USA > Massachusetts > Suffolk County > Boston > The challenge of a heritage : one hundred years of service to children, 1855-1955 > Part 2
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The first record of board being paid to foster parents was in 1897 - the other forms of placement being in free, adoption and wage homes.
Frequent meetings of the Church Home and Children's Aid Committees were held in which reports were given and discussed and policies made with regard to what the Children's Aid called " the outside family."
The apparent success and flexibility of the Placing-out System, the probings into the relative merits of Institutional care versus Placement; the inadequacies and expenses of maintaining two Institutions forced the permanent closing of the Stanwood School in 1904 - the boys of the School being placed in foster homes by the Children's Aid Society under the visitor, Mr. Stone.
In 1907 the estate at Topsfield was sold for $6,000 and the money invested for the Church Home to be known as the Louisa Briggs Stanwood Fund in memory of the first wife of Mr. Joseph E. Stanwood.
Transition
A certain resistance to the " Placing-out in Families System " was felt in the recordings of the Board of Managers, such as, " With all there is to be said for the placing-out in families System, for children destitute of homes, there are still a great many strong arguments for the life of a Home run on modern ideas," and " Institutional life is on trial, as it were, and its methods and results may be open to some criticism, but knowing the details of the life of the Home, following from month to
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month the story of each child, and realizing from what they are saved, to be put in the way of growing up Christian men and women, the Board of Managers feels strongly that the Church Home holds a place in our city, which would be sadly vacant, were its doors to be closed."
In answer to inquiries for fuller histories of some of the placed- out children than had been written into the Church Home's Admission Papers, individual items about each child "that seemed suitable and available " were set down in Books of Reference. These first records were written by two of the Managers, " a work of many months, most thoroughly done."
Increased efforts were made to cooperate more with the other Children's Agencies - the Children's Mission to Children; the Children's Friend Society and the Associated Charities. In work with adoption applications, considerable assistance was given by the Massachusetts Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Children, as the Church Home " had no legal hold on the Child." Some of the older boys, needing a peculiar discipline, were placed in the George Junior Republic and the Berkshire Farm School.
Eventually a modern system of card catalogues and record- keeping was established comparable to that used by other private organizations and the State Board of Charities, and a " paid visitor and record keeper was added to the Staff."
These closer connections with the other Societies resulted in a more careful selection of applicants for admission to the Home; temporary care in case of illness and misfortune replacing long- time care; re-emphasis on rebuilding family life, reuniting chil- dren and parents as soon as was possible; increased wages for all Staff members and relief for the overworked visitor - it being considered " poor economy to wear out a valuable and willing worker."
In the year 1908 Mrs. Henry H. Fay became President of the Board of Managers, and the work of a great team, Bishop Law- rence and Mrs. Fay, two whose consecration, clear vision and
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understanding of the rights of little children carried on and on for years, began.
One of their first joint projects was the formation of a Com- mittee to look into the question of "Placing-out and Cottage Systems in other states as well as in Massachusetts." For two years this Special Investigating Committee, composed of Mrs. Boylston A. Beal, Mrs. Robert Amory, Mrs. Henry Howard, Miss Mabel R. Sturgis, with Mrs. Louis Curtis as Chairman and Mrs. Fay as an ex-officio member, worked on this signal task.
They conferred with the executives of local Societies - with Mr. Birtwell of the Children's Aid; Mr. Field of the Children's Mission; Mr. Knight of the New England Home for Little Wanderers; Mr. Stone of the Children's Friend; with Dr. Jeffrey K. Brackett, Dean of the Simmons College School of Social Work, who laid great stress on the personality of the " visitor," remarking, “ placement is best if well done, and worst if done badly " - and afield with Dr. Hastings H. Hart, Director of the Russell Sage Foundation, New York City, and with the execu- tives of Agencies in New York and Philadelphia. They sought out people prominent in the Children's field who came to Boston in 1911 as delegates to the National Conference of Charities and Corrections and invited them to meet with members of the Board.
