HOW SIGNIFICANT WERE CHARITY AND SELF-HELP IN DEALING WITH THE PROBLEM OF POVERTY? Flashcards
When was the Charity Organisation Society founded?
• 1869.
What sort of people attended the COS inauguration meeting?
- members of the commons.
- aristocracy.
- armed forces.
- established Church.
- high up professions.
What were the 3 main aims of the COS?
- cooperation with the Poor Law authorities at a local level to establish a clear division between the different work of the 2 groups.
- organisation of the work of other charities, to coordinate their efforts to ensure charitable relief was given appropriately.
- ensure only the deserving received charitable relief.
What did the COS members believe about the nature of charity and who it should be given to?
- charity was a gift not a right, given at the discretion of the giver.
- should be given to the deserving poor, who would be given limited charity to help them get back on their feet.
How was charitable relief designed to be both moral and material?
- moral- permanent impact, reform the behaviour of the recipient, whose lifestyle would be forever changed.
- material- temporary help, put food on the table.
How was the COS not a national organisation?
- federal structure meant local branches tended to work in their own way.
- even in London where the COS headquarters were, there was considerable variety in the work of the offices.
How was the COS criticised?
- provincial branches failed to recruit sufficient volunteers or raise enough funds.
- their rigorous investigative methods were resented by the poor.
- charities found the COS were overbearing, preferring to raise funds and dispense help as they thought fit.
- boards of guardians had had strained relationships with their local COS branches as they thought the COS interfered with the way they chose to administer the Poor Law.
What did COS actually achieve?
- the views of its intellectual supporters were listened to in the corridors of power so had influence on official thinking. COS viewed as experts on poverty and charity, so members often gave evidence to enquiries on social problems.
- 1880- the COS had established practices and procedure when visiting poor families where they could make comparisons between different applicants. This would form the basis of later social work and social work training.
What were friendly societies originally?
• groups or friends, neighbours or workers who joined together to provide for themselves in times of need.
For a weekly subscription, what would friendly society members be entitled to?
• payment in times of sickness, death or unemployment.
Why was there a surge in friendly society membership at the beginning of the 19th century?
• workers tried to protect themselves from the uncertainties thrown up by the Industrial Revolution, a mobile population and the decline of traditional occupations.
Why was there a further surge in 1834 of friendly society memberships? What did this signal?
- people anticipated a more rigorous Poor Law and increased problems in obtaining state relief.
- signalled a change in in the organisation of friendly societies- to a wider organisation.
By 1847, how had friendly societies changed?
- they were no longer independent and local- the friendly society movement had become a national organisation with central bodies to which individual societies could join.
- the be if it’s could no be provided over a wider geographical area.
Which were the biggest friendly societies in the 19th century? How many members did they have?
- the Manchester Oddfellows- 434,000 members- mostly joined after 1834.
- the Ancient Order of Foresters- 362,000 members.
After 1846, who were friendly societies required to register with? What were the benefits of this?
- the office of the Registrar of Friendly Societies.
* gave them legal protection of their funds.
