Reforming Reform: Toronto's Settlement House Movement, 1900-20

Abstract

There can hardly be anything more opposed to conventional charity than the social settlement … The settlements are not charitable institutions. They are, on the contrary, illustrations of social equality and democracy. The settlement workers do not go down from their homes of prosperity with philanthropic condescension to aid the poor. They simply live among the poor, and their relation with them is that of neighbors and personal friends. They dismiss altogether the notion of social classes. They recognize but one social circle, - the comprehensive circle of human sympathy and need.