Reports to the Board of the Committee's findings aroused long and heated discussions, but finally four suggestions were set down as alternatives for future procedure -
1. The Congregate Home with barracks is obsoletc.
2. The Cottage System is too expensive to consider.
3. The System of Receiving Homes where children stay until physical defects are remedied and then placed out is also expensive.
4. The Placing-out System is the least expensive.
At length after two years of discussions for and against the Placing-out System it was decided to send the Board's decision
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to the Trustees. Consultations with the Trustees were held on future policies; legal procedures on use of Funds; disposition of the South Boston property; loss of public interest and support - to which Bishop Lawrence characteristically replied, " the wel- fare of the children should be our first consideration, it being my experience that if the right thing is done public support will increase."
In February 1913 it was voted by the Trustees " to authorize the Board of Managers to give the Placing-out System a good trial for two years, remembering that the Charter requires that the children shall be placed in families belonging to the Protestant Episcopal Church " (it was agreed that in very exceptional cases, or in cases of emergency, children might be placed elsewhere at the discretion of the Managers ) and "that the Trustees strongly advise the Board of Managers to use the present building as a Temporary Home."
A Statistical Summary, 1855-1913 Fifty-eight Years of Institutional Care 1855-1867 Charles Street - 1868-1913 South Boston 1888-1904 Stanwood School, Topsfield
1360 individual children, boys and girls between the ages of four and fourteen years, were given a total of 4,832 years of care, an average of 31/2 years per child.
SOURCES OF INCOME
Estimated
Annual Memberships
$85,000
(a gift of $3.00 or more annually constituted membership in the Corporation )
Life Memberships
21,000
(a gift of $50 or more made the donor a Life Member )
Subscriptions and Donations 181,700
Income from Invested Funds
235,000
Income from Board, etc.
14,000
$536,700
EXPENDITURES
Charles Street Institution South Boston Institution Stanwood School
$45,500 450,000
41,200
$536,700
Endowment Fund, exclusive of Real Estate in
South Boston and Topsfield $187,000
1913
In May 1913 Miss Katherine P. Hewins, a Church woman of great integrity, became the General Secretary of the Church Home for Orphan and Destitute Children. Miss Hewins brought to the Agency a rich experience in Child Welfare, having served as District Secretary in the Associated Charities and as Executive of the Investigating Department of the Department of Public Welfare's Division of Child Guardianship and Deputy Superin- tendent of this Division.
Miss Hewins began immediately to make provision for the children then in the Home and by September all were placed in foster homes.
The old Institution was closed and a new and more accessible office was opened at No. 202 West Newton Street, Boston, the Staff included the General Secretary, one Investigator and two Placing-out Visitors.
Within a short time clear-cut relationships were established with other Private and Public Children's Agencies and certain agreements were entered into - the Church Home to care for Episcopal children only - all Episcopal children with the excep- tion of those to whom the care of a Public Agency should be given; the cooperating Agencies to refer Episcopal children and Episcopal homes to the Church Home.
The Agency's territory then extended across the whole state of Massachusetts-throughout both Dioceses. Contacts were made with all the clergy that they and their parishioners might have a
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clearer understanding of the Church Home's methods of service, its plan for the expansion of this service and its need for a more enlightened spiritual, moral and financial support.
In 1915, the Trial Period over, with standards of service having been raised to a new high, the Placing-out policy was formally adopted by the Managers.
The number of children served increased steadily, demanding additions to both professional and clerical Staffs. Relationships with other Children's and Community Agencies and with plan- ning committees provoked sounder thinking and quickened ac- tion - i.e., the Conference on Illegitimacy, the New League for Preventive Work (a study of feeble-mindedness in Massa- chusetts ), and the Confidential Exchange of Information.
It is recorded in the year 1916 that The Church Home Society had on its staff two students for field work from the Boston (Simmons College) School of Social Work. This teaching func- tion of a professional Social Casework Organization has continued down through the years with increasing emphasis - with students from both the Simmons College and Boston University Schools on the staff today.
