CHARLES LORING BRACE

1. CHARLES LORING BRACE

2. Introduction • Early History • Efforts in New York • Social Welfare and Social Work • Children’s Aid Society Today and its Future

3. Early History • Charles Loring Brace was one of the greatest contributing humanitarians of the social reform movement during the nineteenth century.

4. Early History • Born: June 9, 1826 • Graduated from Yale: 1846 • Graduated from the Union Theological Seminary: 1849 • Married Letitia Neill: Shortly after graduation

5. Early History • Methodist Minister: 1852 • Focused on the streets of New York. • Won support of the “upper class”.

6. Early History • Established & Headed the Children's Aid Society: 1853 • Against Charity • Believed an individual should “do for himself” • Efforts: • Newsboy lodging houses • Sunday boy’s meetings • Industrial schools • Workshops

7. Causes of Crime and Poverty • Preventable • Ignorance, intemperance, over-crowding, want of work, idleness, weakness in marriage, bad legislation • Non-Preventable • Inheritance, effects of immigration, weaknesses in moral and mental power

8. Faithful Beginning • Churches would pass out Bibles and hold prayer meetings for delinquent youth • Brace wrote that “to attempt to prevent or cure the fearful moral diseases of or lowest class without Christianity is like trying to carry through a sanitary reform without sunlight.”(Brace, 76)

9. When faith wasn’t enough… • The public formed the idea truant youth should be kept in asylums. • Problem: • Asylums provided no independence for those kept there • Fairly expensive for the number of people contained in them

10. Beginning Programs • Boys’ Meetings • First one was held in 1848 by Mr. A.D.F. Randolph. • Were aimed at the poor “bad boys” of the metropolis area • Mission: to provide sympathy and an audience for their stories, and then give positive and influential feedback

11. Formation of the Children’s Aid Society • Formed in 1843 • Leadership composed of mainly Christians forming a Christian Union. • “Trustees” of the organization were Presbyterians, Unitarians, Dutch Reforms, Methodists, Episcopalians, etc.

12. Starting the Society • Many people in the community gave donations, and “crowds of wandering little ones immediately found their way to the office.” (Brace, 83) • Types of children: • Ragged young girls, children driven-out by drunken parents, orphans, thieves, newsboys, etc.

13. First Intervention • Development of workshops • Children could work and gain skills • Brace realized that if a child was educated, had self-control, and was neat and clean, they could become a successful person and make an honest living

14. First Intervention • Brace began to think of ways to educate the orphan boys in things like cleanliness and promptness. • For the girls, he proposed that that they be educated “in the needle” (Brace, 96) • They could then marry into a better class or become upper servants • He felt that prostitution could be diminished through education as well.

15. Helping the Homeless • Brace was impressed by the “street-rats” ability to find the things they needed on their own. • In order to help them, he needed to find them: • Places to live, and • “Treat them as independent dealers and give them nothing without payment, but at the same time offer them much more for their money than they could get anywhere else.” (Brace, 100)

16. Helping the Homeless • Created shelters • Six cents for a bath and a bed • Four cents for supper • These shelters became known as lodging houses and rapidly got the attention of the newsboys. • They were also educated through evening classes and were required to attend Sunday Boys’ Meetings

17. Helping the Homeless • In evening classes they were taught • How to act in public • How to be good citizens • Cleanliness • Workings of the economy • The first lodging house was opened in 1854 and by 1871, the New York Newsboy’s lodging house had lodged • 91, 326 different boys. (Brace, 108)

18. Girls Lodging Houses • The first shelter cost five cents a night, and if they could not pay, they offered their labor in return for the stay. • These shelters turned into girls’ lodging houses. • Purpose: “To reform habits and character through material and moral appliances, and through an entire change of circumstances to relieve suffering and misfortune.” (Brace, 304)

19. Girls Lodging Houses • Efforts were very effective. • Restriction had to be made as to who could stay for the night due to the high turn-out numbers of girls in need. • Attempted to only receive girls who had the most potential and were young. • If a girl was too mature, or over 18, or a prostitute, she could be denied access. (Brace, 306)

20. Free Industrial Schools • Schools needed to be created to educate the boys and separate ones to educate the girls. • Agents went out into New York searching for children to attend these schools • Had to convince parents to allow their kids to be educated • Looked for children in need of food, clothing, moral instruction, and training in industry

21. Free Industrial Schools • Students were given food and clothing for good behavior. • Many of these schools targeted girls, because they were seen as the ones that encountered the most evil in society, and because many efforts were already in place to help the boys. • At first there was no lodging with these schools. Lodging houses then came to be formed at them as time went on, allowing for day and night classes to take place as well as reading-rooms to be formed and shelter to be given all in one place. (Brace, 180)

22. Helping Minorities and Immigrants • First attempts were with the Germans • Created an association of women, mostly Unitarians, who were interested in the morals of the German poor. • They created schools to help poor, young, German girls. • Next effort was with the Irish • Brace had little religious contact with them as they are Roman Catholic • He “made this quarter his special ‘parish’ for visitations. (Brace, 152)

23. Orphan Trains • Brace felt that “for children of the outcast poor, a more radical cure is needed than the usual influences of school and church” (Brace, 224) • Children’s Aid Society felt that the “best of all asylums for the outcast child is the farmer’s home” (Brace, 225) • Felt that this would be the best cure for juvenile pauperism.

