Boarding Out Jewish Children in Massachusetts

Publication Date: May 1902

Publisher: C.J. Krehbiel & Co.; Jewish Communal Service Association of North America

Author(s): Max Mitchell

Research Area: Social conditions

Keywords: Social Services; Family; Poverty

Type: Report

Coverage: United States Massachusetts

Abstract:

The author describes the system developed by the Baron de Hirsch Free Employment Bureau of New England to provide care for the children of its clients while they are struggling to find employment and income for themselves. They find and inspect foster homes where the children are cared for by couples, with the expense shared by the agency and by the parents, with the parents' share increasing as their employment situation improves, until the parent is financially able to take the child back into the home. In cases where the parent dies, the foster parents have adopted the children. This system seems more natural and healthy than institutionalization and through regular parental visits and the maintenance of the financial responsibility of the parent for the child, also promotes better family relationships in the long term.