Charity organization; Housing -- England -- London; Poor -- England -- London; Working class -- Dwellings
In the district in which the following plan has been tried the poorer
inhabitants have for years been accustomed to make their applications
for relief daily, between nine and ten o'clock, at a house situated in
the center of the parish. The mode of administering relief has been
changed, but the house is still used for the reception of applications.
The names are taken down, and one of the blank forms used by the
Charity Organization Society[6] is filled up with the account given
by the applicant of himself and his circumstances. The form will then
contain a statement of the names and ages, occupation, and earnings of
every member of the applicant's family, his present and his previous
address, the parish relief he receives (if any), the name of the
club or benefit society to which he belongs (if there be such), the
particular help he asks for, and the ground of the application. The
form is immediately forwarded to the Charity Organization Society,
who thoroughly investigate the information it contains by means of a
paid officer. It is returned with its statements either verified or
contradicted, and now shows, in addition to what it contained before,
the report of the relieving officer, that of the minister of any
denomination with which the applicant is connected, and his character
as given by his previous landlord and other references. On the day when
the application is first made, and the Charity Organization Society
apprised of it, a post-card or other message is sent to the visitor
of the street or court where the applicant resides. This informs
her of the application, and also that she is expected to send in on
the ensuing Friday any information regarding the case which she may
already have, or may learn from a visit paid during the week. She at
the same time gives her advice as to the best way of dealing with the
application. The Relief Committee (of the constitution of which we
will speak presently) meets every Friday evening. They have before
them not only the valuable information of the Charity Organization
Society, gathered, sifted, and examined by their paid officer and
representative Committee, but also the detailed account of a volunteer,
who brings to bear on the case a fresher and more personal sympathy
than a paid agent ordinarily possesses, who has much more patience to
listen to, and probably more patience to elicit the little facts on
which so much may depend. Any one will appreciate the value of this
who has had experience of the difficulty of obtaining the evidence of
uneducated people, women more especially; they are nervously confused,
they cannot understand what are the real points of the case, nor state
them clearly; often the most important fact of all comes out apparently
quite by accident in the middle of a long sentence after the terror
of being questioned has worn off. Thus the reports sent in, even by
young or inexperienced visitors, bring forward facts which might never
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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