Keeping pace with the rapid growth of the Agency called for a revision of the By-laws and at a Corporation meeting on January 11, 1917, a new set of By-laws was unanimously adopted and the Board of Trustees and Board of Managers were merged into a single Board - the Board of Managers. The old name - Church Home for Orphan and Destitute Children - was changed to The Church Home Society for the Care of Children of the Protestant Episcopal Church.
An arrangement was made with the Boston Dispensary, through its Preventive Clinic, for physical examinations to be given all children coming into the Society's care and for periodic examina- tions in accordance with the children's physical needs. The ex- pense of this medical care was met by the Church Home Society and other Agencies which used it. Dr. Maynard Ladd, distin-
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guished Boston pediatrician, was the founder of the Clinic and its Chief for a quarter of a century.
The increase in the number of infants under two years being cared for by the Society made it imperative to add to the staff a trained nurse experienced in Social Work.
Realizing that a sound mind in a sound body was the founda- tion on which a child's future should be built, the part-time services of Dr. Alberta S. B. Guibord, a psychiatrist with rare personal qualifications and great technical skill, were employed. All children in the Society's care were given routine psychiatric examinations, the report of which as time went on made a con- siderable body of knowledge that the Society could share with other Children's Agencies.
Through the Boston Council of Social Agencies there came the suggestion that a federation of three of Boston's Child Placing Agencies, the Boston Children's Aid Society, the Boston Society for the Care of Girls and The Church Home Society, might mean an enlarged service to the community at somewhat less cost and without loss of identity.
A willingness on the part of the Managers to give careful consideration to a plan that might mean better service to children, plus a serious falling off in financial support traceable to post-war conditions, and the failure of an appeal from The Church Home Society to the Bishop and Council for financial aid from the Church's Call Funds, led to the passing of the following vote - " To lay the whole matter before the newly appointed Social Service Department under the Bishop and Council, at its next meeting, asking that the whole question of Diocesan Charities be immediately investigated, and the proposed articles of federa- tion of The Church Home Society with the Boston Children's Aid Society and the Boston Society for the Care of Girls be submitted for their advice."
The Department advised The Church Home Society "to refrain from the contemplated federation " and urged the Bishop
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and Council to recognize The Church Home Society as a Dioce- san Institution to be placed under the supervision of the Depart- ment and to receive financial support from it.
This agreement was consummated late in 1922 and was put into operation early in 1923 - the first financial grant being the sum of $16,000.
The following excerpts were taken from a report written by Charles M. Rogerson, Secretary of the Department of Social Service. The report was recorded in the Minutes of the Society's Board Meeting in February 1922 and illustrates well the attitude of the Department toward federation.
The Community or Social Worker's point of view inclines toward federation because it tends to avoid duplication of work and of collecting and to produce economy of operation and greater efficiency in the care of children by the community as a whole.
At the moment there are at least six private Children's Agencies in Boston, each doing substantially similar work and all in addition to the work done by the State. The present trend of thought is toward federation because only by such means can the complicated situation in Boston be simplified. From this point of view alone federation might well be favored.
The Church point of view emphasizing the fact that The Church Home is run by Episcopalians exclusively for Episcopal children inclines against federation as tending to subordinate the religious side of the work and because of the belief that a fuller support by the Church can be had if it is prepared to care for its own children through an Agency responsive to the religious aspects of the Work.
These two points of view are not irreconcilable. The work of The Church Home Society must be done in the community and in cooperation with the work done by others. And there is
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growing appreciation of the value of sympathetic religious in- fluences in child and family welfare work.
The Qualifications and Conditions necessary for Institutions and Organizations to Become Diocesan and Part of the Social Service Work of the Diocese, as accepted by The Church Home Society were -
QUALIFICATIONS
1. That they shall be plainly useful.
2. That they shall cover the whole Diocese.
3. That persons helped as a rule shall be Episcopalians, or persons without definite religious ties.
4. That the work of the Institution or Organization shall be of a pastoral nature, according to the tenets of the Church.
