Social Responsibility Council (1973-present), formerly the Yorkshire Union of Ladies' Associations for the Care of Girls (1889-1911), the York Association for Preventative and Rescue Work, (1911-1936), the Diocesan Association for Moral Welfare (1936-1964), and the Diocesan Association for Family Welfare (1964-1973).
The Yorkshire Union of Ladies' Associations for the Care of Girls was formed in 1889, including in its work supporting refuges, shelters and rescue homes and maintaining lodging homes for "Young Girls of Good Character and the Fallen". In 1911 this was superseded by the York Association for Preventative and Rescue Work, with the Archbishop of York as president and run by a diocesan secretary and an honorary treasurer, which listed its principle aims as co-ordinating existing agencies for "preventative, rescue and penitentiary work" within the diocese, and founding and maintaining diocesan institutions for these purposes. In conjunction with this association, the York Diocesan Maternity Home was opened at Linnaeus House on 2 February 1915. The association also supported shelters in Hull, York, Malton, Middlesborough, Pontefract and Scarborough and workers at Redcar, Bridlington and Whitby. By the 1920's eight branches of the association, each with a moral welfare worker, had been established, including the York Sheltering Home at Bootham Terrace, Clifton Home, a two-year rescue training home and the Hull Sheltering Home.
In 1936 the organisation became the Diocesan Association for Moral Welfare with the stated aim to "promote moral welfare work in the diocese of York". Heworth Moor House, a second mother and baby home described as a branch of the association was opened in 1947. In 1963 an education worker was employed for the first time and from 1964 the organisation was known as the Diocesan Association for Family Welfare, still with two mother and baby homes, and now with only 5 branches, each with an attached worker. The name changed to the Council for Social Responsibility in 1973.
Today, the Council does not run hostels but works closely with many different sections of the community in order to better understand the needs of society, to address social exclusion and social injustice and to ensure that the church is accessible to all sections of the community.
