Social Agencies in Seattle

• Other Authors: University of Washington Libraries. Special Collections Division.
• Format: Other/Unknown Material
• Language: unknown
• Published: White & Davis Printing Co.
• Subjects: Social service > Washington (State) > Seattle; Strong; Anna Louise; 1885-1970; Pacific; Yukon; Alaska
• Online Access: http://cdm16786.contentdm.oclc.org:80/cdm/ref/collection/pioneerlife/id/8496

This brochure advertises the 1909 "Know Your City" civic institute for Seattle, which was held from May 3rd through May 21st. This "Pre-Exposition Institute", so named because it was scheduled to immediately precede the opening of the Alaska-Yukon-Pacific Exposition in Seattle, focused on the topic of "Social Agencies of Seattle". The meetings were held at the Y.M.C.A. building. The daily topics covered by the institute are as follows: "Seattle City Council", "City Plans", "Public Health", "Dependent Children", "The Juvenile Court", "Delinquent Children", "Jails", "Christian Associations", "Charities", "Immigration", "Problem of the Homeless Men", "Social Centers", "Hospitals", "Anti-Tuberculosis League", "Parks and Playgrounds", and "Things We Lack". The brochure directs all inquiries about the institute to Anna Louise Strong. The "Know-Your-City" movement began in 1909 when Anna Louise Strong, a resident of Seattle, visited the Schools of Civics and Philanthropy in New York and Chicago. She resolved to adapt their concept of the "summer institute" for the city of Seattle, making the classes open to all citizens (not limited to tuition-paying students, as in the cities she'd visited), and worked with her father, Sydney Strong, to plan the first institute for May, 1909, immediately before the opening of the Alaska-Yukon-Pacific Exposition. The Strongs secured the support of many prominent citizens and local newspapers in the creation of the institute. Its success led to the organization of similar conferences in other cities around the Pacific Northwest, including a "Know Your City" institute in Portland, Oregon in November of 1909, as well as leading the Strongs to continue organizing Seattle's "Know Your City" institutes on an annual basis for several years thereafter.