5. That the Institution or Organization shall fulfill the Condi- tions prescribed by the Department of Social Service.
CONDITIONS
1. The Bishop of the Diocese always to be President.
2. Board of Directors to be entirely Episcopalian, and administra- tive staffs generally so.
3. By-laws shall be subject to the approval of the Department of Social Service, and they shall provide that unrestricted prin- cipal shall not be expended for current uses, or be pledged for loans, and that any real estate owned and occupied by any Institution or Organization for corporate purposes shall not be mortgaged without the consent of the Department of Social Service first being obtained.
4. Institutions and Organizations to manage and administer their own affairs and funds; their subscription lists and methods of raising current monies to be at the disposition of the Bishop and Council.
5. Institutions and Organizations to make up in the month of { 26 ]
October each year their annual financial budgets for the ensuing year, and present same to the Department of Social Service for its consideration, together with statement of budget expenses up to the first of October of the current year.
6. Institutions and Organizations to be subject to the supervision of the Department of Social Service; the Department to exercise the power of visitor and oversee finances, to have the right to call for any reports they may consider necessary, to make suggestions and offer advice.
7. No financial obligations or deficits of any Institution or Organization to be assumed by the Bishop or Council con- tracted previous to such Institution or Organization becoming Diocesan, and a part of the Social Service work of the Diocese.
Closer cooperation with the Boston Children's Aid Society and the Boston Society for the Care of Girls prompted the change in location of the office from Boylston Street to No. 24 Mt. Vernon Street, where ample and comfortable quarters were pro- vided for Staff and clients alike - the Staff having grown from one worker in 1913 to twelve full-time and four part-time workers in 1923.
Services to children - routine medical examinations and super- vision of all children from admission to discharge, together with mental testing of all children over five years of age, now stood as something positive and constructive against the simple medical care of Institutional days; 2,900 different children, black, white, yellow, contrasted with 210 in 1913, the costs of these services rising from $17,000 to $64,000 along with a 57% advance in the cost of living over the same period.
But one opinion clouded the report of strides that had been made in this decade - the question as to the religious training of the children in both their own homes and foster homes. It was conceded that there was probably greater emphasis laid on the continuity of religious instruction and on formal religious ob-
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servances under the roof trees of the old Institutions, but it was believed that with the growing relationships with the clergy of the Diocese, bringing them into closer contact with the parents, foster parents and the children themselves, standards of religious care might be raised.
Courageous appraisal of the past decade, and a high hope for the one to come, made Managers and Staff agree that the highest standards of Child Welfare must continue along with a willingness to reject the old and prove the new; that emphasis should be placed on the causes of family breakdown and on family rehabilitation; that visitors should be allotted fewer chil- dren, work with them to be more intensive, and with their fami- lies, more constructive; that full financial support must be sought from the Bishop and Council under the Department of Social Service - " partial support is confusing and tends to perpetuate the difficulty out of all proportion to expenditures; and that a new name, more truly significant of the purpose of the Society and its connection with the Diocese be given it."
At this time the first thought waves of Federated Financing for Boston's Social Agencies were put into motion. The Boston Chamber of Commerce requested Agencies to give it their lists of subscribers, amounts subscribed, and methods of financing. Arguments for and against Federation were presented at the Society's meetings, the Managers inviting the executives of other Agencies to discuss the question with them. On receiving the Chamber of Commerce's report, a committee was appointed to consider the project further with the Chamber's committee. Dr. Brackett of the Board of Managers raised the question " whether we, as a Diocesan Institution, could join in community financing, lest it alienate the interest of the Episcopal Church, but if other religious elements join in this plan we should care- fully consider our action." The report from the final meeting with the Chamber of Commerce showed that the majority of Agencies was opposed to Federated Financing.
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MRS. HENRY H. FAY
THE RT. REV. WILLIAM LAWRENCE, D.D.
