Robbins advocated for civic reform and on behalf of residents of tenement housing and immigrant families.

[2] Robbins was a pioneer in the settlement house movement in the U.S. She advocated for tenements, civic reform, labor issues, education, and public parks.

[1] In 1888 and 1889, Robbins lived across the street from the Neighborhood Guild (later the University Settlement Society of New York) with Jean Gurney Fine.

[1] She worked with Jacob Riis to secure a law requiring New York schools to have outdoor playgrounds.

[8] Robbins was part of an influential group of social progressives who argued that public schools should be involved in welfare work.

She "wrote that it was necessary for the school to assume a parental role because under modern conditions it was not possible for the poor to protect the young adequately.

[10] After World War I, Robbins worked with the Red Cross in Italy[11] and in Greece where she assisted in the organization of temporary hospitals.