
The settlement house, an approach to social reform with roots in the late 19th century and the Progressive Movement
Progressive Era
The Progressive Era was a period of widespread social activism and political reform across the United States that spanned the 1890s to the 1920s. The main objectives of the Progressive movement were eliminating problems caused by industrialization, urbanization, immigration, and political corruption. The movement primarily targeted political machines and their bosses. By taking down these …
Do you think settlement houses were successful?
do you think settlement house were successful? yes they were in the time that they were needed but then that turned into something bigger and even better Key terms for all three sections
What did the settlement house movement do?
The settlement house movement was a social movement that supported the idea of creating large housing projects to provide mobility for the working class. It grew out of a desire for reform that had already had effects in several other areas, such as the creation of numerous charities to help people in poverty.
What is the definition of settlement houses?
The settlement house definition is best understood as being a housing project designed for the purpose of elevating the situation of members of the poor working class. The organizers of these houses hoped to reform the characteristics, actions, and perspectives of their tenants.
How did the settlement house movement evolve?
The settlement house, an approach to social reform with roots in the late 19th century and the Progressive Movement, was a method for serving the poor in urban areas by living among them and serving them directly.As the residents of settlement houses learned effective methods of helping, they then worked to transfer long-term responsibility for the programs to government agencies.

What was the purpose of settlement houses quizlet?
What are settlement houses? Community centers that offered services to the poor. How did settlement houses help immigrants? They gave them a home, taught them English, and about the American government, provided them with services.
How did the settlement houses help the poor?
How did settlement houses help the poor? Settlement houses provided the environment for the poor tenants to create social clubs, community groups, and cultural events. This promoted fellowship between the residents. Education programs were also conducted under the auspices of the houses.
Who received benefits from settlement houses?
Who received benefits from settlement houses in the late 1800s and early 1900s? middle class. Which is the most complete explanation of why people immigrated to the United States in the late 1800s and early 1900s?
Why were settlement houses important to immigrants?
Settlement house residents often acted as advocates on behalf of immigrants and their neighborhoods; and, in various areas, they organized English classes and immigrant protective associations, established “penny banks” and sponsored festivals and pageants designed to value and preserve the heritage of immigrants.
How did settlement houses help people?
Settlement houses were organizations that provided support services to the urban poor and European immigrants, often including education, healthcare, childcare, and employment resources.
How did volunteers at settlement houses help immigrant families in poor neighborhoods?
They played an enormous role in helping immigrants adjust to life in their new country. The volunteers who ran them also convinced political leaders in cities to start providing neighborhoods with more parks, playgrounds, local libraries, and kindergarten programs.
How did settlement houses help city dwellers?
How did the settlement houses help city dwellers? They provided education for children, social activities for immigrants and English classes for immigrants. They taught sewing, cooking, provided daycare, art classes, clubs, plays and sports.
Were settlement houses successful?
Although settlement houses failed to eliminate the worst aspects of poverty among new immigrants, they provided some measure of relief and hope to their neighborhoods.
Was the settlement house movement successful?
Settlement houses were successful in some ways but not in others. They failed to eliminate poverty and all of its causes, but they were able to all...
What did the settlement house movement do?
The settlement movement was part of a broader effort for social reform. House founders attempted to uplift the working class urban poor by exposing...
How did settlement houses work?
Settlement houses were housing projects designed to elevate the situation of the members of the poor working class. University students and other v...
What was the purpose of the settlement house?
The settlement house, an approach to social reform with roots in the late 19th century and the Progressive Movement, was a method for serving the poor in urban areas by living among them and serving them directly. As the residents of settlement houses learned effective methods of helping, they then worked to transfer long-term responsibility for the programs to government agencies. Settlement house workers, in their work to find more effective solutions to poverty and injustice, also pioneered the profession of social work. Philanthropists funded the settlement houses. Often, organizers like Jane Addams made their funding appeals to the wives of the wealthy businessmen. Through their connections, the women and men who ran the settlement houses were also able to influence political and economic reforms.
