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3 unusual facts about Charity Organization Society


Charity Organization Society

For instance, the Charity Organization Society of Denver, Colorado, the forerunner of the modern United Way of America, coordinated the charitable activities of local Jewish, Congregational and Catholic groups.

Columbia University School of Social Work

It is also the nation’s oldest, with roots extending back to 1898, when the New York Charity Organization Society’s first summer course was announced in The New York Times.

Mary Richmond

In 1888, she applied for a job as Assistant Treasurer with the Charity Organization Society (COS). This organization was in several cities, and was the first organization to develop a structured social work profession which provided services to the poor, disabled, and needy.


Catherine Courtney, Baroness Courtney of Penwith

In 1875, after a particularly difficult year, the 28-year-old Kate Potter left her family home and went to London to enlist in the activities of Octavia Hill and started training for the Charity Organization Society in Whitechapel, as well as working as an organiser of an East End boys' clubs, before joining Samuel Augustus and Henrietta Barnett in their philanthropic work.


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