Remember social work's nesting place

Sept 18th is the anniversary of the founding of Hull House in Chicago in 1889. If you don't know the story you might want to read up. Here's a long excerpt from Wikipedia to whet your appetite for this pioneering effort that "invented" social work as a compassionate and transformational social practice.

Throughout the first two decades of operation, Hull House attracted many female residents who later became prominent and influential reformers at various levels. At the beginning, Addams and Starr volunteered as on-call doctors when the real doctors either didn’t show up or weren’t available. They acted as midwives, saved babies from neglect, prepared the dead for burial, nursed the sick, and sheltered domestic violence victims. For example, one Italian bride had lost her wedding ring and in turn was beaten by her husband for a week. She sought shelter at the settlement and it was granted to her. Also, a baby born with a cleft palate was unwanted by his mother so he was kept at the Hull House for six weeks after an operation. In another case, a woman was about to give birth to an illegitimate baby, so none of the Irish matrons would touch it. Addams and Starr stepped in and delivered this helpless little one. Finally, a female Italian immigrant was so thrilled about fresh roses at one of the Hull House receptions that she insisted they had come from Italy. She had never seen anything as beautiful in America despite the fact that she lived within ten blocks of a florist shop. Her limited view of America came from the untidy street she lived on and the long struggle to adapt to American ways. The settlement was also gradually drawn into advocating for legislative reforms at the municipal, state and federal levels, addressing issues such as child labor, women's suffrage, healthcare reform and immigration policy. Some claim that the work of the Hull House marked the beginning of what we know today as "Social Welfare".[20] At the neighborhood level, Hull House established the city’s first public playground, bathhouse, and public gymnasium (in 1893), pursued educational and political reform, and investigated housing, working, and sanitation issues. The playground opened on May Day in 1893, located on Polk Street. Families dressed in party attire and came to join the celebration that day. Addams became the founder of the National Playground Association and advocated for playgrounds nationwide. She had studied child behavior and painfully concluded that “children robbed of childhood were likely to become dull, sullen men and women working mindless jobs, or criminals for whom the adventure of crime became the only way to break out of the bleakness of their lives” Also, one volunteer, Jenny Dow, started a kindergarten class for children left at the settlement while their mothers worked in the sweatshops. Within three weeks, Dow had 24 registered...kindergarteners and 70 on a waiting list. At the municipal level, their pursuit of legal reforms led to the first juvenile court in the United States, and their work influenced urban planning and the transition to a branch library system. At the state level Hull House influenced legislation on child labor laws, occupational safety and health provisions, compulsory education, immigrant rights, and pension laws. These experiences translated to success at the federal level, working with the settlement house network to champion national child labor laws, women’s suffrage, a children’s bureau, unemployment compensation, workers' compensation, and other elements of the Progressive agenda during the first two decades of the twentieth century.

More here:http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hull_House.

• documents.  leases, notices, property advertisements, memos from the manager, emails, text messages....anything in writing that pertains to the rental relationship could be critical.
  
• witnesses:  people hear and see things that can help explain the problem.  A key step in using a witness is to create a written statement of what happened as quickly as possible after the event took place (lawyers call this contemporaneous). 
  
• photos:  be sure you have proof when the photo was created and by whom.
  
• recordings:  In Ohio a recording can be used in evidence if one party to the conversation knows that the conversation is being recorded.  There's no requirement to disclose that a recording is being made.  However, the person making the recording should be available to testify to the date, time, circumstances of the recording.

• intimacy
• accuracy