ABSTRACT
In 1961, the newly elected presidential administration of John F. Kennedy responded to increasing controversy over the ADC program. Secretary of Health, Education and Welfare (HEW) Abraham Ribicoff drew up a plan for transforming the program that would culminate in the 1962 Public Welfare Amendments. He drew on social workers' new-found advocacy of rehabilitation as well as critics' demands for a stricter program that encouraged work. These themes animated his “SPIRIT” plan, outlined for welfare administrators and social workers in the December, 1961, Field Letter of the Department of HEW.
