Evening star., 1934-11-04
NEW NAME TAKEN
BY SOCIAL AGENCY
Associated Charities Be.
comes Family Service
Association.

The Associated Charities, Washing
tons oldest social agency, has taken
new name. Hereafter it is the Family
Service Association of the District OF
Columbia. The change was accom-
plished by a document filed last week
in the Office of the recorder OF deeds,
at the direction of all the members
of the organizations large board OF
directors.
The change is in keeping with the
spirit of change in social work gen.
orally. The word charity" is drop
ping out of titles of social welfare Or
Plantations everywhere. In 1926 the
Board of Charities became the Board
of Public Welfare on the basis of SINH
lar reasoning. There remain a few
outstanding exceptions, such as the
Associated Charities of Cleveland, the
Associated Charities of Cincinnati, the
United Charities of Chicago and the
Charity Organization Society of New
York.
Although charity, in its strictest
sense, formed the basis of the work
of the Associated Charities when 1t
was organized So years ago, time has
changed the functions of this society
materially.
New Purposes Outlined.
"Gradually," said Dr. Anson Phelps
Stokes, present president of the Or
SANITATION, lit became apparent to the
stats and to the board members that
much more than material assistance
was needed. Starting with charity
as base, the art of helping people
out of trouble was evolved until today
1t constitutes the profession of social
case work. The biggest single cause
which brings people to the family
agency for assistance is economic
need, but prior to the depression only
about half of the cases under the
care of the Associated Charities were
receiving relief and today less than
one third of those being helped by the
Family Service Association require any
economic assistance"
The most recent change in the field
of family assistance is the assumption
by the Government of the burden OF
family relief, centralized in the Emer-
9ency Relief Division of the Board OF
Public Welfare, and financed out OF
District and Federal taxation. This
constitutes part of the field originally
occupied by the Associated Charities.
This field has not been entirely aban-
doned, but the emphasis now is laid
by the Family Service Association on
work which does not involve financial
relief as its primary responsibility.
Some Employed Need Help.
Even with Government relief an
accepted practice, there are many fam
lilies ION relief" who still need much
assistance from private agencies in
order to get by" And there are cases
where, because of Government rules,
families desperately in need of flnan-
cial assistance may not receive 1t from
Government funds. For instance, a
person with a full-time job is not
eligible for Government relief. Never
theless there are many cases among
the 600 families now on the rolls of
the Family Service Association of wage
earners whose efforts on full-time jobs
yield pitifully inadequate sums, some
as low as S5 a week, which must be
supplemented if their families are to
''exist" on the level of barest subsist-
ence.
Describing other types of work,
which will predominant in the sphere
of the association, DR.. Stokes said:
"a considerable proportion of the
families it serves have come to it with
marital difficulties. If the rift has
not progressed too far, husband and
wife often find it possible with the
help of skilled case work to COM
pose their difficulties.
Aids in Family Problems.
Frequently, problems of actual
strife between adoleScent children and
their parents are brought to the as
sociation by distressed and beWildered
parents. Many families come to the
association for help, whose problems
arise out of serious illness of the home
maker or perhaps the breadwinner
Many need to know about the re-
sources in the community for treat
ment of some infectious disease, for
diagnosis of suspected mental con-
dition, for special training for handi-
capped members of the family.
THE largest proportion of families
receiving financial aid from the as
sociation presents situation which rem
der the family ineligible for public
relief, but which require supplemental
funds from some source if the family
!, Is to be kept together or if it is to
present any possibility of responding
to case work problems present in the
home.
About SIS per cent of the limited
funds available for relief during the
coming year are being spent to sup
plement insufficient incomes of fam
lilies not eligible for public relief. The
other As per cent has been spent in
families which might have been ELI
gible for public relief but in which
the need for skilled case work was so