Region served New York City Founded 1853 CEO Phoebe Boyer (Jul 2014–) | Founder Charles Loring Brace Headquarters New York, United States Staff 1200 | |
Formation 1853 (162 years old)
New York, New York, U.S. President Phoebe C. Boyer (Columbia Business School, MBA) Revenue $140.2 million (2014)
$137.3 million (2013) Expenses $124 million (2014)
$121.7 million (2013) Website childrensaidsociety.org Similar BronxWorks, Jewish Board of Family an, Harlem Children's Zone, Legal Aid Society, NYC Health + Hospitals Profiles | ||
Children’s Aid Society (CAS) is a private, child welfare nonprofit in New York City, founded in 1853 as the Orphan Train originator, by Yale College graduate, Charles Loring Brace. With an annual budget of over $100 million, 45 citywide sites, and over 1,200 full-time employees, CAS is one of America's oldest and largest children's nonprofits.
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CAS helps tens of thousands of disadvantaged, New York City children succeed annually, by providing comprehensive services of adoption and foster care, after-school and weekend programs, arts, camps, early childhood education, events, family support, medical, mental health, and dental, juvenile justice, legal advocacy, special initiatives, sports and recreation, and youth development programs.
History
In 1853, Children's Aid Society was founded by Yale College graduate and philanthropist, Charles Loring Brace, with financial support from New York businessmen and philanthropists, to ensure the physical and emotional well-being of children, and provide them with the support needed to become successful adults. Brace was appalled by the thousands of abandoned, abused, and orphaned children living in the slums and on the streets of New York at the time. The only options available to such children at the time were begging, prostitution, petty thievery, and gang membership, or commitment to jails, almshouses, and orphanages.
Brace believed that institutional care stunted and destroyed children. His view was only work, education, and a strong family life could help them develop into self-reliant citizens. Brace knew that American pioneers could use help settling the American West, and arranged to send the orphaned children to them. This became known as the Orphan Train Movement. The children were encouraged to break completely with the past and would arrive in a town where community leaders assembled interested townspeople for inspection and selection.
The program was controversial, as some -- abolitionists—viewed it as a form of slavery, while pro-slavery advocates saw it part of the abolitionist movement, since the labor provided by the children made slaves unnecessary. Some Catholics deemed the program to be anti-Catholic, since a significant percentage of poor children in Manhattan were Irish Catholic, and would be raised outside of their faith once transported into the interior of the country. In response, the Archdiocese of New York upgraded their own child-welfare programs, improving the parochial school system, building more Catholic orphanages, and creating a 114-acre (46-hectare) training center on farmland in the Bronx, which they called the Catholic Protectory.
From 1853 to the last train in 1929, more than 200,000 children rode the "Orphan Train" to new lives. The Orphan Train Heritage Society maintains an archive of riders' stories. The National Orphan Train Museum in Concordia, Kansas maintains records and also houses a research facility.
Other child welfare innovations
Since originating the Orphan Train in 1853, CAS has founded a series of child welfare innovations that have since become commonplace, such as:
In the 1980s CAS created the first family court diversion programs, where social workers meet with out-of-control children and their families in an attempt to find out of court solutions.
In 1992, CAS created the first "community school", a partnership with the New York City Department of Education where a full array of health, mental and after-school, weekend and summer programs are available to students at school. The Technical Assistance Center has helped visitors from all over the United States and more than 40 foreign countries learn how to apply "community school" concepts in their schools.
In 2009, it was honored with a Village Award from the Greenwich Village Society for Historic Preservation for its Philip Coltoff Center in Greenwich Village (since razed for new residential development). In 2012, The Children's Aid Society was rated 4/4 stars by charities rating organization Charity Navigator for a record breaking 12th consecutive year.
Leadership
In 1912, Charles Loring Brace Jr. (Yale College, '1876) was re-elected board secretary of the society founded by his father. Board Chair Emeriti include Edward Lamont, Sr. (third-generation Harvard grad) and Edgar Koerner (Harvard MBA), with over thirty, notable board members.
In 2014, the Children's Aid Society's board of trustees appointed Phoebe C. Boyer (Columbia Business School, MBA) as its eleventh President and CEO and first female leader.