Jane Addams with young people at Hull House in Chicago. Photo by the Associated Press.

Chicago this year will celebrate the 150th birthday of social work legend Jane Addams with a block party and other events, according to this report in the Chicago Tribune.

Addams, who died in 1935, scored many firsts. She used her inheritance to open Hull House, likely the first community center in the nation. She also created the first public kindergarten, the first playground and the first homeless shelter for women in Chicago, the article said.

“She believed in a common good, in which we all had a stake in each other’s future,” said Lisa Lee, director of the Hull House Museum. “No one is more relevant than Jane Addams.”

You can read more about Jane Addams at the National Association of Social Workers’ Web site by clicking here and at the NASW Foundation Web site by clicking here. Fox News also ran this column by Louise Knight, who has a soon-to-be-released biography about Addams.