What did settlement houses serve?
Some settlement houses served whatever ethnic groups were in the area. Others, such as those directed towards African Americans or Jews, served groups that weren't always welcome in other community institutions.
What did Lucy Flower of Hull House do?
Lucy Flower of Hull House was involved in a variety of movements . Mary Parker Follett used what she learned in settlement house work in Boston to write about human relations, organization, and management theory, inspiring many later management writers, including Peter Drucker.
What were the roots of the settlement house movement?
Community organizing and group work both have roots in the settlement house movement's ideas and practices. The settlement houses tended to be founded with secular goals, but many who were involved were religious progressives, often influenced by the social gospel ideals.
What is a neighborhood center?
The term "neighborhood center" (or in British English, neighbourhood centre) is often used today for similar institutions, as the early tradition of "residents" settling in the neighborhood has given way to professionalized social work. Some settlement houses served whatever ethnic groups were in the area.
What were the names of the early settlement houses?
Other notable early settlement houses were the East Side House in 1891 in New York City, Boston's South End House in 1892, the University of Chicago Settlement and the Chicago Commons (both in Chicago in 1894), Hiram House in Cleveland in 1896, Hudson Guild in New York City in 1897, and Greenwich House in New York in 1902.
How many settlement houses were there in 1910?
By 1910, there were more than 400 settlement houses in more than 30 states in America. At the peak in the 1920s, there were almost 500 of these organizations. The United Neighborhood Houses of New York today encompasses 35 settlement houses in New York City.
What was the settlement house movement?
The Settlement House Movement. by John E. Hansan, Ph.D. One of the most influential organizations in the history of American social welfare was the “settlement house.”. The establishment and expansion of social settlements and neighborhood houses in the United States corresponded closely with the Progressive Era, the struggle for woman suffrage, ...
How did settlements help the world?
It is important to note that settlements helped create and foster many new organizations and social welfare programs, some of which continue to the present time. Settlements were action oriented and new programs and services were added as needs were discovered; settlement workers tried to find, not be, the solution for social and environmental deficits affecting their neighbors. In the process, some settlements became engaged in issues such as housing reform, factory safety, labor organizing, protecting children, opening health clinics, legal aid programs, consumer protection, milk pasteurization initiatives and well-baby clinics. Others created parks and playgrounds or emphasized the arts by establishing theaters and classes for the fine arts and music education. A number of settlement leaders and residents conducted research, prepared statistical studies, wrote reports or described their personal experiences in memoirs (e.g., Hull-House Maps and Papers, Robert Woods’s City Wilderness, Jane Addams’s Twenty Years at Hull-House, and Lillian Wald’s House on Henry Street).
What did Hull House do for Black people?
Although Hull-House and other settlements helped establish separate institutions for Black neighborhoods , pioneered in studying Black urban communities, and helped organize the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People, Blacks were not welcome at the major settlements.
What actually happened to the residents of settlements?
What actually happened was that residents of settlements learned as much or more from their neighbors than they taught them. The “settlers” found themselves designing and organizing activities to meet the needs of the residents of the neighborhoods in which they were living.
How were settlements organized?
Settlements were organized initially to be “friendly and open households,” a place where members of the privileged class could live and work as pioneers or “settlers” in poor areas of a city where social and environmental problems were great. Settlements had no set program or method of work. The idea was that university students and others would make a commitment to “reside” in the settlement house in order to “know intimately” their neighbors. The primary goal for many of the early settlement residents was to conduct sociological observation and research. For others it was the opportunity to share their education and/or Christian values as a means of helping the poor and disinherited to overcome their personal handicaps.
How did the American settlement movement differ from the English model?
