‘The soul of the community’: two practitioners reflect on history, place and community in two communitybased practices from 1980 to 1995: St Hilda’s Community Centre in Bethnal Green and Waterloo Action Centre in Waterloo, South London

Abstract

This chapter offers an exploration of the Settlement House movement in a contemporary light. It uses the reflections of two practitioners and data from recently conducted focus groups on the community-based practice in two organisations in England during the period 1981 to 1995. The authors contend that community development and community social work were part of mainstream social work practice supported by local authorities and integrated into social work education but that this has largely been lost from both mainstream social work practice and education, taking place only in the voluntary sector. This chapter aims to document the value of social work within contemporary based community-based organisations where politics of place were central to the community-based practice which took place, thus carrying on the original ethos and ideas of the original Settlements.