Associated Charities

“ Private outdoor relief often leads to indiscriminate almsgiving, thus lending encouragement to wastefulness and imposture. People who are too lazy to earn an honest living apply to various organizations for help and sometimes obtain it from several of them. |The organization of relief agencies.| To eliminate this overlapping central bodies known as Charity Organization Societies, or Associated Charities, or Family Welfare Societies have been formed in many of the larger American communities. ”

“ The Associated Charities workers do not claim that with their presence the uncooperative effects disappear as at the touch of a wand, but that means to bring about complete and, if need be, joint responsibility for doing the right and complete thing for each family is furnished through their offices as meeting places and neutral ground. ”

“ To be real it must be limited as time and ability allow. Consequently, a friendly visitor usually befriends but one or two, or in any case only a few, families. The friendly visitor is the outcome of the movement for “associated charities,” but in America charity organization societies have also adopted the term, and to a certain extent the method. Between the two movements there is the closest affinity. The registration of applicants for relief is much more complete in American cities than in England, where the plan meets with comparatively little support. ”

“ Anne had a smiling acquaintance with her and was deeply interested in glimpses of her visitors. Miss Santa Claus's real name was Margery Hartman. Her fair hair was growing silvery, but her cheeks were pink and soft with lingering girlhood and the spirit of eternal youth looked from her clear blue eyes. She was the district agent of the Associated Charities, and worked untiringly with kind heart and clear head to aid and uplift the poor around her. ”

“ By a rule of the Society, the charity was formerly limited to forty shillings for any one person at any one time, and there is no doubt that a great deal of good was done. The growth of public and private charitable institutions and associations had the effect, twenty or twenty-five years ago, of leaving the Society with little or nothing to do, as its members were nearly all associated with other charities, which covered the ground more fully and promptly. Not for many years, however, has a record of dispensed charity been kept. ”

“ The general subject of grants to institutions or societies not dealing with families in their homes is considered in a separate section, but the subject of grants to the Associated Charities fitly belongs in this chapter because to it fell the work that so far had been done directly by the Rehabilitation Committee with the steady co-operation of the Associated Charities’ force of paid and volunteer workers. The mass of the population was on a fairly satisfactory economic basis, but it was wellknown that for some time to come the charity work of the city would be very heavy. ”

“ A new sense has been born—a sense of the beauty of order and many a quiet virtue unknown to the crowded and scrambling city life, and the lesson has as yet reached but the alphabet.
It is not the intention of this article to describe any one work at length, or to define more than the possibilities before us all. More and more we have come to recognize that only in dealing directly with the individual, can any efficient work be done, and this principle now underlies the best that the Associated Charities has given us. ”

“ The natural desire to give generously to the limits of one’s capacity, especially to those whom disaster has robbed of competence, is what constructive charity work always has to face from those who “cease not to give without any regard.” As years make it possible to view without prejudice the aim and result of the more cautious, less emotional policy pursued, it seems demonstrable that time will vindicate the much criticized deliberation of the [312] Rehabilitation Committee and the Associated Charities. ”

“ The Rehabilitation Committee through the Associated Charities sent them back to their native country where they will have a home with relatives.
If we turn from the picturesque, human aspect of the families who applied for rehabilitation or relief, to the financial, the brief summary is: (1) Twenty families of 41 persons, whose estimated total losses amounted to $10,000, asked for relief to the amount of $3,000 and were granted relief to the money value of $2,500. In addition they received shelter and food at Ingleside at a cost of $2,200. ”

“ Later when taken ill she found herself in debt and unable to carry out her plan. She then applied to the Associated Charities and was given two grants of $75, one for general relief, the other to keep the girl in the business college. The girl graduated and her knowledge of Spanish and English then enabled her to get a specially advantageous position. All the sisters are the better for the grant which raised their social status. ”

“ In summer, the visitor, with the consent of the Conference, has sent the younger children into the country to board for a month. He has taken pains to have the family live in a healthy tenement, and in many ways has insured their well-being. They are now partially self-supporting; and the older children are respectable and industrious, which we feel is greatly due to the influence that the visitor has exerted over them and their mother for four years.—Fourth Report of Boston Associated Charities, p. ”

“ Miss Alter knew every phase of work in the homes of the poor for she entered the 721 Hudson district of the New York Charity Organization Society as district nurse in 1908, later rounded out her preparation for the work of organized charity by a summer course in the New York School of Philanthropy, and became assistant agent in that district. In the fall of 1910 she rose to the responsible position of secretary of the Associated Charities of Pasadena. ”

“ It helps to make a distinction between charity and justice – both noble causes worthy of donations. Charity ministers to the immediate, often desperate needs of vulnerable populations. Charities support soup kitchens, clinics, renovate or build educational buildings, add services for the elderly, provide medicines for the poor here and in developing countries, help local school systems under budget restraints, and quickly respond to tragedies with disaster relief here and abroad. ”

“ Setting aside the great saving that could and would be effected in the management by united efforts, a much larger sum might be given to the legitimate object of each charity, and a systematic and efficient check upon each person receiving relief could be accomplished.
The vast sums annually given to established charities and benevolent institutions, form but a small item in the sum total of expenditure for charity. Tradesmen, and indeed individuals of every class, are in the habit of making continual donations to persons unknown, and frequently unworthy. ”

