Family Service Association of America

The Family Service Association of America began in 1911 as the American Association for Organizing Charity, and was later known as the Family Welfare Association of America. It promotes, sets standards for, and serves as a vehicle for communication among social work agencies that provide casework and related services.

The Family Service Association of America (FSAA) was formed in as an independent national organization in 1911. Representing the effort to promote and coordinate the charity organization movement in cities throughout the U.S. and Canada, it grew out of meetings at the annual National Conference of Charities and Correction as well as the work of the Russell Sage Foundation's Charity Organization Department. The organization's name has evolved frequently: National Association of Societies for Organizing Charity (1911-1912); American Association of Societies for Organizing Charities (1912-1917); American Association for Organizing Charities (1917-1919); American Association for Organizing Family Social Work (1919-1930); Family Welfare Association of America (1930-1946); Family Service Association of America (1946-1983); Family Service America (1983-1993); and Alliance for Children and Families, part of Families International, Inc. (1993 to the present). After operating out of offices in New York City for 70 years, the organization moved its headquarters to Milwaukee, Wisconsin in the mid-1980s.

The association's constituency consisted of agencies with a focus on casework, counseling, and other social services to families. These agencies were primarily voluntary sector, but included government agencies as well. Concern over social and economic conditions facing its member agencies' clients led the association to undertake a number of studies, beginning in 1922 with a Committee on Industrial Problems to deal with rising unemployment. The organization's concern with public welfare led it to create other committees such as the Homeless Committee (1920-1932), Committee on Relief Problems (1926-1933), Housing and Subsistence Committee (1934-1935), and a more general Public Issues Committee (1953-1968). After World War II, FSAA supported the development of counseling, psychiatric, and casework services designed to meet the specialized needs of seniors and children.

FSAA programs during the 1960s and 1970s reflected the social issues of that era. In 1965, the association began Project ENABLE, a government-funded demonstration project to test the efficacy of neighborhood coalitions as a means to combat the causes of poverty. Working with the Child Welfare League of America, it established the National Association on Services to Unmarried Parents. During the early 1970s, the FSAA thoroughly investigated the possibility of merging with the Child Welfare League of America and the Florence Crittenton Association of America, but ultimately it decided to continue its independent existence. FSAA and CWLA were involved in founding the Council on Accreditation for Services for Families and Children (COA) between 1973 and 1976. The COA, which operated briefly as a joint body of CWLA and the FSAA, became an independent entity in 1977.

In addition to its other programs, FSAA published a monthly journal, The Family, which began publication in 1920. It subsequently became Journal of Social Casework in 1946 and Social Casework in 1950. The association also published a newsletter entitled Highlights (later Family Service Highlights ) between 1940 and 1971.

From the guide to the Family Service Association of America records, 1908-1988, (bulk 1920-1970), (University of Minnesota Libraries. Social Welfare History Archives [swha])