Mary Richmond Accomplishments

Introduction: Mary Richmond was born in Belleville, Illinois in 1961. She became an orphan at a very young age; she was 4. She had to go live with her grandmother and aunts in Baltimore, Maryland. She grew up in an environment full of social and political discussions because her grandmother was a women’s suffragist. She was home schooled until the age of 11 because her grandmother and aunts did not believe in traditional education. She was very dedicated to reading and she self-taught herself. At the age of 11 she was transferred to a public school and she graduated high school at the age of 16. After she graduated, she went to live with one of her aunts in New York until she became very ill and moved to Baltimore, leaving Mary in poverty and all alone. After two years of being in this situation, Mary went back to

At the age of 28 years, she applied for Assistant Treasurer of the Charity Organization Society (COS). This organization gave services to disabled, poor and needy people, which led her to give her contributions to social work. She worked with poor families by going to their houses as a “friendly visitor”, which was her first type of casework, and helped the poor with their situations. She also did research on how to turn charity into social work.

Mary Richmond is considered one of the main contributors to the social work field. Even with her difficult life she never limited herself to help others. When she started working at the COS, her job was to raise awareness of the organization and fundraise for the organization; however, as she became more experienced she went on to become a “friendly visitor”, friendly visitors were case workers back in the day and they went to people's houses in order to help them improve life situations and continue on with a better life. After her major contributions to the Cos she became the general secretary of the Philadelphia Society for Organizing Charity and during her time in this