Children Placed Under Care Through the Westchester County Department of Family and Child Welfare: A Comparative Statistical Study of 404 Children Placed During 1945 and 1949
Abstract
The importance of the family unit as the most natural, fundamental method of providing and maintaining the physical, emotional and spiritual values of the child is undisputed among people in the field of child welfare, This basic concept also seems reasonable to people with sufficient intellectual endowment who can accept the fact that a child has great dependency needs upon others from the time of his birth and during the years that follow, The preservation of this basic concept, therefore, will do much to extend to the child the security that he needs in his spiritual, intellectual, and physical development. Since the child's character and personality are essentially formed and later developed more fully during the first six years through his relationships with his own home and family, it is extremely important that parental and family strengths be fortified and the moral fiber of the home be preserved.It has been stated "for the poor you have always with you." Likewise, evidence has shown that there have been situations in the future when the rights and needs of children to the protection, love and affection will not be met within the settings of their own homes» in these malignant situations, after every attempt to keep the family together has failed, it may become necessary to remove the child or children from their own. homes and to arrange for their care in a new setting which will best meet their individual needs. However, it should be recognized quite early that (placement in a "good” institution or in an "ideal" foster home is at best only substitute care. It has been stated often that "foster care should be utilized only after due consideration has been given to the possibility of maintaining the child in his own home under proper conditions. And so it is within the family relationships of these children who have needed to be cared for away from their own homes that the author is focusing on and concerning whom there is a vital need to explore.
Subject Area
Public administration|Individual & family studies|Social work
Recommended Citation
Angello, Josephine Rose, "Children Placed Under Care Through the Westchester County Department of Family and Child Welfare: A Comparative Statistical Study of 404 Children Placed During 1945 and 1949" (1952). ETD Collection for Fordham University. AAI30509616.
https://research.library.fordham.edu/dissertations/AAI30509616
