Founded in 1888, the Visitation and Aid Society was a politically progressive, lay-operated Roman Catholic charity that established a cooperative church-state welfare system serving delinquent or dependent juveniles, families, and prisoners in Cook County. Nationally, it was an important welfare lobby, publishing a journal, the Juvenile Record (later, the Juvenile Court Record ), which tracked social policy developments in North America and Europe. Leaders included Timothy Hurley and William Onahan, who, under V&A auspices, helped to found the world's first juvenile court and to quell interreligious rivalries by cooperating with Protestant and Jewish charities. In 1911, the V&A's work was assumed by the St. Vincent de Paul Society.

James P. McCartin