Kahn, Alfred Joseph
KAHN, ALFRED JOSEPH
KAHN, ALFRED JOSEPH (1919– ), U.S. educator and social planner. Born in New York City, Kahn received his B.S.S. from the City College of New York (1939), his Master's of Social Work from Columbia University School of Social Work (1946), and his Ph.D. in Social Welfare from Columbia University (1952). It was the first doctorate given at Columbia's School of Social Work.
He was with the U.S. Army Air Force from 1942 to 1946. After serving as a psychiatric social worker with the Jewish Board of Guardians in New York City (1946–47), he began teaching at the Columbia University School of Social Work and in 1954 was appointed a full professor. His special areas of expertise included delinquency, services for children, mental health, and social policy and planning. After his retirement from teaching, he became professor emeritus, special research scholar, and special lecturer at the Columbia University School of Social Work.
Kahn was a consultant to a number of social agencies and foundations. His writings show his special interest in social planning. These include A Court for Children (1953), Planning Community Services for Children in Trouble (1963), Neighborhood Information Centers (1965), and Day Care as a Social Instrument (1966, with Anna Mayer). His companion volumes Theory and Practice of Social Planning and Studies in Social Policy and Planning, published in 1969, are basic texts in this field. He was editor of Issues in American Social Work (1959). Kahn's recommendations have been incorporated in a number of social programs to meet the problems of the young.
Kahn served as consultant to federal, state, and local agencies; to voluntary organizations; and foundations concerned with the planning of social services, income maintenance, child welfare-related programs, international collaboration, and social policy. He was national chairman for the Division of Practice and Knowledge of the National Association of Social Workers and served for two terms on the nasw Board.
Kahn completed several overseas assignments for the Department of Health Education and Welfare, the State Department, private foundations, the un, and various foreign governments. He received a Lifetime Achievement Award from the Council on Social Work Education (1990), the National Association of Social Workers (1996), and the Social Welfare Policy and Policy Practice Group (2001). In 2002, the Alfred J. Kahn Doctoral Fellowship was established at the Columbia University School of Social Work. Some of Kahn's later works, which he co-authored with Sheila Kamerman, include Not for the Poor Alone (1981), Helping America's Families (1982), Maternity Policies and Working Women (1983), The Responsive Workplace (1987), Mothers Alone (1988), Child Support (1988), and Starting Right (1995).
[Ruth Beloff (2nd ed.)]