In a global perspective, the settlement movement has played a major role in the history of socially committed work. Originally, the movement was a counter-reaction to the social problems induced by urbanisation and industrialisation in the 19th century England. University students and graduates worked to address the cultural, pedagogical, and social needs of the poor population at the Toynbee Hall in the East End of London. In the United States the movement adapted a more reformistic approach in the hands of its female leaders, especially Jane Addams, the pioneer of social work. In the US the movement concentrated less on cultural ‘elevation’ and teaching of practical skills than in Britain. The principles of settlement work reached Finland only a few years after the Toynbee Hall was founded in 1884, thanks to Ms. AlliTrygg-Helenius, and the first Citizens’ Hall was founded in Sornainen, Helsinki, in 1890. However, the halls closed their doors already in the first years of the
20th century. The movement had a new start in the 1910s, when Sigfrid Sirenius and his socially inspired fellow men of the Lutheran church brought up the idea of starting settlement work in Finland. Special attention was directed to industrial cities and towns where they started to evangelise following the example given by practical work of the British settlement movement.