Children's Home of York

Mission

The Children’s Home of York has a rich history and roots woven generations deep throughout the York community. In our early days, many knew of us as “The Home” or the orphanage with an imposing presence on the corner of Philadelphia and Pine Streets. To others, however, who needed us most, we were just called home. Established during the Civil War and for over 100 years thereafter, the Children’s Home operated as a traditional orphanage, characteristic of the time period. As the field of social science and child and family welfare expanded our understanding of the needs of children and the settings in which they flourish, the Children’s Home responded accordingly.

n the 1960’s it became nationally recognized that there were better ways to care for children in crisis than large-scale institutional settings and the orphanage was demolished. Just prior to the demolition there was a movement towards smaller group homes that sought to mirror a family setting and the Children’s Home has embraced this model up until now. As science continues to provide new insights, we are learning much about trauma and adverse childhood experiences. We are better understanding that lifelong outcomes are more often than not improved when children remain emotionally and physically as close to their home, family, loved ones, school, faith tradition and community as possible.

Today, the agency provides a broad range of trauma informed programs and services that support the physical, psychological and sociological needs of children, young adults and families in York and surrounding counties. We continue to do so in small group settings where appropriate and seek to expand our supportive and preventative services in the future. We are preparing for this change in our service delivery model and we will evolve to meet both current and emerging needs of some of our most vulnerable children. Simultaneously, we will continue to develop approaches grounded in evidence based practices known to positively impact lifelong outcomes of children. Children’s lives depend upon our success and the support of our community.