The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1917-09-22
RED CROSS CALLS FOR
SOCIAL WORKERS
THE TOPEKA STATE JOURNAL
INFORMATION BUREAU
By Frederic }. Haskin. Director.
Washington, ID. @.


Cross is in need of social workers. 1t
has pledged its word to turn every
soldiers family over to him intact at
the end of the war, so FAR as sucn d
thing is humanity possible, and the
word of the Red Cross has never yet
Fbeen broken. But neither has the Red
| Cross ever before attempted such an
ambitious program.
When you are the guardian OF a
family you must know all its clrcum-
stances-all its secret trials, ambitions,
| ideals and skeletons. You must be
prepared to look after its health, edu-
cation and recreation. If little Joe has
adenoids, you must persuade his moth
er to have them removed; if Martha
shows talent for drawing, she must
| be sent to the proper school, and II
! Harold is hayward you must 1nVestl-
| gate his associates. All these things
| the Red Cross must know concerning
every soldiers family in order to safe-
| guard it; hence, the urgent call Tor
| social workers.
The term social worker these days
refers to an entirely different sort of
| an individual from the social worker
of a few years ago. Formerly, such
work was performed by amateurs
usually, society ladies disappointed in
| love affairs who wished to consecrate
their lives to the poor. Now, sociology
| is a profession taught in all the large
! colleges and practiced usually by per-
| sons still young, having a healthy IN
| terest in life and an interesting future
| before them 1t is the trained social
worker whose services the Red Gross
requires in looking after soldiers
families.
In order to obtain a sufficient
number of trained volunteer work
ers, the orga nization has arranged to
| conduct Institutes for home service in
| connection with schools and colleges
thruout the country in cooperation
with the various local chapters of the
Red Cross. Extension courses in So
GEOLOGY will also be sent to those VINO
are Interested. Membership in the
| institutes" says the head of the de-
| partment of civilian relief, will be
limited to twenty-five in order to in
| sure adequate personal attention Tor
| each pupil. The courses of instruc-
| ton, which will be held in every large
| city in the country, will last six weeks
and include lectures as well as prac-
teal field work.
Opportunity for Real Service.
Here is an opportunity for real
service Women who want to help
their country should take this course
in sociology offered by the Red Cross
and enlist in the home service. In
stead of knitting and sewing for those
abroad, and learning first aid, they
may go on sentry duty, guarding the
trust of the Red Cross-the soldiers
family.
1t must not be thought, however.
that such duty will be easy. 1t viii
be hardL That is why the Red Cross
is going to train its home service
| workers. The average family is apt
| to resent the implication that it needs
| a guardian. With the allowance made
by the government to keep it going,
it will be slow to seek or to accept
advice. So the home service worker
| n IF
ingenuity, as well as a practical de-
tective, if she is to make a successful
sentry.
There are two invariable rules in
social service work. The first is to
get as much information as possible
from the individual applying for help
in the first interview; the second is to
supplement that information with de-
tails secured from other sources-pub-
lie records, schools, churches, employ
ers, previous address, social agencies
| and relatives. Both as a source of
helpfulness and as a means of inter
preting family's cha. acter and needs,
relatives are important" is the adj
vice of the Red Cross Home Service
department. Frequently all the plans
for a family's welfare depend upon
the relatives, their peculiarities, their
strengths and weaknesses. Further
more, when one has come to know a
: family's kinship one Gas enlarged in
a measure ones acquaintance with the
family itself. Relatives. indeed, fire.
quently explain their kindred"
Not long ago, a man applied for
help to a social agency in a middle
western town. He explained that he
was ill and could get nothing to do. He
would give no information whatever
concerning himself, so that the social
. worker had no clues as to his ability,
his past employment or his family
To all appearances he was common
hobo. She made arrangement for him
to obtain food and lodging at near
= by boarding house, and then she start
ed out on the trail of his past She
had only one fact on which to work
' The man was well acquainted with the
! town. He must have lived there for
years.
She could not be sure of course
r that he had given her the right name
r but she decided to look it up. In ar
old city directory she found it, to-
gether with an address that was in
D one of the most fashionable Locations
n of the city. She then visited the post
a master in charge of the branch post.
office in that location. The post
master was new one who was not ia.
millar with the names of his district
: but there was an oid Ietter-carriel
n ! who gave her the information she
wanted The man, it appeared, hat
been sent east to college to become
g a minister. He had STAYED four wears
q but when he returned he was a doc.
!, tor of medicine instead of theology
His father had not appreciated the de
= ception and had promptly disownee
r him.
Social Worker Qualities.
The mans father had died two
II years before, the letter-carrier told
e the social worker. but his mother still
: lived always in the hope that her soI
would return. That afternoon tn.
social worker made another call, and
when the hobo appeared at the agenc,
the next morning in search of a job
II he was met not by the busineSs-Iik
young lady of the day before but b,
y a little white-haired woman who wa.
It his mother. Such romances are nee