Settlement movement

The settlement movement began in the 19C out of the growing need for social justice. Settlement houses were founded that offered social services to all, particularly the urban poor. Examples are Toynbee Hall in London and Hull House in Chicago (founded by Jane Addams and Ellen Gates Starr).

Settlement houses

The first settlement house, Toynbee Hall in the East End of London, was founded by Samuel and Henrietta Barnett, and named after their friend and fellow reformer, Oxford historian Arnold Toynbee.

History

The philosophy behind Toynbee Hall was that all within society should share in a wider community. The Barnetts wrote in 1884, that if people from universities lived for a period amongst the city poor they could "do a little to remove the inequalities of life", sharing "their best with the poor and learn through feeling how they live’" The Barnetts believed in a forging friendships based on trust, and in employing "a higher spirit".

"A settlement is simply a means by which men or women may share themselves with their neighbours; a club-house in an industrial district, where the condition of membership is the performance of a citizen’s duty; a house among the poor, where residents may make friends with the poor." (Barnett 1898)

The idea of settlement houses spread to America and pre-Communist Russia.