Children's Aid Society

“ Here there are thousands of homes awaiting the foundlings, without money and without price, where the child would have the best advantages the country could afford; or if it be too weak or sick to be moved, or the managers fear the experiment of placing-out, let some responsible nurse be selected in the country near by, and the foundling boarded at their expense. The experience of the Children's Aid Society is, that no children are so eagerly and kindly received in country families as infants who are orphans. ”

“ They are turned over to the Children’s Aid Society or the Society to Protect Children from Cruelty. On the day for the hearing of juvenile cases, the children will be brought in by the Society’s agents, and a petition will be filed setting forth briefly the facts. ”

“ They may want friendly counsel and wise direction in finding suitable homes; and they may sometimes be assisted by kindly oversight of these homes and of their children. It is in our power to secure for them these advantages, with added pecuniary assistance where 331needed, by utilizing the methods of the Children’s Aid Society, which is also a Bureau of Information. ”

“ Aid Society follows the same plan in reaching out for the little home worker whose work never ends, the girl upon whom falls the burden and responsibility of caring for the perennial baby when scarcely more than a baby herself, often even the cooking and all the rest of the housework so that the mother may have her own hands free to help earn the family living. ”

“ The work of the Boys' and Girls' Aid Society is state wide. Children are committed to the society from every county in the state. Since its organization it has received and cared for three thousand, seven hundred and twenty-three children and deducting those who have become of age, children adopted, and those sent to relatives or discharged for other causes, they have now upwards of five hundred children under the direct care of the society. About fifty-five of this number are at the Receiving Home awaiting placement and the balance are placed in family homes throughout the state of Oregon. ”

“ This is a philanthropic organization supported by private gifts, making public reports, managed by a board of directors, with a secretary or superintendent as executive officer, and often with a temporary home for the homeless. With these private agencies the placing-out principle obtains, and children are soon removed to permanent homes. The work of the aid societies is by no means confined to finding homes. It aids parents to find truant children, it gives outings in the summer season, it shelters homeless mothers with their children, it administers aid in time of sickness. ”

“ It is possible that we shall have to resort to an appeal to private charity to save the child, or perhaps we shall in time have free compulsory dental, surgical, and medical clinics.
The children are society’s greatest asset, from whatever point of view we consider them, and teachers should be most active in all movements which make for child welfare. There is no other group of people better acquainted with the needs of children, none other which stands in so strategic a position with relation to parents and the community at large. ”

“ Yet government programs alone cannot prevent child abuse. As a society that cares about the health and well-being of our children, we must forge caring, cooperative alliances that include government as a partner, but also involve schools, community organizations, businesses, religious groups, and especially parents and family members themselves-indeed, everyone who has a stake in the future of American families. ”

“ 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 ”

“ The Conference Report stated that the bill would 'eliminate the requirement that a needy child between 16 and 18 years of age must be regularly attending school in order to be eligible for aid to dependent children.' H.R.Conf.Rep. ”

“ Prior to certifying or continuing any more Aid to Dependent Children cases, a determination shall be made as to the home environment. If the home environment is not satisfactory, the children in that home shall be placed in foster care in lieu of Welfare Aid to the family adults. ”

“ Keeping children safe is a community responsibility, and prevention must be a community task. Every segment of society must be involved, including health and law enforcement professionals, schools, businesses, the media, government agencies, community and faith organizations, and especially parents themselves. Teachers and physicians need to recognize the symptoms of child abuse; parents need to ask for help in overcoming addictions or controlling violent behavior; communities must be willing to fund programs and services to protect children from abuse ”

“ The State shall grant the required allowances for children and the aid needed for the care of sick or disabled children. The law shall provide for other forms of social assistance for children and the young. ”

“ The aid provided through the AFDC program has always been intended for the individual dependent children, not for those who apply for the aid on their behalf. The Senate Committee on Finance, in its report on the Social Security Bill of 1935, stated this purpose in the following terms:
'The heart of any program for social security must be the child. All parts of the Social Security Act are in a very real sense measures for the security of children. ”

“ For the school to do for its children whatever they may need during their school years will require the setting up of a miniature society in every school building or under every school board. Unless schools are to equip themselves to take the place of all existing facilities for relief and surgery, children would not be so well taken care of as at present. It should not be forgotten that the physical welfare of the school child is the most accurate index to the physical needs of the community. ”

“ Both Socialism and Child-Protection have intimate associations alike with the quantitative and with the qualitative problems of population. Both Socialism and Child-Protection exert a powerful influence upon the quantity and the quality of human beings; and conversely these latter react no less powerfully upon Socialism and Child-Protection.
The leading aim of Child-Protection is to prevent the death of children before they attain an age at which they become competent to contribute directly to the welfare of society. ”

“ But the school-teacher will find that it takes very much less energy to arouse the relief society than to maintain her own relief work. In fact, in many cities nothing could do more to strengthen hospitals and charitable societies than to put them in touch with the needs of school children. For a principal to make known the fact that school children are neglected will help the charitable society and hospital to get the funds necessary to do their part better than they are now doing it and better than the school could ever do it. ”