24. Funding • Education of the public and “laying the wants and methods before them” (Brace, 280) • He rarely asked directly for money, and used pulpits to deliver sermons almost every day of the week. • Goal: To get the public’s attention and then a reaction from them. • He was also in contact with the media on a daily basis.

25. Funding • His efforts got him a large group of supporters, mostly those with money. • Some of the supporters approached legislation with the cause and how it could reduce tax burdens and better the community. • In 1870, the CAS received $200,000. • Half from public authorities • 1/5 from individuals • The rest from investments

26. Reading Rooms • 1858 Reading Rooms were established. • Designed to offer improvements to all members of society. • No alcohol was served at these facilities, and Brace thought that serving coffee would compete with the saloons, but that was not the case.

27. Misery Row • Brace worked with young males in this area who were known for their bad behavior and laziness. • He thought the first step in treating them was to send “visitors” to go and spend time with the boys and gain their trust and respect. • They then opened reading rooms, industrial schools, lodging houses, and set up Sunday boys’ meetings in this area. • Eventually these boys were to be adopted into hopeful families on the western farms.

28. Licensing • Brace felt that something needed to be done to help the children who could not attend school because of work or other reasons. • He thought an act should be passed to make children working in street trades acquire a license to do that. • This license had to be renewed every three months.

29. Licensing • If a worker was found without a license they would be arrested. • To get a license, the child had to prove that he/she is attending school for at least three hours a day. • Problem: Children were good liars • As a result, half-time schools and nights schools were opened for the working children.

30. Night Schools • Most children would work 8-10 hour days, and then attend school after that. • In the winter of 1870-71, there were eleven night schools in operation. • Of the children in these schools: • 1,500-2,000 were under 15 and employed in manufacturing companies • Between 15 and 20, the number rose to 8,000 (Brace, 356)

31. Final Days • Believed that charities needed to be run as businesses to succeed. • He realized that governmental funding was essential to operation. • Felt that the worst thing a charity in a large city could do, is multiply. • “Two agencies of charity are continued where one is needed.” (Brace, 383)

32. Final Goal • End goal was to place poor, unfortunate children with farm families and put them to work for the family and a better life. • Children’s Aid Society’s primary purpose: • “Only to give assistance where it bears directly on character, discourage pauperism, to cherish independence, to place the poorest of the city, the homeless children, not in Alms-houses or Asylums, but on farms, where they support themselves and add wealth to the nation; to place all their thousands of little subjects under such influences and such training that they will never need either private or public charity.” (Brace, 397)

33. Brace’s tie to Social Welfare • Brace had Good intentions during his 37 years of work with the poor children of NY • He started the road for improving the lives of the lower class children

34. Social Welfare • Started the road for improving the lives of the lower class children • His focus was the children and educating them to become successful adults • Can be looked at early forms of child protection

35. Social Welfare • Brace had women enter the homes of the children and decide if they needed to be removed • This can be seen as early forms of Social Workers

36. Mission • To do whatever New York city’s neediest children need Children’s Aid Society: http://www.childrensaidsociety.org

37. The Children’s Aid Society Today… • One of the largest budgets at 70 million dollars a year • “91 cents of every dollar is spent directly on services for children” • Over 120,000 children and families in New York receive help Children’s Aid Society: http://www.childrensaidsociety.org

38. The Children’s Aid Society - New and Developing Projects: 2006-2007 • Connecting Disconnected Youth: • Hope Academy • Juvenile/Justice Community Re-Entry and City Challenge • Youth Advocacy • Next Generation Teen Center • Family Life and Sex Education • Health Services

39. The Children’s Aid Society—New and Developing Projects: 2006-2007 • Bronx Regional Expansion: • Mentoring program • Aged out foster care youth • Empowerment Schools: • Transform public schools of New York City • 1,500 sites nationally and internationally • After school programs, family resource centers, Saturday programs, summer camps and community resources

40. The Children’s Aid Society—New and Developing Projects: 2006-2007 • African American Male Initiative: • help African American males succeed • Fitness and Nutrition: • promote exercise and eating healthy • Teen Pregnancy Prevention, Sexual Education and Reproductive Health: • Family planning • Foster care reunification