Minneapolis Family and Children's Service

The Minneapolis Family and Children's Service had its origins in two charitable movements that spread across the country during the years following the Civil War. The humane movement, which sought to halt mistreatment of animals and, sometimes almost as an afterthought, children, was represented by the Minneapolis Humane Society, first established as a branch of the Minnesota Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals in 1878. The Humane Society employed an agent to discover cases of child and animal abuse and neglect, campaigned to improve conditions in maternity homes, and, together with the Juvenile Protective League (est. 1905), helped to improve the court system's handling of juvenile offenders through the introduction of probation officers and policewomen assigned to cases involving juveniles. The Humane Society and The Juvenile Protective League merged in 1917 to form the Juvenile Protective Society. The Humane Society's work with animals was turned over to the Animal Rescue League, forerunner to the present Hennepin County Animal Humane Society.

The second, and more prominent, wing of what was eventually to become the Family and Children's Service grew out of the charity organization movement, a national phenomenon that stressed the importance of placing charity on a systematic, business-like basis to discourage waste, duplication, and fraud that resulted from uncoordinated efforts. The Minneapolis Associated Charities was established in 1884, seven years after the first such American society was started in Buffalo, New York.

...