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Finding aid for the Family Service of Los Angeles records 0400
0400  
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Collection Overview
 
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Description
The Family Service of Los Angeles records document the activities of this social service organziation from its beginnings during the early years of the Depression, to its end in a merger with the Didi Hirsch Community Mental Health Center. Included in the collection are complete runs of the minutes of the agency's board of directors, its district advisory boards, and all its principal committees, including executive, nominating, casework and finance, together with the records and reports of many short-lived committees and task forces. Also present are financial reports, budgets, Community Chest and United Way allocation plans and requests, salary schedules, accreditation documentation, office manuals, workshop and seminar materials, and newsletters.
Background
Los Angeles in the early 1920s doubled its population. As the city became metropolitan and its suburban communities began to spread out in continuous conurbation across the basin, city and county governments remained small and the provision of adequate social services for the new population inevitably lagged. Family Service of Los Angeles (known until 1946 as Family Welfare Association of Los Angeles) had its genesis in a 1925 report by social work educators Karl de Schweinitz and his wife Ruth Hill, whose "Social Work With Families in Los Angeles", produced under the direction of the American Association For Organizing Family Social Work, first alerted local social workers to the extent of the region's unmet need. But the Los Angeles Community Chest was then in only its first year of operation, and its social work arm, the Council of Social Agencies, had yet to be organized. In 1926, an initial request for funding of the report's proposal was declined.
Extent
19.18 Linear feet 46 boxes
Restrictions
The use of archival materials for on-site research does not constitute permission from the California Social Welfare Archives to publish them. Copyright has not been assigned to the California Social Welfare Archives, and the researcher is instructed to obtain permission to quote from or publish manuscripts in the CSWA's collections from the copyright holder.
Availability
Advance notice required for access.