User:Fccin/Family & Children's Center, Inc.

Family & Children's Center, Inc. is one of northern Indiana’s major non-profit human services agencies. Founded as an orphanage in 1882, today it serves thousands of children and families throughout the region.

Family & Children’s Center is dedicated to strengthening the emotional and behavioral health of the communities it serves, with special emphasis on the needs of children and families. The mission of Family & Children’s Center is to provide programs and services designed to strengthen children, families and others entrusted to its care, while providing leadership and support services to its affiliates. It is an umbrella agency with four affiliates serving the northern Indiana community by providing a broad range of programs and services including:

• After-school and summer programming for school aged children through Boys & Girls Clubs of St. Joseph County • Residential treatment for emotionally disturbed youth through The Children’s Campus • Individual and group therapy and parenting support programs through Family & Children’s Center Counseling and Development Services •Education and outreach on the prevention of child abuse and neglect through Prevent Child Abuse St. Joseph County

Family & Children's Center tagline: Leading the way to better lives.

Thousand of children were adopted through Family & Children's Center since its founding as an orphanage in 1882. The organization recevices several requests each weeks for adoption records from grown adoptees and their decendents.

Family & Children's Center History

1882 - The local chapter of the Women's Christian Temperance Union founded the Orphan's Home Association of St. Joseph County. The home provided temporary shelter to orphaned or unwanted children while suitable permanent homes were being sought for them. The Orphan's Home provided care for children who arrived from cities on the East Coast on "orphan trains." During its first 18 months, the home served more than 80 children. In 1884, the home became part of a state network and became known as the Northern Indiana Orphans Home, serving six counties in northern Indiana.

1890 - The home reorganized again as the Children's Aid Society of Indiana. Through generous donations, the Society was able to purchase 16 acres of land at the corner of Lincoln Way and Logan streets in Mishawaka. More than a century later, 12 acres of this original site remain the home of Family & Children's Center's administrative offices and residential programs for children.

1958 - The second half of the 20th century brought more organizational changes and the first use of the Family & Children's Center name. In 1956, the Children's Aid Society merged with Family Services of St. Joseph County and two years later, in 1958, adopted the name Family & Children's Center, Inc.

1960s - In the early 1960s, out-of-home care for children was taking on a different character. More and more children were being placed with Family & Children's Center as a result of behavior and emotional problems.

1970s - In the early 1970s, Family & Children's Center's focus evolved from the custodial care of previous decades to more specialized casework and treatment within a continuum of care philosophy.

The year 1979 also brought one of Family & Children's Center's greatest challenges. In September of that year, fire destroyed the main building, a local landmark remembered by area residents to this day. Undaunted, the board, leadership and staff of Family & Children's Center planned, financed and built a new central services building on the site, which today continues to serve as Family & Children's Center's headquarters.

1980s - Family & Children's Center's present structure as an affiliation of nonprofit organizations began taking shape in the 1980s. In 1987, Family & Children's Center reorganized into separate corporations, with Family & Children's Center Inc. serving as the parent organization.

A Family of Affiliates

As part of the reorganization, the residential and home-based treatment division located on the grounds of Family & Children’s Center’s property in Mishawaka became known as The Children’s Campus.

Family & Children's Center Counseling and Development Services adopted its present name in the year 2000. At the time of the 1957 merger, the Family Service Division was formed, and thirty years later, in 1987, the division changed its name to Family & Children’s Services of St. Joseph County. In 1997, the division changed its name to Turning Point, and three years later combined its services with NorthStar (previously known as CANC0) and adopted the present name, Family & Children’s Center Counseling and Development Services.

Boys & Girls Clubs of St. Joseph County became an affiliate of Family & Children’s Center in 1992. The organization started in garage on southeast side of South Bend in response to rising crime rates and gang activities. Today the Clubs provide quality, after-school and summer programming to more than 1,500 boys and girls in St. Joseph County.

Prevent Child Abuse St. Joseph County joined Family & Children's Center in 2009. Established in 1993, Prevent Child Abuse St. Joseph County has provided countless presentations and other educational programs to the community and has worked with groups, agencies and governmental bodies to further the cause of child abuse prevention.