We regretted terminating our long relationship with our cleaning service in 2023, when its management changed. It was ably supervised for our facilities by the late Rob Yeomans. Here is a history of our relationship, written by former Junior Warden Nancy Mueller.
Founded in 1877 by a citizen group that included an Emmanuel founder, Community Work Services (CWS) provides us with building maintenance and cleaning services. In response to social and economic changes over the last 135 years, CWS has morphed through a series of constructs and names. As a social-service agency, it has developed an evolving menu of the programs and services, but has never lost its focus on aiding the poor and handicapped in Boston. “Handicap” was and remains viewed in a broad context of mental, physical, or social impairment.
Its founding group focused on providing sewing as a means of support to women. Emmanuel’s Industrial Department, founded in 1861, also provided employment in sewing for poor women. As the Cooperative Workshops for Handicapped Women, CWS in 1904 established sewing classes and a garment-production workshop, primarily for younger women. Those who sewed at home were paid by piecework, while those who sewed in the workshop were paid in terms of their need.
Incorporated as “The Cooperative Workshops” in 1913, under the leadership of Board Chairman George Duncan (the Earl of Camperdown) and General Manager Hazel Newton, the group evolved into a case-based, vocational training center, where women gained skills to prepare themselves for employment in outside industries. Clerical skills were introduced. Rehabilitation and psychiatric services became part of the program. Trainees were drawn from a broader range of applicants including the elderly, single mothers, and women who had been in difficulty with the law. The Workshops sold their goods to a network of institutions and businesses, including settlement houses, hospitals, restaurants and department stores. They adopted the insignia: “Adjustment, Training, and Placement”; their motto became: “Dignity through Work”.
Although the Great Depression forced a reduction of staff and trainees, an affiliation with Massachusetts General Hospital allowed them to provide services to released mental patients. The group then merged with the Christopher Shop, a sheltered workshop that produced handmade goods such as rugs. Men were now included as trainees, and woodworking skills were added to the program. Clerical-skill training was substantially broadened, and trainees became involved in the Workshops’ office.
With the onset of World War II, the Workshops experienced an expansion of their services, which came to include production of war materials in the Mechanical Assembly Department, stitching of uniforms for volunteer organizations, and the training of the handicapped as air-raid wardens. Following the war, the Boston Veterans Administration contracted with the Workshop for retraining disabled veterans.
This expansion led to a vision of developing the Workshops into a comprehensive rehabilitation center, but postwar changes in business practices hindered them form becoming a self-standing rehabilitation center. A two-year trial of providing the services of physical therapists was unsuccessful due to competition of hospitals, which with government support could provide physical therapy in more modern facilities. As the Workshops’ staff was primarily self-taught, the professionalization of providers of social-service providers was another barrier. The mechanization of production of goods made home-bound work obsolete, and the garment industry began to move south.
Fundraising had become funneled through an umbrella organization for social services, United Community Services, which prohibited private fund-raising. As the Workshops’ financial situation worsened, the idiosyncratic nature of the relatively small-scale services led to a review in 1960 by a United Community Services committee headed by Elliott Richardson, which recommended their suspension.
In 1963, Simon Olshansky, who had extensive experience in rehabilitation, was appointed as Executive Director. Instituting a number of internal administrative reforms, he installed a team of professional consultants in the fields of psychiatry, physical medicine, social work, and social science. Consequently, in 1965 the Workshops were reinstated as a member of the United Community Services. Olshansky phased out the Garment Stitching Department and created an Electronics Department. He emphasized the principle of “normalization of work experience”. This included more challenging work and production of useful goods rewarded with a meaningful wage.
In 1981, CWS was given a permanent home at 174 Portland Street: a six-floor, turn-of-the-century brick building, which afforded space to expand their in-house training programs. By 2001, they had expanded their partnerships with government agencies and developed partnerships with local non-profit agencies such as the Pine Street Inn. They provided packaging services for Panorama Foods, secure mail-room services for the Defense Contract Management Agency–East, and mailing services for local academic institutions. New initiatives included “project inclusion” for trainees with linguistic and/or cultural barriers and a program of applied assistive technology for severely disabled persons.
Today, CWS conducts a variety of programs and businesses in continuation of their mission toward ending poverty and homelessness via job training and employment services. Training is done both in-house–such as in the Culinary Arts Training Center and its cafeteria–and within the community, as at Emmanuel. In FY 2011, CWS served 690 individuals through case management, assessment, job training, legal assistance, placement services, and post-placement follow-up. Job training programs include Job Readiness Training; At Your Service: Hotel & Hospitality; Café Careers & Food Services; Commercial Cleaning and Transitional Jobs. They run three businesses: Property Maintenance, Food Services & Catering, and Assembly & Packaging. Their 2011 expenses totaled $4,007,345 and revenue totaled $4,044,044.
Rob Yeomans was our longtime CWS building sexton. He died on July 25, 2023. May he rest in peace and rise in glory. Photo credit: Julian Bullitt
From 2011-2023, our joint Building Working Group comprised of Building Commission members, CWS’ maintenance coordinator and our Parish Administrator met to review current projects and future undertakings. Our parallel histories laid the groundwork for our symbiotic relationship.
We used these sources for this page:
- One Hundred Years of Service: A History of the Community Workshops, Inc., 1877-1977. Boston, 1981; available at the Boston Public Library HD7256.U6 M495 1981.
- CWS Annual Reports, 2001 and 2011.
- History of CWS: https://cwsnewengland.org/history-board-members/
- Mary Ludwig and George Cushman of CWS
- Mary Chitty, our Parish Historian