Events & Registration
July 3, 2008
About MASW
MISSION
It is the mission of MASW to provide the leadership, research, education and advocacy to improve public policies and programs impacting the health and welfare of all people in Missouri.
VISION
MASW envisions Missouri becoming a more just, equitable and democratic society that assures every person’s health, safety, security, independence, human rights, dignity and the opportunity to reach full potential.
ABOUT
MASW is a citizen membership organization founded in 1901. Organized in the Progressive Era, it started in St. Louis as the Missouri Conference on Corrections and Charities. It was mostly a statewide professional forum for philanthropists, government employees of human services agencies, and private charity professionals. For the first decade its activities consisted mostly of meeting once a year to discuss social problems and read papers.
In 1910, the first legislative committee under the of leadership of Roger Baldwin, subsequent founder of the American Civil Liberties Union, MASW became a more activist organization. It began advocating for changes in public policy to improve social conditions. Among its first major successes was the creation of the Widow's Pension Program, a pilot project in Jackson County, Missouri, which spread around the country and became the model for the national Aid to Dependent Children Program passed in the Social Security Act of 1935. MASW has remained a vigorous advocate throughout this century. Indeed not a year has passed in this century when some social policy change did not bear the mark of MASW advocacy.
In recent years MASW led the coalition that created the Missouri Human Rights Commission and Missouri Public Defender system. It led the effort to create a Missouri Housing Trust Fund, a Children's Anti-Hunger Act, and many more.
Timeline of MASW's History & Accomplishments
Information about accessing the MASW Archive
Our state Board of Directors
MASW Honor Roll
Updated: 04/18/2008