Suzy
E. Edelstein, MSW
Irma Rodriquez, MSW
Deputy Director
Assoc. Exec. Director
United Neighborhood Houses
Forest Hills Community House
Honoring Our Roots in Settlements Today
By Suzy E. Edelstein, MSW, Deputy Director, United Neighborhood Houses and
Irma Rodriguez, MSW, Associate Executive Director, Forest Hills Community House
October 2003
In social work curricula these days, settlement houses often rate no more than an entry in a bibliography. They are depicted in social work journals as benchmarks of the past, a guidepost for measuring how far we've come. In fact, settlement houses were radical experiments when originally founded, have endured over time, are reflections of the present, and are positioned to be heralds of the future.
England's Toynbee Hall established in 1884 and still functioning, was a precursor and model for settlement houses in many countries, including Canada and the United States. Individuals who visited Toynbee Hall often left inspired to launch comparable efforts to study the living conditions of those in poverty. Believing that poverty resulted not necessarily from an individual's characteristics or dysfunction, but from root societal causes and living conditions, these individuals set out to work with others, and neighborhood residents themselves, to achieve change in the lives both of individuals and communities. Stanton Coit made such a visit and came home to New York City to start the first American settlement house in 1886, Neighborhood Guild, which became University Settlement. Jane Addams also saw Toynbee Hall and returned to Chicago to start Hull House in 1889.
These first houses were called “social settlements,” because their founders “settled” in low or no-income neighborhoods and pursued explicit goals of social research and change. Literally moving from their prior homes to reside next door to immigrants, factory workers and the very poor, individuals who started settlement houses lived communally with others they mobilized toward the cause of social reform. In the United States, such persons included educators and students, wealthy individuals inspired to social action by religious beliefs, and women pioneering early feminism.
While they differed in their motivations, the early settlement leaders passionately believed that education empowered individuals to improve themselves. Consequently, settlement houses pioneered and provided a wide array of educational services, including English classes, arts and literature instruction, and all-day kindergarten. Settlement house founders also believed that the causes of poverty lay in a variety of social conditions, including lack of access to education, nutrition, health care, and housing, and debilitating industrial working conditions. Thus, the way to reverse poverty was to remedy those social problems in a concerted and holistic way, both individual by individual, AND through public policy change. As a result, settlement house workers engaged neighborhood residents in advocacy to inform community and civic leaders about their living conditions and need for change.
Building a Sense of Community
Today settlement houses continue to work in communities and with community residents on issues of importance to New York City's neighborhoods. Many settlement staff drawn from the ranks of former participants continue to live in the neighborhoods served. And in what must seem like a “back to the future” mode, many of the NYC settlement houses are working with new immigrant populations, reflecting the largest wave of immigration to our city since the turn of the century. Others located in very low-income communities continue to address issues of poverty, poor housing and homelessness, health and mental health concerns, and the breakdown of the educational system. All the settlement houses offer neighborhood residents a wide range of programs that would enhance the quality of life in any community, i.e., childcare, recreation, education, and the arts. All the settlement houses continue to be embedded in their communities and to varying degrees continue to practice their historical role as conveners of residents to better understand and advocate for their community.
Settlement houses today build a sense of community in various ways, but first and foremost, by connecting neighbor to neighbor. Working across racial, cultural and economic differences, settlement houses create a sense of community among program participants and in the broader community, by recognizing common experiences while respecting and celebrating diversity. The neighbor-to-neighbor relationships built create social supports and social capital, which results from relationships characterized by trust, reciprocity and respect.
The settlement house model of community building is informed by the settlement house history of community organizing and guided by a belief system that stresses hospitable physical space, holistic inclusive approaches, a strength-based orientation, and a case to cause advocacy tradition. Today's settlements still work primarily with groups, do with rather than for people while fostering opportunities for self-expression, celebration and fun. Settlement houses provide neighbors opportunities to give back to the community, promoting a sense of collective efficacy.
Settlements today face the same budget and political constraints challenging most community-based not-for-profits. Some challenges are unique: working holistically in an environment that favors categorical funding, and maintaining a focus on community building while funders favor “bringing services to scale.” And, settlement houses persist in the struggle to address the causes of poverty socially, in a political environment stressing individual responsibility and diminishing governmental accountability.