Chapter 1 Chapter Overview & Learning Objectives

Chapter Summary

This chapter focuses on the three main historical traditions that have contributed to the development of Canadian social work by exploring traditional Indigenous approaches to helping and healing, tracing the unique features of social welfare emerging from French traditions, and identifying the British roots of social welfare in English Canada as well as the values and social contexts from which such traditions emerged. It also provides insight into the emergence of the Canadian welfare state and discusses the development of the social work profession and social work education and the impact of neoliberalism on social work practice.

Indigenous Peoples in Canada have historically had negative experiences with the social work profession, due largely to the legacies of colonization, including residential schooling and the Sixties Scoop. Well before the arrival of the first settlers, Indigenous Peoples had their own systems for addressing social issues. Through oral traditions, the practice of intergenerational teaching, and use of the Medicine Wheel, Indigenous Peoples in Canada have developed effective approaches to community care and healing.

For early French settlers, human welfare was considered the responsibility of individuals and families. Where relief was available it was delivered by the Catholic Church through numerous entities operating at the parish level. Services provided to those requiring assistance were differentiated according to distinctions made between the deserving poor and the undeserving poor. Among Anglo-Canadian communities in Quebec, models of charitable provision were similar to those offered by the Catholic Church, except that they tended to be organized and delivered by middle-class and wealthy women through benevolent societies.

In English-speaking Canada, similar models of relief for those living in poverty eventually developed into Charity Organization Societies and the Settlement House Movement. Influenced by the Elizabethan Poor Law of 1601, provision of relief to the poor had been divided between indoor relief and outdoor relief. Over time, the development of a scientific approach to alleviating poverty, the establishment of several settlement houses, and the Social Gospel Movement began to influence the provision of relief and to lay the foundations of the social work profession. With the consequences wrought by the Great Depression, the Canadian welfare state began to take shape. 

Learning Objectives

The goal of this chapter is to do the following:

1. Identify the origins of foundational concepts and issues of social work practice in Canada.
2. Understand historical foundational concepts and issues and their application to Canadian social work practice.
3. Appreciate the historical contributions of Indigenous, French-speaking, and English-speaking populations to Canadian social work philosophy and practice.
4. Envision approaches to social work practice that reflect the myriad heritages of all who live in Canada.