Pre-Modern History
In West, when Constantine I legalized the Christian Church, the newly legitimised church set up poorhouses, homes for the aged, hospitals, and orphanages. These were often funded, at least in part, from grants from the Empire.
By 590 AD the church had a system for circulating the consumables to the poor: associated with each parish was a diaconium or office of the deacon.
As there was no effective bureaucracy below city government that was capable of charitable activities, the clergy served this role in the west up through the 18th century.
During the Middle Ages, the Christian church had vast influence on European society and charity was considered to be a responsibility and a sign of one’s piety. This charity was in the form of direct relief (for example, giving money, food, or other material goods to alleviate a particular need), as opposed to trying to change the root causes of poverty.
The practice and profession of social work has a relatively modern (19th century) and scientific origin.
Read more about this topic: History Of Social Work
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“In history an additional result is commonly produced by human actions beyond that which they aim at and obtain—that which they immediately recognize and desire. They gratify their own interest; but something further is thereby accomplished, latent in the actions in question, though not present to their consciousness, and not included in their design.”
—Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel (1770–1831)