SSA History
Noteworthy
Dexter Voisin appeared on WTTW's Chicago Tonight as a member of a panel discussing gun violence.
See the Segment
SSA's US News Ranking: The School of Social Service Administration has solidified its US News & World Report ranking at number 3 among graduate schools of Social Work.
Read the report
Breast Cancer in Black Women May be Connected to Neighborhood Conditions: Path-breaking project led by Sarah Gehlert, Director of the Center for Interdisciplinary Health Disparities Research at the University.
Read the press release
Featured Events
Professional Development Program
Summer Schedule now online
Rhoda G. Sarnat Lecture
Eileen D. Gambrill, Berkeley School of Social Welfare, The University of California
June 7th: Alumni Weekend
SSA's Origins
At
right is a picture of Chicago Commons, founded in 1894. It was here, beginning
in 1895, the School of Social Economics, which later became SSA, offered the
earliest social work course offerings of any school in the U.S.
Counted among those who taught at the Chicago Commons School were Jane Addams, social reformer; John Dewey, educator; and Charles Henderson, social reform and sociology.
Graham
Taylor (pictured right), minister and social work educator, served as president
and founder of The School of Social Economics. Under his leadership, the program
grew into the first year-long social work educational program in the nation,
the Social Science Center for Practical Training in Philanthropic and Social
Work, established in 1903.
By 1908, SSA's predecessor again changed its name to the Chicago School of Civics and Philanthropy, still under the leadership of Graham Taylor. We celebrate 1908 as the birth of SSA, the first two-year social work program. Julia Lathrop served as vice-president and Jane Addams and Julius Rosenwald were included among its trustees.
In 1920, the School merged as a graduate school of the University of Chicago and became known from that point on as the School of Social Service Administration.
Photos from Graham Taylor, Pioneer for Social Justice 1851-1938, by Louis Wade, University of Chicago Press, 1964.
