Child Welfare Essay

One major social welfare history that concerns me and finds my interest is child welfare in the United States. Child welfare has evolved drastically over the past 250 years, improving and becoming stronger. As assistance for the needy began in the United States, Americans noticed the importance of providing aid to children. In 1853, the Children’s Aid Society was started by Charles Brace as the first children’s organization in America that adopted placing-out as its main policy. This organization was created in hopes to move suffering children out of New York City and into supportive families. The program created many different opportunities for needy children, such as, evening school, training schools, lodging houses, penny saving banks, as

The Social Security Act was primarily created to help older aged citizens, provide unemployment insurance, as well as vocational services but, also provided Aid to Families with Dependent Children (AFDC). AFDC was funded by the federal Children’s Bureau and provided families with little to no income financial assistance. In 1962, an amendment was made to the Social Security Act that established child welfare as part of all public social services and required all states to provide child welfare services (PP 3/30). As many other policies, laws, and programs have been created to secure rights and resources for oppressed children, a more recent program that was created is the Adoption and Safe Family Act of 1997. This act made child safety the number one priority in child welfare and created strict time lines for action taken in certain situations involving child welfare (PP 3/30). In 1997, President Bill Clinton held an event at the White House Conference that focused on Child Care that many people took notice to (p. 133). Soon after, President Clinton created the Foster Care Independence Act of 1999 that provided financial and housing assistance for children, under the age of 21 years old, in foster care (PP 3/30). Child welfare has evolved drastically since the beginning of the United State’s history. Many different policies have been created and many are still being altered as we strive to provide the needs for all