Arthur Dunham Provides a “Birds-Eye View” of Councils of Social Agencies in 1929

ABSTRACT

This “From the Archives” article provides excerpts from the text of Arthur Dunham’s pamphlet, Community Councils in Action: A Bird’s-Eye View of Thirty-Three Councils of Social Agencies, published by the Public Charities Association of Pennsylvania in November, 1929.

KEYWORDS:

• Arthur Dunham
• community councils
• councils of social agencies
• history of community organization

Afterword

In 1935, Arthur Dunham accepted a faculty appointment in the University of Michigan Institute of Health and Social Sciences, which would become the School of Social Work in 1950. Although the Institute was located in Detroit, Dunham and his wife chose to live in Ann Arbor, 38 miles to the west, because “it is a beautiful little city and has many advantages found in a university town” (Fellin, 2017, p. 26). After several name changes, the Institute was restructured and became the Institute of Social Work. Dunham served as Acting Director of the Institute in 1950–51, after which the program was moved to Ann Arbor and became the School of Social Work. Dunham continued as Professor of Community Organization until his retirement in 1963. During his tenure at Michigan, Dunham developed a national reputation, becoming a community organization pioneer (Alvarez, 2003). He was a founder of the Association for the Study of Community Organization and served as its first president. He wrote extensively; perhaps his best-known book was Community Organization: Principles and Practice (1958). Later in his career, Dunham wrote extensively about community development practice.

Councils of social agencies, later often known as councils of social planning or community health and welfare councils, were frequently part of the local voluntary social welfare landscape in the 1940s, ‘50s, and ‘60s. However, two developments of the post-World War II era resulted in their demise – an uneasy relationship with federated fund-raising organizations and the expansion of federal goverernment planning and funding of community health and welfare programs in the 1960s and 1970s. A movement for merging councils of social agencies with Community Chests was already underway in the 1920s (Borst, 1929). By the 1980s, Brilliant (1986) wrote of “the phenomenon of the disappearing council” as the number of councils fell from over 450 in 1965 to fewer than sixty twenty years later (p. 570). Councils had reflected social work values in their planning for social welfare services, Brilliant concluded; with the demise of community councils, how would social workers influence local social service planning?

For further reading. Arthur Dunham’s Papers are held by the Bentley Historical Library (n.d.) at the University of Michigan. While there is no published biography, a short biography of Dunham is available on the Social Welfare History Project (2011) website. Dunham’s 1949 paper, “What is the Job of the Community Organization Worker?” was re-published as one of the early “From the Archives” articles in this journal (Dunham, 1949/2003), with an introduction and appreciation by Ann Rosegrant Alvarez (2003), then Archives Editor. Jeffery (2018) discusses Dunham and a number of other World War I conscientious objectors in his master’s thesis on the imprisonment of sectarian Christian objectors. Dunham wrote an account of his imprisonment shortly after his release. In spite of his efforts, it was not published during his lifetime; a copy is in the Dunham Papers at the Bentley Historical Library. However, Peter Brock (2003) included excerpts from his memoir in his anthology of prison writings by conscientious objectors.

Eleanor Brilliant (1986) provides a useful history of councils of social planning from their inception to the mid-1980s, together with a survey of the existing mid-1980s councils. Ruth Brandwein (1977) describes the changing scene for community health and welfare councils from 1946 to 1971. Davidson and Fisher (1996) provide an appraisal of the Houston Council of Social Agencies from the 1928 to 1971.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author.

Notes

1. This definition was originally formulated by Frank D. Preston and the author and was used by Mr. Preston in his introduction to A Directory of Community Welfare Organizations in Pennsylvania. Public Charities Association of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, 1927; 48 pages; 25 cents.

2. Persons, W. Frank – The Welfare Council of New York City. The Co-ordination Committee, New York, 1925; 104 pages. Out of print.