“ Bipartisan support for this initiative-the first Federal investment in child welfare protection in more than a decade-has enabled States to use resources flexibly and creatively to strengthen families and work to reduce child abuse.
But government alone cannot end mistreatment. Social service agencies, schools, religious organizations, law enforcement agencies, businesses, and concerned citizens are all working to help children live up to their full potential. ”

“ The child welfare boards afford advisory assistance, admonish the parents, and supervise the child's regime under preventative procedures. Taking a child into custody for social care is the last resort. ”

“ Medical and dental inspection of school children will also be of value, and the town doctors will aid in it.
Pure food should certainly be studied, with investigations and recommendations of clean markets and groceries.
Child welfare is a most important subject. [Pg 11] Fresh air funds, children's summer camps, the prevention of infant mortality, children's clinics and the like will grow out of its study.
Child labor comes in this connection. If there are mills or canneries near by, it must be seen that the state laws are enforced there. The state care of the defective child should be studied. ”

“ It follows them into the institutions to which they are committed through its care, and fights their battles there, if need be, or the battles of their guardians under the law, against the greed of parents that would sacrifice the child’s prospects in life for the sake of the few pennies it could earn at home. And it generally wins the fight.
The Society has never received any financial support from the city, but has depended entirely upon private benevolence. Ample means have always been at its disposal. Last year it sheltered, fed, and clothed 1,697 children in its rooms. ”

“ The school also loses its governmental aid if within two consecutive years it does not maintain a fixed minimum attendance, which varies according to the population of the locality in which it is situated. In return special aids are offered for schools that teach gardening for boys and the care of smaller children for girls from 12 to 14 years. ”

“ Punch that does better work or more quietly than that which is administered by the Children's Aid Committee, who provide homes in country cottages and farm-houses for children, most of them motherless, of our soldiers and sailors, visit them from time to time and watch over their needs. Here in these homes their fathers, who are kept informed of their children's welfare during their absence, come to see them when on leave from the Front, and find them gently cared for. Since the War began homes have been provided for over two thousand four hundred children. ”

“ Naturally the teacher would follow such a child into her home and there endeavor to clinch the efforts begun for its reclamation in the school. It is the very core and kernel of the Society’s purpose not to let go of the children of whom once it has laid hold, and to this end it employs its own physicians to treat those who are sick, and to canvass the poorest tenements in the summer months, on the plan pursued by the Health Department. Last year these doctors, ten in number, treated 1,578 sick children and 174 mothers. ”

“ But responsibility for the health and safety of youngsters often requires the assistance of the wider community, including, for example, the members of private groups, voluntary organizations, and religious orders who care for children ”

“ Students are at times sent to the school for instruction with a request for aid from some charitable institution, church, hospital, school, or settlement which knows and is interested in the family; but, in general, a girl needing financial help comes without such recommendations, and consequently a more thorough investigation of the case is necessary. Inquiry is always made at first of the Charity Organization Society, in order to learn whether her family has received or is receiving other relief. ”

“ That this job of keeping our children safe -- and teaching them well -- is something we can only do together: with the help of friends and neighbors, the help of a community and the help of a nation. And in that way we come to realize that we bear responsibility for every child, because we're counting on everybody else to help look after ours. That we're all parents, that they are all our children. ”

“ Art. 11 Protection of Children and Young People Children and young people have the right to special protection of their integrity and to encouragement of their development. They may exercise their rights themselves to the extent of their capacity to discern. Art. 12 Right to Aid in Distress Persons in distress and incapable of looking after themselves have the right to be helped and assisted, and to receive the means that are indispensable for leading a life in human dignity. ”

“ Children welfare institutions and relief and protection agencies for minors shall provide family education guidance to the foster families arranged by them, and to the parents or other guardians of the minors who receive their assistance and protection. ”

“ To-day there are a hundred societies for the prevention of cruelty to children in this country, independent of each other but owning the New York Society as their common parent, and nearly twice as many abroad, in England, France, Italy, Spain, the West Indies, South America, Canada, Australia, etc. The old link that bound the dumb brute with the helpless child in a common bond of humane sympathy has never been broken. ”

“ Humanity is the religion of the Children’s Society. In its Board of Directors are men of all nationalities and of every creed. Its fundamental doctrine is that every rescued child must [Pg 152] be given finally into the keeping of those of its own faith who will carry on the work begun in its rescue. Beyond that point the Society does not go. ”

“ The various forms of fraternal aid need not be specified, nor the cases described in which the death of parents or peculiar circumstances enhance the obligation, and the responsibility of parents [Pg 117] devolves upon the elder children. Whatever the age, the welfare of children is closely connected with their mutual conduct, and its power reaches not merely to the division of time and cares, but to the highest interests of mind and heart. ”

“ Under the laws now in place, all mothers who have children under age 6 are exempt from participating in work activities that-as several demonstration projects have shown-can help Aid For Dependent Children, AFDC, recipients become more self-reliant. Fewer than one-fifth of all recipients now participate in work activities. ”