Italian Settlement Summary

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The basic premises of the book can be asked in one question, “What were one individual’s perceptions of the services that she received from the Italian Settlement House and the need for those services in her community?” The trends and issues that laid the foundation for the Italian Settlement and the challenges of life for American immigrants were instrumental in developing the perceptions and life lessons of one individual in particular, Marie Russo. The Italian Settlement House in Utica, New York, was founded in 1905 by the Women’s Home Missionary Society of the Methodist Church. The initial goals of the Settlement were to teach immigrants to help themselves and sustain a lifestyle in which the family could function. In the first report…show more content…
The House began to provide educational classes for men in popular industrial and handwork skills. These classes often coincided with practical lessons in English and government in order to these help the immigrant men to obtain citizenship. Other areas in the House grew as well including sewing classes, Sunday School, and the boys club. Around that time, The Italian Settlement House also established the first ever kindergarten program in Utica, and then pioneered pre-school education by establishing the first nursery school program in the community. As the United States struggled with the economic uncertainties of the Great Depression, the demand for services offered by settlement houses increased. As thousands of individuals across the country were unemployed, a greater number of community members looked to the settlement for help. It was during that time that organization once known as the Italian Settlement House changed its name to the Neighborhood Center offering services to all in need. While the Neighborhood Center continued to reach out to the community it was certainly making an everlasting impression on a girl named Marie Russo, a child of an Italian Immigrant family who went to the center for…show more content…
The Career Development Trainee Program, the Center thrift store, a casework department was opened and a school-based program, Partners in Prevention, and a Youth Employment Network was started. By 1980 thanks to Marie, the agency was able to purchase two vans and expand what was once a six room operation into a million dollar new youth center compete with a day care center, group work facilities, adult activity areas, a thrift shop, and a recreational room. The Neighborhood Center had also resulted in a volunteer increase from less than 1000 at the beginning of Marie’s reign as Director to over 5000 members. During the late 80’s through the 90’s she continued to strive to make the Neighborhood Center the best it could be. Marie added additional departments in social group work, casework, youth employment, and a community support system for mental patients who had been assimilated back into the community from the Utica Psychiatric Center. Marie’s hard work had paid off. During the 2000 Annual Report noted that in 1999 - 2000, the Neighborhood Center, which had started off serving less than 100 people in 1905, had grown to touch the lives of more than 26,350 people in the surround
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