Online & On-Campus BSW and MSW Social Work Degrees in Yonkers, New Rochelle, Mount Vernon, and Throughout Westchester County

Part school of thought, part political movement, part religion, the New York Society for Ethical Culture (NYSEC) has been working toward the advancement of social justice for all since 1876.

Founded by Dr. Felix Adler, described as both “visionary and revolutionary,” NYSEC began as an idea to promote ethics in social work through education and to serve as a forum through which members could express their religious consciences through moral and human actions.

Dr. Adler and his followers quickly got to work, initiating two projects in 1877: the District Nursing Service (now the Visiting Nursing Service), and the founding of the first free kindergarten in the United States. Just three years later, the Workingman’s School was chartered and five years later, it was reorganized to become the Ethical Culture School.

But Adler didn’t stop there. His vision included improving the living conditions in tenement houses, founding the Blythedale Children’s Hospital in Westchester County, which became New York’s only independent specialty children’s hospital. He later founded the Down-Town Ethical Society, which eventually grew to establish everything from libraries to educational classes to employment bureaus.

True to their word on advancing social justice, the Society hired a woman to become its associate leader and eventually became a platform for civil rights. In 1909, they signed a petition to create the National Association of Colored People (NAACP). Adler went on to serve on the National Urban League’s executive committee in 1910.

Adler’s death in 1933 wasn’t the end of the great work he started. Instead, he left behind a legacy that included leaders like John Lovejoy Elliott, who helped found the National Civil Liberties Bureau, and Algernon D. Black, who founded the Encampment for Citizenship, a program for adults to engage in activism and volunteerism.

Throughout the years, the NYSEC has been involved in major movements aimed at helping the homeless, addressing issues of war, repealing the death penalty, and promoting women’s rights — including their right to healthcare through the establishment of many Planned Parenthood clinics in NYC. They’ve even partnered with the Innocence Project to help free wrongfully accused prisoners and organizations like Amnesty International and the ACLU to promote the social good.