Series IV. Centers, Programs and Departments, Alphabetical, 1869-2008

The subseries contains proposals, reports, memos, correspondence, a pamphlet, and photographic prints.

The Abusing Mother-Child project, subsequently known as the Program for the Rehabilitation of Mothers of Abused and Neglected Children, the Program for Neglecting and Abusing Mothers and Their Children, the Abusing Parents and Child Unit, the Temporary Shelter for Abusing Parents, and finally the Child Abuse Rehabilitation Program was a program designed to give counseling and services to mothers to help stop child abuse, and to keep families together. It began in September 1972, operated in tandem with the Temporary Shelter, and was phased out in 1987.

For other materials related to child abuse, see Child Abuse Prevention Services, Crisis Nursery, and Fontana Center subseries.

This subseries consists of one folder. Further documents regarding the Adolescent Girls Unit are located in Box 22, Folder 15.

This subseries consists of six folders containing correspondence, reports, forms, pamphlets, information about legislation, photographic prints, and clippings related to adoption services at the NY Foundling Hospital.

Since adoption often occurred in conjunction with "orphan train" or boarding and foster placement, please see these subseries for related materials.

This subseries consists of 2 folders of material related to AOBH run by the Foundling. For other AOBH materials, see the Mother/Child and Staten Island subseries in Series IV, and Series V - St. Agatha Home.

Agency Operated Boarding Homes (AOBH) are community-based residences for children, teens and young adults who require more intensive social and medical services than traditional or therapeutic foster care settings provide.

The subseries contains 4 folders, containing reports, correspondence, fliers, photographs, and a blueprint.

Blaine Hall was a temporary residential center for children aged 6-12 located within the main Foundling building. The program began operating in 1974.

This subseries contains documents related to the Boarding Department, the Homefinding and Placement Departments, which originated as divisions of the Boarding Department, and the Foster Boarding Home Departments of the NY Foundling Hospital, and to foster care in general at the Foundling. Materials include reports, newsletters, pamphlets, correspondence, memos, photographic prints, and clippings.

Correspondence with Special Services for Children (Box 22, folders 14-17) includes correspondence related to Foundling programs that did not provide foster care services, as well as programs that did. All correspondence is kept in this subseries as per original order.

From the Foundling's inception to the present day, a large part of the organization's work has involved boarding and foster care services. Many other series and subseries in this collection contain documents relating to boarding and foster care, including but not limited to the Series IV subseries Adoption, AOBH, Blaine Hall, Bronx Community Services, St. Joseph's-by-the-Sea, and the Westchester Office.

Newsletters of the Association of Foster Parents 1955-1966 may be found in Series VII.

Restricted volumes of the Boarding Department are located in Series XVI.

The Foundling opened an office in the South Bronx in the mid-1960's, to provide foster care and related and preventive services to the Spanish-speaking community there.

The subseries consists of four folders of materials from this program. See also related materials in IV.27 - Mott Haven Prevention Program.

The subseries contains nine folders of materials including proposals, reports, correspondence, contracts, memos, invitations, brochures, photographic prints, and 20th Anniversary commemorative clocks.

The Bronx Teen Parenting Program began in 1979 to provide counseling, education in pregnancy prevention and in parenting skills, and referral services to young parents, pregnant youth, and those at risk of becoming pregnant.

The subseries contains proposals, invitations, programs, pamphlet, brochure, memos and photographic prints. For documentation of similar programs, see related subseries: Abusing Mother-Child/Child Abuse Rehabilitation, Crisis Nursery, and Fontana Center.

Child Abuse Prevention Services (CAPS) was created in July 1987 to provide parenting skills education and group therapy to abusive parents in order to stabilize families, prevent foster care or juvenile justice placement, expedite discharge from foster care, and to prevent and treat child abuse. The Child Sexual Abuse Treatment Service was a component of CAPS.

The subseries contains a manual, memos, and quarterly and annual reports.

