A lifeline: Social services
to protect and serve

The majority of people profiled on this Web site make enough money to provide ample food, shelter, clothing, etc., for themselves and their families. However, in today’s fragile economy, a person can be gainfully employed one day and looking for work the next. The federal government saw needs arise as the population continued to grow and change. The same was true for the state of California. As Los Angeles and its surrounding cities began to grow, so too did the area’s need for social services to provide extra help.

From the beginning of this country’s history to the early 1850s, most social services in the United States came from religious and family-based groups. There was no government agency that could provide extra assistance for those in need.

However, during the 1850s and 1860s, that began to change as the government established some services on both the federal and state level. One such federal program was the Freedman’s Bureau, which provided services for recently emancipated slaves. On the state level, many mental asylums, orphanages and poor houses were also established.

The early 1900s saw the Progressive Era and with it, a new government focus on women and children’s issues, with the establishment of the Children’s Bureau and Maternal and Infant Health Services. Also, in the early 1920s, a number of states took over the services that had previously been performed by private charities.

When the country was thrown into economic depression in the late 1920s, President Franklin D. Roosevelt established a number of new social service programs designed to ease the growing poverty rate. The Social Security Act offered some income protection for old age.

The country’s next great social services growth period occurred during the presidency of Lyndon B. Johnson. With Johnson’s “Great Society’ and “War on Poverty,’ he helped establish a number of social programs, including Head Start, Job Corps, the Department of Housing and Urban Development, Medicare and Food Stamps.

Since that time, there have been few programs established that have had major impact on the social services frontier. There have been some changes to programs, including the Temporary Assistance for Needy Families during President Bill Clinton’s administration. This marked a drastic change in the welfare system, limiting the amount of time a family could stay on welfare.

The Department of Health and Human Services is the U.S. government’s principle agency for protecting the health of all Americans and providing essential human services, especially for those who are least able to help themselves. Among the other services they provide are medical and social science research, services for older Americans and financial assistance and services for low-income families. The roots of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services go back to the earliest days of the nation in 1798, when the government established the first Marine hospital, a precursor to today’s Public Health Service.

President Dwight Eisenhower officially established the Cabinet-level Department of Health, Education and Welfare in. In 1979, the Department of Education became a separate entity. HEW officially became the Department of Health and Human Services in 1980. A list of additional HHS services can be found at http://www.hhs.gov/about/whatwedo.html.

In 1903, the California Department of Social Services was a small, six-member department known as the Board of Charities and Corrections, which evaluated and reported on the various charitable institutions, county hospitals, and city and town jails. As years passed, the Board looked to improve the welfare of both children and adults. By 1908, it had recommended a number of improvements, including the removal of children from orphan asylums to foster homes and state enforcement of child support payments by parents.

Today, the CDSS is much larger thanks to the more diverse and complex society it serves. Among the services the CDSS offers:

• MediCal and Health Services: Provides low-cost and no-cost health services to California residents who qualify through the California Department of Health Services. More information can be found at http://www.dhs.ca.gov/mcs/medi-calhome/default.htm

• Food Stamp Programs: A program offering assistance to low-income residents to purchase food. More information can be found at: http://www.dss.cahwnet.gov/foodstamps

• Child Support Services: When a court orders either or both parents to make regular payments to cover a child’s living and medical expenses. More information can be found at: http://www.childsup.cahwnet.gov/faq.asp

As the country began to see the need for social services in the 1850s, so too did leaders in Los Angeles. This period marked the birth of one of the oldest and best-known social service agencies in Los Angeles — Jewish Family Service of Los Angeles (JFS/LA). While its name implies a religious connection, JFS/LA is a non-sectarian, non-profit agency that dates back to 1854. The agency, now celebrating its 150th anniversary, continues to provide a wide range of mental health and social services to people of all ages and ethnicities.

As Los Angeles County’s population surged in the early 20th century, the demand for social services surged as well. However, the city and county government agencies remained small and adequate social services were difficult to come by. A 1925 proposal by social work educators Karl de Schweinitz and his wife, Ruth Hill, told local governments of the extent of need in the area. This proposal, however, went by the wayside.

However, in 1929, with the onset of the Great Depression and the unemployment rate surging, eight existing agencies, including the American Red Cross, American Legion Service Department and Children’s Protective Association, pledged to sponsor a new agency called the Family Welfare Association.

The Family Welfare Association — as it was called until it was reincorporated as Family Services of Los Angeles in 1946 — made helping those devastated by unemployment its highest priority. In 1931, it had a caseload of 1,187 families. By the following year, it grew to an astronomical 18,071 families. In the coming years it would expand its services to include family and child counseling, and it moved into low-income and racially diverse areas that needed attention.

A number of additional agencies grew out of the need that arose during the Great Depression, including the Welfare Federation of Los Angeles and the Community Chest.

For those who lose their jobs, the California Employment Development Department offers unemployment insurance. There are two ways to file for unemployment insurance:

1) Go to the California Employment Development Department Web site at http://www.edd.ca.gov/ and fill out the unemployment insurance application. One application is interactive and may be submitted online. The second may be printed and completed by hand and faxed or mailed to the EDD.

2) If you do not have Internet access or prefer to file an unemployment claim by telephone, you can call the EDD at 800-300-5616 and a representative will assist you in filing your claim. There are also additional numbers to call if you speak a language other than English.

To qualify for unemployment, you need to have earned enough wages in your “base period,” a 12-month period when you were working. Also, you must have lost your job through no fault of your own, i.e. a company layoff. After you have exhausted unemployment benefits, you may qualify for welfare, which has numerous programs depending on your situation.

Currently, the U.S. Congress is considering legislation that would extend unemployment benefits for individuals who have exhausted their regular state unemployment benefits.