Commonwealth Fund (USA)

Commonwealth Fund of America

3 The Commonwealth Fund (of America) and Commonwealth Scholarships

had its origins in the philanthropic efforts of the Harkness family. Its original 1918

endowment of $10 million expanded to $53 million by 1959. Child welfare has been

a major focus of its grant making. In 1925, the Fund launched its international

program of fellowships called The Commonwealth Fund Fellowships (now the

Harkness Fellowships). A number of people in the UK (including some of the Cohen

interviewees) were invited by the Commonwealth Fund to visit the USA in 1927, and

an offer was made to train a group of UK social workers in psychiatric social as a

preparation for opening a child guidance clinic in this country. When the visitors

returned to the UK, they presented a report to the Child Guidance Council on the

development of child guidance clinics in this country. This report stressed the need

for making clinics an integral part of the school system and it also advocated

cooperation between clinics and hospitals. From 1929 to 1940 the Commonwealth

Fund also completely financed the LSE to deliver the first university training course

for psychiatric social workers: the Diploma Course in Mental Health. For an

informed discussion see: Stewart, J. (2006). Psychiatric Social Work in inter-war

Britain: American ideas, American philanthropy. In Michael Quarterly. www.dnms.no

and Noel Timms (1964). Psychiatric Social Work in Great Britain: 1939-62.

http://studymore.org.uk/mhhtim.htm

American philanthropy - child guidance - psychiatric social work

1926 An appeal to The Commonwealth Fund (New York) by Cyril Burt and Amy Strachey, (born Amy Simpson 1866) "Mrs St Loe Strachey" for funds to start training psychiatric social workers at the London School of Economics (see below) and support for Child Guidance.

AIM25 contains "material relating to the Mental Health Course, 1926-1957, including papers of the Child Guidance Council, the Commonwealth Fund and the Mental Health Training Committee; material on the teaching of Statistics and Computing Methods, Insurance, Social Studies, Latin American Studies, Management and Management Studies." - A grant is recorded to "London, University of, 1926- 1968" in the Commonwealth Fund archives.