It is clear, then, that before case-work agencies can be adequately
equipped to perform these services, the supply of visitors trained as
has been suggested will have to be increased, and certain bodies of
material with reference to the various national groups will have to be
organized and made available in convenient form, both for use in
courses in colleges and schools of social work and in the offices of
the societies.
One way in which an effort might be directed toward bringing about an
increase in the supply of trained visitors would be the establishment
of scholarships and fellowships in schools of civics and of social
work, by which able persons from among the different national groups
might be encouraged to take advantage of such opportunities as those
institutions provide. This procedure has been elaborated in Chapter
VIII in connection with service to nondependent families.
Special funds might also be provided in connection either with the
various agencies or with schools of social work, which would render
possible the collection and organization of such facts as would be
valuable in understanding the problems presented by families from any
special group. This body of fact would, of course, increase as sound,
sympathetic, and thorough work was developed.
Such studies would include information about the communities from
which different groups come, as, for instance, the practice and
influences prevailing in different villages in southern Italy, in
Sicily, in northern Italy. The religious, national, and village
festivals differ in almost every place. A native of Villa Rosa now
receiving care from a public-health agency in Chicago has carefully
pointed out to a visitor the differences between the festivals of
Palermo and Villa Rosa. The different ways of preparing for and
meeting the great events of family life, such as death, marriage,
birth, are of vital importance.
Most important are the food practices, and the attitudes toward the
care and discipline of children. A similar point has been developed in
Chapter VIII and it need not be stressed. The fact is that while
really sound and thorough case work cannot be done without such
information, few agencies have such information, and all devices for
accumulating it should be made use of.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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