Jane Addams was the pioneer who led the path to social work during the early 1900s. Addams was the founder of the settlement houses located in Chicago. In 1931, Addams devotion to community and being a peace activist was acknowledged and she given a high honor of the Nobel Peace Prize (NASW). Addams commitment to helping and believing in others continues in social workers passion still today.
Jane Addams was born in 1860 in Illinois and was the youngest of five children. After her birth, the family moved from Illinois to Pennsylvania. When Addams was only two years old her mother died during child birth and the miscarried of the youngest baby. In only a few years her father remarried and was a respected state senator. (Lundblad, 1995).…show more content… Their motto for their organization was “neighbors helping neighbors”. The purpose for their organization was to help immigrants learn English and other principles to improve the lives and working conditions of many in west Chicago (Malekoff and Papell, 2012, pp. 307). The Hull House” provided services for the neighborhood residents, such as kindergarten and daycare facilities for children of working mothers, an employment bureau, an art gallery, libraries, and music and art classes” (Hansan, 2010). “By 1900, Hull-House activities had broadened to include the Jane Club (a cooperative residence for working women), the first Little Theater in America, a Labor Museum and a meeting place for trade union groups (Hansan, 2010). By 1893, the Hull House was serving over two thousand people a week. The Hull House was an inspiration to many and started a movement throughout the whole United States. Over the time of 1890 and 1910, there were about 400 settlement houses started in the United States (Lundblad, 1995). Rosiek and Pratt also believed that due to Addams approach, she offered an effort to develop a realist approach to social science inquiry (2013,…show more content… I do not think that Addams would have become the wise person she became if she had resisted learning the painful lessons that reality had to teach” (2008, p. 110). What Chandler was pointing out was that although life is difficult and results in many challenges, dreams should not be given up on and life should be looked at as a whole. The way Jane Addams viewed it was that others often have it worse off than imaged. Addams loved helping others. She was incredible at not being judgmental and always sees the potential in others. Many social workers still thrive with this passion. However, if more people then social workers viewed life this way your economy and attitudes towards each other would be sufficiently