California Social Welfare Archives

The California Social Welfare Archives (CSWA) was organized in 1979 to collect materials that chronicle the history and diversity of social welfare in California.

The Archives contains correspondence, minutes, memoranda, annual reports, research papers, conference proceedings, oral histories, and newsletters of California social welfare and related organizations which have reflected in their programs the development of social welfare programs, problems, issues, and services in the State. It also contains the personal papers of social workers or social work lay or civic leaders who participated in the emergence of social programs, public or private. Included in the collection are documents illustrating the roles of philanthropic groups and, especially, those depicting the history of marginalized groups as providers and consumers of mainstream social welfare services, as well as their experience in developing and using their own community services through, for example, benevolent societies and religious groups.

Finding aids to the CSWA collections are available via the Online Archive of California. Thanks to generous support from the John Randolph Haynes and Dora Haynes Foundation, the USC Libraries and CSWA are creating digital collections of records held by CSWA related to children's policies in Los Angeles. Digitized material will be available via the collections’ finding aids. 

Directions and Access
CSWA collections may be consulted, by appointment, on the campus of the University of Southern California in the Doheny Memorial Library, Special Collections. The Archives may be used by academic and community researchers. To request materials and make an appointment, please refer to instructions here.