The active work of a great team ended in 1925 when Bishop Lawrence and Mrs. Fay resigned as President and Vice-President of The Church Home Society - Bishop Charles L. Slattery, D.D., the Bishop of the Diocese, succeeding to the Presidency and Mrs. Charles Russell Peck to the Vice-Presidency. An appreciation of their signal and valuable services was written into the Minutes as follows -
" With keen regret and grateful recollection of help and service rendered we record the resignation of Bishop Lawrence, President of The Church Home Society since 1893. He has been to the Society a great leader, encouraging every forward move. The remembrance of this leadership and of the happy personal ties of many years, will be to the Managers a source of gratitude, of joy and of renewed endeavor.
Although remaining an active member on the Board of Managers, Mrs. Fay relinquished the office of the vice-presidency
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early last fall. For nearly twenty-five years she has been a Manager of the Society. For seventeen years she has been the leader in its management, in the earlier days as President of the Board of Managers, and later, after the Boards of Trustees and Managers were consolidated, as a Vice-President and Chairman of the Executive Committee. During this time the Society has changed its method of care of children from an institution to placing-out of children in Church homes. To all this progress Mrs. Fay has brought marked intelligence, sympathy and an untiring devotion. For such service of leadership in both length of time and charac- ter, the associates of Mrs. Fay express sincere gratitude. They rejoice that she continues a Manager."
The agreement entered into in 1922 between the Bishop and Council and The Church Home Society, whereby the Society was recognized as a Diocesan Institution under the supervision of the Diocesan Department of Social Service, and received par- tial financial support (one fourth) from Diocesan funds, did not work out satisfactorily - " Diocesan connection with partial appropriation being repressing to the Society's publicity and financial effort."
Dwindling current income and mounting deficits forced the Society to face curtailment of its services to children. There was a proposal to limit the work to diagnostic and referral service without placement or treatment, the emphasis to be on educa- tional and preventive work in the children's own homes and parishes.
After profound and soul-searching study, evaluation and debate, the Society again chose, as in 1913, the forward-looking and more difficult way - to move on, to expand the present services to include the now nationally organized work for older girls known as The Church Mission of Help (which organization was seeking
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establishment in the Diocese of Massachusetts), and to ask for entire support from Diocesan funds, the alternative to this sup- port being an organized publicity and money raising campaign, seeking to raise $150,000 over a period of three years.
The Bishop and Council, hard pressed for funds, could not undertake full support of the Society and advised delay in em- barking on an expanded service " until reasonably certain that the funds were secure."
This very real impasse was surmounted by the Society's securing through the Department of Social Service an amendment simpli- fying the "Conditions " qualifying a Diocesan Institution, by which it was to be made clear beyond question that the responsi- bility for control and administration of an Institution was to be in the management of such Institution whether or not it received a Diocesan grant of money.
The amended "Conditions," being those under which the Society continues to function today are:
1. The Bishop of the Diocese having ecclesiastical authority shall always be Honorary President of such Institutions.
2. Boards of Directors or Managers to be entirely Episcopalian and Administrative Staffs generally so.
3. Such Institutions shall be subject to the supervision of the Department of Social Service, such Department to exercise the powers of visitor, to have the right to call for any reports it may consider necessary, to make suggestions and offer advice;
together with a statement made later on the use of unrestricted funds which reads -
" That this Department holds that the use of unrestricted funds by any Agency is a matter of business judgment, in the dis- cretion of the Agency, and therefore that the Department
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would approve the use of unrestricted funds by The Church Home Society if the Society should deem such use to be necessary."
The By-laws of the Society revised at this time vested authority for the control of the Agency more completely in the Board of Directors, the newly adopted name, replacing Board of Managers. The Bishop of the Diocese having been made Honorary Presi- dent, the active President became a layman.
The Society then embarked on a revised and expanded pro- gram of service, to include work for "young people " (Church Mission of Help) . A Special Extension Fund of $15,000 for three years' publicity and money raising was underwritten and sub- scribed by special givers.
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