Barbara C. Wallace

Major Social Welfare Needs in Chicago

CHICAGO has the same problem as other parts of the world. For every problem described by Martha Branscombe, there is a local counterpart. My approach to needs is, however, not the endless task of cataloguing these ills. I prefer to place emphasis on needs in terms of services rather than problems. This has been the focus of my work in the last year and a quarter, during which the Welfare Council of Metropolitan Chicago has taken three special approaches to examine Chicagos health and welfare services. Recently, at the request of the Field Foundation, the Council made an inventory of services available for the Negro on the South Side of Chicago. We were interested in the impediments to upgrading the quality of life of these underprivileged people, in the services that were available, and in what programs might be developed to improve the situation. In the responses from agencies and individuals, the items emphasized repeatedly were educational inadequacies, lack of employment opportunities for the unskilled, slum and segregated housing, and a whole collection of beliefs and attitudes about the Negro-the Negro about himself, the Negro toward the Negro, and so forth.

Intake Policies and Procedures at Eighteen Homes for the Aged and Inquirers and Applicants at Four Homes

This is the report of an inquiry undertaken between September, 1949, and March, 1950, by eighteen homes for the aged in chicago, the Community Project for the Aged of the Welfare Council of Metropolitan Chicago, and a research seminar at the School of Social Service Administration of the University of Chicago. The report is written by one of the participating faculty members; most of the work, however, was performed by others. Board and staff members of the homes devoted much time to providing the necessary facts. The staff of the Community Projects for the Aged encouraged the making of the inquiry, provided counsel at all times and some of the footwork in getting the task under way. Miss Mary Zahrobsky, of the faculty shared responsibility throughout the inquiry, from the day it appeared as a potential research experience for students in social work. The students used both their brains and their brawn in the collecting and processing of data, and from their manuscripts the writer has drawn liberally for this presentation.