On Friday morning, I heard the report on NPR that the working centers were closing due to loss of funding during a tough economy, a time when conversely more people than ever were seeking its services. The Hull House Museum, affiliated University of Illinois-Chicago and the site of the original settlement house, remains open.
Settlement houses, a late 19th / early 20th century movement, established houses in poor urban areas. Volunteer middle-class settlement workers (AKA community organizers) lived in them, sharing knowledge and culture with and alleviating the poverty of their low-income neighbors. In recent times, Hull House provided child care, domestic violence counseling, job training, housing assistance, and other services for 60,000 people a year at nearly four dozen sites in the Chicago area.
In grade school, my teachers used Jane Addams and the founding of Hull House as one of the ubiquitous lessons for teaching us that anyone can make a difference and that there are noble aspirations in all of us. (Do they bother with those sorts of great concepts anymore? I don’t know, but I can’t remember hearing much about such things once my kids left the Lutheran schools.)
I grew up in downstate Illinois and visited my step-aunt in Chicago during the summer. In addition to buying me the coolest school clothes ever, she undertook the task of teaching me about culture. We visited museums, libraries, recitals, and architectural “gems.” Hull House was on her agenda. Seeing Hull House at that time in my life felt as remarkable and exciting as visiting the Pyramids did later. (Those of you who know me well realize how remarkable that must have been.) At university, I had friends from Chicago whose families volunteered and donated to Hull House. Since moving to Texas (30 years ago this month), I haven’t thought much of Hull House.
All this is by way of saying that when I heard the news on the way home from my morning swim, I felt like crying. I felt guilty. Could I have made a difference? Well, maybe me and a lot of other somebodies. Should we have made a difference? Yes. As our social safety nets fray and disappear (as the current clowns in the Republican party car seem to be demanding), we’ll see more and more closings like this one. If we don’t find a way to prevent it, the US will become a third-world nation unable (or unwilling) to provide assistance to its own citizens. Like the people who sought assistance at Hull House this year, more and more of us will need that assistance. When that happens, the Corporate person can exploit us all for cheap labor. I suppose it’s one way of bringing the jobs home.