“ Studies have shown that Americans give far more to charity than the people of any other industrialized nation—more than twice as much, measured as a share of gross domestic product, than the citizens of Great Britain, and 10 times more than the citizens of France. (5) 7 out of 10 American households donate to charities to support a wide range of religious, educational, cultural, health care, and environmental goals. (6) These charities provide innumerable valuable public services to society’s most vulnerable citizens during difficult economic times. ”

“ Also trained workers make the most useful poor-law guardians, trustees of charities, secretaries of charitable societies and district visitors. All clergy and ministers and all medical men who have to be engaged in the administration of medical relief should learn the art of charity. Poor-law guardians are usually elected on political or general grounds, and have no special knowledge of good methods of charity ”

“ Devine, 16, 17; supplied by Red Cross, 14; supplying of, by Bureau of Special Relief and Rehabilitation Committee, 149, 150 Torney, Col. G. H.: establishment of free dispensaries by advice of, 93; in charge of sanitary work, 90 Trade: applicants and others in families aided under grant and loan plan who were engaged in, 262, 263; applicants to Associated Charities who were engaged in, 294, 295, 296; business status of applicants receiving aid for rehabilitation in, 196, 197, 206-208; men and women in families aided under bonus plan who were engaged in, 244 ”

“ Practically they come and go at will. The definite limitation of cases, according to some standard of effectual work, association with general charity, trained almonership and inquiry, and a just regard for the interests of general practitioners, are stepping-stones to reform. In towns where medical charities are numerous a representative board would promote mutual help and organization.
Like the poor-law, endowed charities may be permanent institutions established to meet what should be passing and decreasing needs (cf. the arguments in The State and Charity, by T. Mackay) . ”

“ Our vast public charities supported by law are an instance. It is recognized now by all civilized countries that it is a duty for the State to care for those who are so poor or unfortunate as to be unable to care for themselves. Private charities, too, are as much more enormous now than they were a century ago as private fortunes are, compared with those of that day. In fact, beneficence has come to be recognized as an important duty of the very wealthy; and churches, schools, hospitals, and the like bear witness everywhere to the benevolence of wealthy men. ”

“ Too much cannot be known about them in order that their benefits may be distributed amongst the fittest subjects and most deserving persons that can be found; and in order that those of us who are blessed with means may learn how carefully and fruitfully any benefaction we may make in the future will be utilised and bestowed, if placed in the hands of those administering the charities already established in our parish. ”

“ Private charities can undertake a large expenditure for one family, when a large expenditure will put the family beyond the need of charity; but official relief must always be hampered by the fear of establishing a precedent, and inadequate relief is often the result of this fear. ”

“ It would seem to be full time that, in consideration of the growth and rapidly accumulating necessities of our country, we should learn to economize our charities, and ensure from them the greatest possible practical benevolence. ”

“ Of course a centralized bureau of charities can make appeal for money and get responses, but here again it has been estimated that for public movements it often costs a large portion of a dollar to bring in one, even when the greatest care is used in selecting probable donors. ”

“ As to the present day, we have to consider practical suggestions in regard to such subjects as charity and economic thought, charity organization, friendly visiting and almonership, co-operation with the poor-law, charity and thrift, parochial management, hospitals and medical relief, exceptional distress and the “unemployed,” the utilization of endowments and their supervision, and their adaptation to new needs and emergencies. ”

“ Two problems confront the department of public charities: (1) How can it distinguish between those who actually need assistance and those who do not? (2) How can it help those who need assistance temporarily, without weakening their desire to become self-supporting? The same problems must be solved by the citizen in connection with his private charities. In general, it may be said that charitable work is best managed by private organizations, in charge of trained workers, who can investigate all cases of application for aid. ”

“ But in their resources and administration the difference is marked. Local endowed charities were constantly founded after Queen Elizabeth’s time till about 1830, and the poor-rate was at first supplementary of the local charities. When corn and fuel were dear and clothes very expensive, what now seem trivial endowments for food, fuel, coal and clothes were important assets in the thrifty management of a parish. But when the poor were recognized as a class of dependants entitled by law to relief from the community, the rate increased out of all proportion to the charities. ”

“ I urge all Americans to observe this week with appropriate ceremonies and activities, including the donation of pennies to charities, particularly those that provide direct services to our Nation's underprivileged and disadvantaged population, and to worthy community causes. ”

“ The enormous extent to which children’s aid societies have been increased in the United States, sometimes with the help of considerable public grants, suggests the greatest need for caution from the point of the preservation of the family as the central element of social strength in the community. The problem of charity in relation to medical relief in the large towns of the United States is similar to that of England ”

“ Public Charities.—The administration of public charities is everywhere a difficult matter, and, naturally, its difficulty is greatest in large cities, where we find the greatest number of those who seek relief. ”

“ It isn’t a pleasant side, and to you it isn’t a necessary one. There are numberless organized charities to provide for the wants of the poor and I subscribe to many of them. I will have your name put down upon one or two lists and it must then content you to know that you are helping, through others, those who need. ”