colonizing and forming the United States, this basic social outreach to the poor and needy did not change much in philosophy; however, it did become more organized with volunteers being given training and forming loose collectives and organizations of helpers and "visitors." (Richmond, 1895).
Social work, as an organized and professional occupational activity, is commonly traced to the social changes associated with the Industrial Revolution (Katz, 1986). Urbanization and industrialization produced complex social needs and social problems in both Europe and North America.
People lived in overcrowded, unsanitary, and poor housing conditions in cities that provided few municipal services. Major problems of the time included growing numbers of poor people, poor working conditions, a rise in disease associated with certain occupations, a growing incidence of mental illness, a high infant mortality rate coupled with the neglect and even murder of illegitimate infants and children (Trattner, 1974).
Auxinn and Levin (1982) report that up until the 1860s, the most advanced form of social work (really proto social work) was practiced by volunteers working with the Sanitation Commission and the Freedman's Bureau. The Sanitation Commission was a Civil War volunteer organization that developed services that are associated today with Public Health and the Red Cross.
After the war, the Freedman's Bureau worked with newly emancipated slaves. Agents of the bureau delivered a wide range of social services to ease the assimilation of newly emancipated slaves. Activities in both of these agencies were heavily laced with the evangelical missionary spirit; thus, there was a continuation of the essential notion of Christian outreach with a more pentecostal flair, this being a heavier emphasis being placed on the role of conversion, and biblical notions of the causes of poverty.
In the 1860s a new movement appeared that we now associate...