Charity and Change: The Montreal Council of Social Agencies' Attempts to Deal with the Depression

Montreal's approach to social welfare prior to 1930 was markedly different from every other major Canadian city. Montreal was dominated by a complex private charities' network that was divided by religion and language. The author examines how one large private charity organization, the Montreal Council of Social Agencies (MCSA), reacted and adjusted to the Great Depression of the 1930s. Because the Council was English and Protestant, it borrowed its methods and ideas from England, the United States and the other provinces rather than from French Catholic Quebec. It tried to compel the municipal, provincial and federal governments to play a larger role in welfare work, and supported the professionalization of social work. The MCSA was founded in 1921 by John Howard Toynbee Falk (1881-1950), head of McGill University's Department of Social Studies, later the McGill School of Social Workers. The overwhelming emphasis of the MCSA on planning and research reflected its role as animator, information exchange and coordinator of a great variety of social agencies and groups, from major hospitals and fund-raising organizations to church groups and boys' clubs. In 1968, the MCSA merged with its French homologue, the Conseil de Développement Social. It ceased operations in 1976.

Master's Thesis

McGill University

Montreal

1984

xxiii-255p.

en