The New Deal, Family Security, and the Emergence of a Public Child Welfare System

2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
Catherine E. Rymph
Keyword(s):  
Foster Care ◽  
Child Welfare ◽  
Social Security ◽  
New Deal ◽  
Child Welfare Services ◽  
Welfare Services ◽  
Public Child Welfare ◽  
The Social ◽  
Social Security Act ◽  
The New Deal

This chapter addresses the significance of the New Deal to the development of publicly funded foster care and its relationship to the nascent welfare state. The chapter includes many first-hand accounts of parents turning to foster care because they could not provide both economic support and nurturing care to their children. The chapter argues that the onset of the Great Depression marked a setback for the delivery of child welfare services. However, the promise of a more rational system of federal welfare provision through passage of the Social Security Act and other New Deal programs raised hopes that economic insecurity for families could be so drastically reduced as to eliminate (or at least diminish) the role of poverty in separating children from their families. In addition, Title V of the Social Security Act also provided funds to develop state-level public child welfare services, which helped spur the creation of a child welfare infrastructure.

Decision-making in foster care: A view on the dynamic and collective nature of the process

2020 ◽  
pp. 146801732092882
Author(s):  
Doris Chateauneuf ◽  
Marie-Andrée Poirier ◽  
Geneviève Pagé
Keyword(s):  
Decision Making ◽  
Foster Care ◽  
Child Welfare ◽  
Social Workers ◽  
Social Worker ◽  
Child Welfare Services ◽  
Foster Family ◽  
Her Family ◽  
Welfare Services ◽  
The Social

Summary Placement in a foster family by child welfare services is a crucial decision in the trajectory of a child. Nevertheless, the strategies and procedures underlying the decision to remove a child from his/her family for placement in foster care remain little studied. Based on 39 semi-directed individual interviews with social workers from child welfare services, the current study aims at highlighting how social workers come to the decision to remove a child from parental care, and how they choose a foster family. Findings The thematic analysis of the qualitative data collected reveals that four main components were raised by social workers to explain how they make their decisions regarding placement and what are the considerations associated with this process: (1) Professional consensus and collaboration, (2) Clinical and legal guidelines, (3) Risk assessment and clinical judgment, and (4) Personality and values of the social worker. The results of this study show that decisions surrounding the removal of a child from his/her family and the choice of a foster family are the result of multiples factors and strategies involving the social worker and other collaborating professionals, as well as their legal and administrative context. Application The findings suggest that additional efforts could be made in child protection organizations and agencies in order to develop supportive measures that take into account the collective and interactional aspect of the decision-making process regarding placement in foster care.

TRENDS

PEDIATRICS ◽  
1950 ◽  
Vol 6 (5) ◽  
pp. 783-784
Keyword(s):  
Child Welfare ◽  
Child Health ◽  
Health Services ◽  
Social Security ◽  
Maternal And Child Health ◽  
Child Health Services ◽  
Child Welfare Services ◽  
The Social ◽  
Social Security Act ◽  
And Child Health

WITH the war situation and the mobilization of medical manpower taking a prominent position in legislation directly affecting the medical profession, very few of the unprecedented number of health bills introduced into the 81st Congress have been enacted into law. But one piece of legislation which has been passed is of particular interest to the pediatric group since it provides for a large expansion in the grant-in-aid program of the Children's Bureau. The 1950 amendment to the Social Security Act (H.R. 6000) has nearly doubled the federal funds available for maternal and child health services, crippled children's services, and child welfare services. The remarkable growth in this program is brought into clear focus by the increases which have been made in the allocations to the Children's Bureau since the enactment of the Social Security Act in 1935. Under the provisions of the original act an annual budget of $8.17 million was allocated for grants-in-aid; $3.8 million for maternal and child health services, $2.87 million for crippled children's services, and $1.5 million for child welfare services. Each of these categories was increased in 1939 to a total of $11 million, increased again in 1946 to a total of $22 million and now to $41.5 million.

At the Center of Power: Roche in the New Deal Government, 1934–1939

2014 ◽  
Author(s):  
Robyn Muncy
Keyword(s):  
Twentieth Century ◽  
Health Policy ◽  
Social Security ◽  
New Deal ◽  
Full Range ◽  
Women In Politics ◽  
Politics And Government ◽  
The Social ◽  
Social Security Act ◽  
The New Deal

This chapter details events in Josephine Roche's life from 1934 to 1939. Serving as assistant secretary of the treasury in the New Deal government carried Roche to the height of her renown and power. Between 1934 and 1938, her central responsibility was health policy, but the full range of her involvement in the New Deal went well beyond that core focus. She also shaped one of the most significant pieces of federal legislation in the twentieth century, the Social Security Act, and oversaw the implementation of such New Deal programs as the National Youth Administration, all the while pushing for more effective regulation of industry and the unionization of American workers. As she dashed from one New Deal initiative to another, Roche was celebrated as an icon of female achievement who represented the new level of power achieved by women in politics and government during the 1930s.

“The Servant Campaigns”: African American Women and the Politics of Economic Justice in Washington, D.C., in the 1930s

2017 ◽  
Vol 44 (2) ◽  
pp. 187-202 ◽  
Author(s):  
Mary-Elizabeth Murphy
Keyword(s):  
Women Workers ◽  
African Americans ◽  
Social Security ◽  
African American Women ◽  
New Deal ◽  
Democratic Party ◽  
Training Programs ◽  
The Social ◽  
Social Security Act ◽  
Black Voters

When Franklin D. Roosevelt, a Democrat, was elected president in 1932, most African Americans did not support him since they were still loyal to the Republican Party. Moreover, New Deal policies, especially the Social Security Act in 1935, excluded farmers and domestics, and thus, most African Americans. One of the people who encouraged black voters to switch to the Democratic Party was Elizabeth McDuffie, a black servant in the Roosevelt White House. In the 1936 election, McDuffie went on the campaign trail and toured Chicago, Cleveland, Springfield, and St. Louis. As a domestic servant, McDuffie was a familiar face to southern migrants, and she convinced many black voters to switch to the Democratic Party. After her campaign tour concluded, McDuffie became acquainted with the large black population in Washington, D.C. McDuffie worked alongside middle-class activists to increase economic opportunities for women workers by sponsoring training programs for servants. But, as this article demonstrates, most black servants did not want training programs; they desired higher wages, better jobs, and inclusion in the Social Security Act. Working-class women in Washington wrote letters to the newspaper and in 1938, 10,000 rioted for jobs as federal charwomen, jobs that paid higher wages and offered savings for retirement. After McDuffie witnessed these events, she became a vocal critic of the limitations of New Deal programs while continuing to praise Roosevelt and the Democratic Party. This article argues that Elizabeth McDuffie’s career in Washington illuminates the contradictions of New Deal politics for black women workers.

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