Mary richmond charity organization society
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With her book Social Diagnosis from 1917, Mary Ellen Richmond (1861-1928) constructed the foundations for the scientific methodology development of professional social work. She searched for the causes of poverty and social exclusion in the interaction between an individual and his or her environment. Mary Richmond can be described as the mother of social casework.
Richmond spent her ungdom in Baltimore on the American east coast. Aged 4, she became an orphan. She was an intelligent ung lady and was raised by her feminist grandmother. After having worked for eight years in a bookshop, she dedicated the rest of her life from 1889 onwards to modernising and professionalising of care for the poor. She started her career with the Charity Organisation Society (COS) in Baltimore, a US branch of the organisation Octavia Hill established in the UK. Richmond’s capacities didn’t remain unnoticed and soon she was offered leading position in COS in Baltimore and Philadelphia. From 1909
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Social work was highly politicized since its infancy and unsurprisingly Charity Based Organizations had contributed to form and to institutionalize social class which had further distanced the gap between people. More specifically, COS characterized socially excluded section of the population as a deserving or undeserving poor which was underpinned by an individualistic approach; poverty wasn’t the consequence of economic mismanagement of government neither a matter of blaming social or structural factors rather it is a failure of the affected individual (Humphreys, R. (2001). Whatsoever, the significant role of COS was to assess and measure the degree of vulnerability and to find out the amount of assistance needed to the deserving poor but assessment knew that the cause of poverty wasn’t an economic hardship /crisis but a lack of competence or kills, therefore, volunteers started advising deserving to manage resources and improving capacities (Humphreys, R. (2001) especiall
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Mary Richmond
American social worker
For the New Zealand community leader, teacher and writer, see Mary Richmond (teacher).
Mary Ellen Richmond | |
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Richmond in 1894 | |
| Born | August 5, 1861 Belleville, Illinois, US |
| Died | September 12, 1928(1928-09-12) (aged 67) |
Mary Ellen Richmond (1861–1928) was an American social work pioneer. She is regarded as the mother of professional social work along with Jane Addams. She founded social case work, the first method of social work and was herself a Caseworker.
Early life
[edit]She was born on August 5, 1861, in Belleville, Illinois. Her parents died when Mary was 3, along with all three of her siblings due to Tuberculosis, which forced her to live with her grandmother and aunts in Baltimore, Maryland.[1] She was the second oldest daughter of Henry Richmond, a carriage blacksmith, and Lavinia Harris Richmond, the daughter of a prominent Baltimore, Maryland, jeweler and real estate broker.[1]
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