participants with creative programming engaging bodies and minds, connecting participants to each other and the Chelsea community.

Hudson Guild’s Children and Youth Services targets at-risk youth living in Chelsea and surrounding neighborhoods. Through participation in the Guild’s programming, children and teens receive academic assistance, learn to make good decisions, and gain exposure to the arts. Hudson Guild’s Adult Services helps older adults live in independence and dignity as contributing members of the community with program activities that promote physical, mental, and emotional fitness. The Guild’s Arts Program operates a theatre and two galleries, helping make Chelsea a vibrant and cohesive community, where diversity and self-expression flourish among all age groups. Through its Community Building Program, Hudson Guild serves a primary role in making the Chelsea neighborhood a place where people come together to help others and themselves through education, skills-building, and joint action. The Guild's Mental Health program provides a range of services to meet the mental health needs of residents of Chelsea and surrounding neighborhoods, including group and individual therapy through a licensed mental health clinic; school-based mental health services to a local elementaty school; and programs for at-risk youth.

Oxford House

The term Oxford House refers to any house operating under the "Oxford House Model," a community-based approach to addiction treatment, which provides an independent, supportive, and sober living environment. Today there are more than 1000 Oxford Houses in the United States and other countries. Each house is based on 3 primary rules:

• Do not use drugs or alcohol
• Do not be disruptive
• Pay your rent or any fines

Rent is generally between 80 to 100 dollars a week and includes utilities. Generally 12-step meeting attendance is encouraged, and a certain number of meetings a week may be mandatory. Weekly business meetings are mandatory to discuss any issues that the house may be facing. It is at these meetings that checks are written for bills and residents are made aware of where they stand financially.

The first Oxford House was opened in Silver Spring, Maryland in 1975 by Paul Molloy. Molloy had been a Senate committee staff member between 1967 and 1972. He sought treatment for his alcoholism in a halfway house in 1975. Later that year, the halfway house would close due to financial difficulty, and Molloy and the other residents took over the lease. They chose the name Oxford House in recognition of Oxford Group, a religious organization that influenced the founders of AA.

Oxford House is now in its 31st year and continuing to grow. The organization's web address is http://www.oxfordhouse.org/.

The Oxford House Traditions

Oxford House has a number of traditions which are followed by all member houses:

• TRADITION ONE: Oxford House has as its primary goal the provision of housing and rehabilitative support for the alcoholic or drug addict who wants to stop drinking or using and stay stopped.
• TRADITION TWO: All Oxford Houses are run on a democratic basis. Our officers are but trusted servants serving continuous periods of no longer than six months in any one office.
• TRADITION THREE: No member of an Oxford House is ever asked to leave without cause — a dismissal vote by the membership because of drinking, drug use, or disruptive behavior.
• TRADITION FOUR: Oxford House is not affiliated with Alcoholics Anonymous and Narcotics Anonymous, organizationally or financially, but Oxford House members realize that only active participation in Alcoholics Anonymous and/or Narcotics Anonymous offers assurance of continued sobriety.
• TRADITION FIVE: Each Oxford House should be autonomous except in matters affecting other houses or Oxford House, Inc., as a whole.
• TRADITION SIX: Each Oxford House should be financially self-supporting although financially secure houses may, with approval or encouragement of Oxford House, Inc., provide new or financially needy houses a loan for a term not to exceed one year.
• TRADITION SEVEN: Oxford House should remain forever non-professional, although individual members may be encouraged to utilize outside professionals whenever such utilization is likely to enhance recovery from alcoholism.
• TRADITION EIGHT: Propagation of the Oxford House, Inc. concept should always be conceived as public education rather than promotion. Principles should always be placed before personalities.
• TRADITION NINE: Members who leave an Oxford House in good standing are encouraged to become associate members and offer friendship, support, and example to newer members.

Business Meetings

Business meetings are the core of any Oxford House. All decisions are made based upon a democratic vote by all members of the house. A typical Oxford House has five positions with specific duties; however, each person still has only one vote. These positions are:

• President: Calls the meeting to order, directs the meeting, moderates discussion, and closes the meeting.
• Treasurer: Is responsible for keeping a financial accounting for all matters involving the house. This includes the house's current resources and any bills that must be paid. This position is almost always filled by someone with a significant amount of time in the house and a great deal of trust.
• Comptroller: Keeps an accurate account of the amount of money each person owes to the house each week. The "comptroller's report" is read openly each meeting.
• Chore Coordinator: Assigns weekly chores to each member of the house. Also reports on any fines that have been written that week, and discusses any general housekeeping matters that need to be attended to.
• Secretary: Keeps a record of the minutes of each meeting. Reads the minutes from the previous week at the beginning of each meeting.

DePaul University Research on Oxford House

DePaul University's Center for Community Research, led by Dr. Leonard Jason, has been involved in an extensive research study of Oxford House since 1988. It was found that the characteristics of people living in an Oxford House did not vary significantly from people in other substance abuse programs. The primary reason cited for moving into an Oxford House was the fellowship provided and the enforcement of a sober living environment. Approximately 3/4 of the residents involved in the study were involved with the Alcoholics Anonymous program. The average stay was about 175 days, and over a two year period 69% of those interviewed stayed in the house or left on good terms. The paper specifically stated "These findings suggest that the Oxford House model, in comparison to those who solely attend twelve-step programs, might be more effective in empowering residents in their ongoing abstinence in a way that enhances the perception of control in their lives."

Stanton Street Settlement

The Stanton Street Settlement is a Settlement movement, a 501(c)3 not-for-profit community organization whose mission it is to provide a safe, caring, tuition-free environment where children from New York City's Lower East Side can develop their minds, bodies and spirits.

The Stanton Street Settlement follows in a long tradition of service. The Settlement movement was started in London at Oxford by Don Barnett, who opened Toynbee Hall in East London. It was a place where service-minded Cambridge and Oxford graduates could work to empower the local poor through educational and social services.

Jane Addams brought the idea to Chicago after visiting and observing the workings of Toynbee Hall. She opened America's first Settlement, Hull House, on 18 September, 1889. Under her steadfast leadership Hull-House expanded. She described the difficulties and victories experienced there from 1889 - 1909 in her most famous book, "Twenty Years at Hull-House." It is in her writings that the model of what a Settlement should be is most carefully given:

“

The Settlement...is an experimental effort to aid in the solution of the social and industrial problems which are engendered by the modern conditions of life in a great city. It insists that these problems are not confined to any one portion of a city. It is an attempt to relieve, at the same time, the overaccumulation at one end of society and the destitution at the other; but it assumes that this...is most sorely felt in the things that pertain to social and educational privileges.

”

For her work with Hull-House, Jane Addams won a Nobel Prize in 1931. Her ideas spread to New York, where several Settlements sprang up in the Lower East Side to meet the social and educational needs of the city's growing immigrant population.

The Stanton Street Settlement, founded in 1999, still continues this tradition of community service at 53 Stanton Street. It is a flexible, grass-roots, 100% volunteer program designed to respond to the specific needs of the community. The Settlement currently serves approximately 35 students ages 5 to 16 with the help of 25 volunteer tutors and teachers.

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)

• East Side House Settlement Page
• Stanton Street Settlement website

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