This past Sunday we (Jeni who you heard from earlier this week and
Grace who you will hear from next week) toured the Jane Addams Hull House for
our practicum class.
It was really inspirational to be at such an important
historic site for the field of social work. The Hull House was started by Jane
Addams and others and offered services to immigrants for over seventy years. We
were amazed by the breadth of services that were offered to immigrants, they
had access to a kiln for pottery, child care, health services, and English
classes. They even had the opportunity to teach and share their own skills and
crafts.
We were excited about the opportunity to learn about who
Jane Addams was and glimpse a bit of her life. We learned about the people who
surrounded her and worked with her such as Ellen Gates Star and Florence Kelly.
All of these strong women seemed to have a solid understanding of the needs of
immigrants and worked endlessly to meet those needs.
One object in the house that exemplified this for us was
Jane’s “partner desk.” Jane wanted her desk to be symmetrical so that she and
whoever she met with were seeing eye-to-eye and were equally positioned. This
helped her to place herself in an empathetic position to her clients, which is
something we still try to do as social workers today.
This experience encouraged us to continue to uphold Jane
Addams’ values and vision while we are here in Chicago and in the future.
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