The American settlement movement diverged from the English model in several ways. More women became leaders in the American movement; and there was a greater interest in social research and reform. But probably the biggest difference was that American settlements were located in overcrowded slum neighborhoods filled with recent immigrants. Working with the inhabitants of these neighborhoods, settlement workers became caught up in searching for ways to ease their neighbor’s adjustment and integration into a new society. Settlement house residents often acted as advocates on behalf of immigrants and their neighborhoods; and, in various areas, they organized English classes and immigrant protective associations, established “penny banks” and sponsored festivals and pageants designed to value and preserve the heritage of immigrants.
What were the contributions of settlement workers?
At other times, bringing about a change required becoming advocates for a specific cause or acting as spokespersons appealing to a wider public for understanding or support for a proposed civic matter or political measure. From their advocacy, research and sometimes eloquent descriptions of social needs afflicting their neighbors, lasting contributions were made by residents of settlement houses in the areas of education, public health, recreation, labor organizing, housing, local and state politics, woman’s rights, crime and delinquency, music and the arts. Settlements soon became renown as the fountainhead for producing highly motivated social reformers, social scientists and public administrators, including such early notables as
What was the settlement house movement?
America’s settlement house movement was born in the late 19th century. The Industrial Revolution; dramatic advances in technology, transportation, and communication; and an influx in immigrants caused significant population swells in urban areas. City slums emerged where families lived in crowded, unsanitary housing.
What did settlement workers do?
Settlement workers and other neighbors were pioneers in the fight against racial discrimination. Their advocacy efforts also contributed to progressive legislation on housing, child labor, work conditions, and health and sanitation. Pioneers in the movement gather for a meeting of the National Federation of Settlements.
What was the meeting of the Pioneers in the movement?
Pioneers in the movement gather for a meeting of the National Federation of Settlements.
When did the United Neighborhood Centers of America start?
In 1911, a group of settlement house movement pioneers founded the National Federation of Settlements, which was renamed United Neighborhood Centers of America (UNCA) in 1979 .
Who founded the Andover House?
Robert A. Woods founded Andover House, Boston’s first settlement house, in 1891. Today it is United South End Settlements. Woods also served as the National Federation of Settlements’ first executive secretary.
What is the Alliance for Strong Families and Communities Center for Engagement and Neighborhood Building?
The Alliance for Strong Families and Communities Center for Engagement and Neighborhood Building is designed to honor, study, promote, and accelerate the history and values of the settlement house movement. This movement embodies a rich heritage of recognizing that all individuals, families, and communities, no matter how challenged, possess aspirations and strengths that can be the foundation for meaningful, lasting change.

First Settlement Houses
Famous Settlement Houses
- The best-known settlement house is perhaps Hull House in Chicago, founded in 1889 by Jane Addams with her friend Ellen Gates Starr. Lillian Wald and the Henry Street Settlement in New York is also well known. Both of these houses were staffed primarily by women and both resulted in many reforms with long-lasting effects and many programs that exist today.
The Movement Spreads
- Other notable early settlement houses were the East Side House in 1891 in New York City, Boston's South End House in 1892, the University of Chicago Settlement and the Chicago Commons (both in Chicago in 1894), Hiram House in Cleveland in 1896, Hudson Guild in New York City in 1897, and Greenwich House in New York in 1902. By 1910, there were more than 40…
More House Residents and Leaders
- Edith Abbott, a pioneer in social work and social service administration, was a Hull House resident with her sister Grace Abbott, New Deal chief of the federal Children's Bureau.
- Emily Greene Balch, later a Nobel Peace Prize winner, worked in and for some time headed Boston's Denison House.
- George Bellamy founded Hiram House in Cleveland in 1896.
- Edith Abbott, a pioneer in social work and social service administration, was a Hull House resident with her sister Grace Abbott, New Deal chief of the federal Children's Bureau.
- Emily Greene Balch, later a Nobel Peace Prize winner, worked in and for some time headed Boston's Denison House.
- George Bellamy founded Hiram House in Cleveland in 1896.
- Sophonisba Breckinridge from Kentucky was another Hull House resident who went on to contribute to the field of professional social work.