During the Depression, the guild organized opportunities for community recreation and helped to refurbish neighborhood buildings and playgrounds. In the Second World War and the years after, the guild pioneered in work for the aged, partnering with the Female Society of Philadelphia to create the Philadelphia Center for Older People in 1952. The following year, the guild neighborhood had one of the largest concentrations of displaced people - including 2,200 Soviet exiles and 1,000 Puerto Ricans - of any neighborhood in the United States. The guild subsequently received a grant from the Ford Foundation to integrate these newcomers to American life.