| Creator | Boston Council of Social Agencies |
| Title | Boston Council of Social Agencies records |
| Dates | 1921-1949 |
| Identification | CC 25 |
| Quantity | 2.0 linear feet (3 manuscript boxes and 1 flat box) |
| Collection Abstract | The Boston Council of Social Agencies records consists of bulletins, annual reports, documentation of various studies and literature related to social work topics, including vacation facilities for children and rooming housed in the South End of Boston. |
| Historical Abstract | The Boston Council of Social Agencies was founded in December 1920 as a means for Boston, MA area social agencies to meet and share respective goals and ideas. Since its founding, the Council's name has changed numerous times until finally emerging as the United Way of Massachusetts Bay. This organization is still active today in the Greater Boston area, serving the needs of youth, elderly, and others through a variety of programs and initiatives. |
| Language | Material in English. |
| Location | Collection may be stored offsite. Please contact Archives staff for more information. |
Collection is open.
Copyright for materials resides with the creators of the items in question, unless otherwise designated.
Please contact the College Archivist with requests to publish any material from the collection.
[Identification of item: description and date], Boston Council of Social Agencies records, CC 25, Simmons College Archives, Boston, MA, USA.
Transferred from the Simmons College School of Social Work Library, 1991
Accession number: 1999.058
Processed by Frances Maria Medina, October 1999
Supervised by Claire Goodwin and Joan Gearin
This collection guide was encoded as part of the LEADS project by Katie Sallade, October 2012
The Boston Council of Social Agencies was founded in December 1920 after various conferences between social agencies in Boston, eventually electing James Jackson the Council’s first president. The Council’s aim was to be a neutral council of Boston area social agencies, with its object “to provide in a regular way continuous opportunities for executives and workers in the different fields of the service to explain to each other their respective aims, purposes and methods of work.”(1) By the end of the first year, 176 agencies joined the Council, including the City Missionary Society, Boston Children’s Aid Society, Infant’s Hospital, and the Boston YMCA. Each member agency belonged to a particular department such as Children, Family, Employment and Industrial Conditions, and Health. Each department held meetings and forums to meet others in the social work field and to discuss problems the agencies faced in their particular line of social work, from recruitment of volunteers to emergency care of infants under two.
In 1944 the Council changed its name to the Greater Boston Community Council to reflect the increasing participation of agencies outside of Boston. This new Council had as its purpose “to study the social and health needs of the area, to plan constructive action for meeting these social and health needs effectively, to interpret the need and the services to the public, to coordinate the work of public departments and private organizations concerned with social and health services, and to promote mutually helpful exchange of ideas, experience and methods relating to these services.”(2) Programs created by this new agency included daycare facilities, a volunteer office, an information center for returning servicemen and their families, youth activities; and an information service for the public which answered questions about health and social services in Greater Boston.
In 1949 the Council merged with the Greater Boston Community Fund to form United Community Services of Metropolitan Boston. This organization also went through many name changes and finally emerged as the United Way of Massachusetts Bay, still active today in the Greater Boston area and still serving the needs of children, youth, the elderly, and others through a variety of programs and initiatives.
The records for the Boston Council of Social Agencies consists of Bulletins, Annual Reports, various studies, and other literature. Bulletins are either bound or loose and include calendars, reports of the Purchasing Bureau, notices of conferences and other events, agency news, and War Bulletins, which were published between 1941 and 1944. Annual Reports consist of a list of the previous year’s activities, department and committee news, financial statements, by-laws, constitutions, and list of officers and member agencies. Studies are on various social work topics, including vacation facilities for children and rooming housed in the South End of Boston. Two other items, “Proposed Standards of Membership” (1935), and “Shall We Form a Greater Boston Community Council?” (1944) are also part of the collection.
This collection chronicles the first stage of the life of the Boston Council of Social Agencies and a part of the history of the United Way of Massachusetts Bay, a thriving organization that is still in existence.
These and related materials may be found under the following headings in online catalogs.
Collection is arranged into 4 series:
Part of the School of Social Work Library Charities Collection.
This series is arranged chronologically and consists of a list of the previous year's activities, department and committee news, financial statements, by-laws, constitutions, and list of officers and member agencies.
Box 1
This series is arranged chronologically and include calendars, reports of the Purchasing Bureau, notices of conferences and other events, and agency news. Two folders of War Bulletins and three folders of Loose Bulletins are contained in a flat box, the fourth container in the collection, rather than with the rest of the materials from this series.
Box 1
Box 2
Box 4
This series consists of writings on various social work topics. One of the items, which details rooming houses in the South End of Boston, is stored in the flat box along with the War Bulletins and Loose Bulletins from Series II.
Box 2
Box 3
Box 4
This series consists of two publications about the Boston Council of Social Agencies.
Box 3
