In response to changing needs, the Child Abuse Rehabilitation program, originally a residential program for children and their mothers, is reorganized and becomes a community-based program to prevent child abuse and neglect and includes a specialized child sexual abuse treatment unit.
The Foundling moves its central office from East 68th Street to its current site at 590 Avenue of the Americas. The building houses The Maria Lucadamo Crisis Nursery and The Foundling’s administrative offices.
The Foundling’s Independent Living Program is initiated to assist youth in foster care to prepare for independent living. Now known as our Supportive Housing program, The Foundling provides housing and social support to 18-25 year olds aging out of foster care, including counseling and connections to education and employment.
The Foundling has always been committed to addressing the immediate needs of our neighbors and when substance abuse was occurring within many New York City neighborhoods, The Foundling launched the Pathway Center for Family Treatment in Harlem, a comprehensive community-centered program to help mothers overcome their addictions, become responsible parents, and keep their families together.
The Foundling establishes The Vincent J. Fontana Center for Child Protection to honor Dr. Fontana’s contributions to the field of child abuse prevention. The center provides leadership in child abuse prevention and treatment efforts throughout the nation through its Education Center and Research Department.
Learn about our Research, Advocacy, and Public Education Programs.
The Foundling launches its first alternative to incarceration program, using evidence-based practices to work with whole families to address challenges that lead to system involvement––allowing young people to pursue viable alternatives to conviction, jail time, and a criminal record.
Learn more about our Alternatives to Incarceration programs.
The Foundling opens the first charter school in the nation specifically designed to meet the needs of children involved with the child welfare system. Haven Academy’s scholars consistently outperform similar schools in academic tests, and a special trauma-informed curriculum ensures that their social and emotional needs are met as well. In 2017, the school expanded to include a middle school, and now educates children from pre-kindergarten through eighth grade. Learn more about Mott Haven Academy Charter School.
St. Agatha Home for Children merges with The Foundling to provide compassionate care for children in a cottage-based campus setting. This program operated within The Foundling until 2005, and the site of St. Agatha’s continues to be used as part of The Foundling’s programs for people with developmental disabilities.
The Foundling opens its doors as a home for abandoned infants. Sister Mary Irene Fitzgibbon and two other Sisters of Charity placed a cradle on the doorstep of their brownstone on East 12th Street. They expected that it would take some time for word to spread, but that very night, they welcomed their first baby – a girl named Sarah.
The Foundling moved to community-based services, scaling back its central office and creating localized preventive programs within New York City’s five boroughs. The Staten Island Prevention Services Program, the first of these projects, is launched in Staten Island, aimed at strengthening families to prevent foster care placements.
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