The Children's Planning Services Unit was originally established as the Diligent Search Unit in 1971. It was reorganized as the Children's Planning Services Unit of the Legal Department in 1973. The unit dealt with permanent neglect, abandonment, and subdivision 7 proceedings, to hasten the release of abandoned children so they could be adopted.

The subseries contains one folder. Cities-in-Schools was a federally-funded program that began in 1975, to reduce truancy and prevent pupil drop-out, to coordinate social service delivery to students and families, and to create social service presence in schools. The NY Foundling Hospital subcontracted with Cities-in-Schools 1980-1984.

The subseries contains proposals, reports, minutes, memos, pamphlets, brochures, fliers, photographic prints, and clippings. The photographic prints include images from many years before the Crisis Center opened, of Dr. Vincent Fontana, who was instrumental in establishing the program. For further documentation of Vincent Fontana, see Fontana Center subseries.

The Crisis Nursery was established in 1982 to provide free emergency crisis care to children and families. Beginning in 2001 it operated under the umbrella of the Fontana Center of the Foundling. Children up to age 7 (and some older siblings) could stay in the nursery up to twenty-one days (with some exceptions), and were provided lodging, medical care, clothing, meals, behavioral assessments, and supervised play sessions. Parents received counseling, crisis intervention, emergency funds, and referrals for additional services. The Crisis Nursery operated a 24-hour Parent Helpline for parents in crisis.

The subseries documents three different Foundling programs for deaf people: the Laurent Clerk Group Home (materials include notes, correspondence, proposals, and a brochure); Junior High School 47 (correspondence, memos); and the Deaf Infant Program (proposal, memos, correspondence, press release). The subseries also includes photographic prints from these programs, as well as miscellaneous deaf services materials, including pamphlets.

The East Harlem Neighborhood Center began in 1975 as a foster care prevention program focusing particularly on adolescent and young parents. In January 1978 it moved to space on the ground floor of Lehman Houses on 110th Street. The program has provided assistance to families in the form of health, welfare, housing, and vocational services, individual casework and group counselling, education in parenting and household management skills, mini day care and respite services, and activity groups for teens.

Materials include proposals, pamphlets, reports, clippings, and photographic prints. Most prints are circa 1976. See also Parents as Partners subseries.

The Family Day Care program, inaugurated in 1968, provided day care in private homes under the supervision of the Foundling.

Materials include proposals, annual reports, pamphlets, a manual, clippings and photographic prints.

The Vincent J. Fontana Center for Child Protection was established in 1999, and opened in a dedicated facility at 27 Christopher Street in Manhattan in November 2004. The Center was founded to provide community-based preventive services and therapy for children and families damaged by abuse and neglect, as well as training and education programs for child-care professionals. It also housed a research and devlopment department studying interventions against child abuse to discern best practices.

The center was initiated by, and named after, Dr. Vincent J. Fontana, Medical Director of the New York Foundling Hospital from March 1962 until his July 2005 death. In his campaign against child abuse, he was the author of The Maltreated Child (1964) and Somewhere a Child is Crying (1973), among other books, articles and papers. He was also an allergy specialist.

The subseries contains materials related to Vincent Fontana and to the Fontana Center. Materials are arranged chronologically and include many articles, books, and other materials by and about Dr. Fontana created prior to the institution of the Fontana Center. Documents specific to the center itself appear in the period 1999-2008. There are also circa 250 photographic prints of Dr. Fontana and the Fontana Center, arranged at the end of the subseries. A few other photographic prints in this subseries are housed in Box 27, Folder 4.

See also Crisis Nursery subseries, for another child abuse program spearheaded by Vincent Fontana.

The Foster Grandparent Program began as a federally-funded program created by the Johnson Administration's Office of Economic Opportunity in 1965, to enable retirees to earn a small income building one-on-one relationships with needy children. The Foundling has been a New York host agency for the program since its inception to the present. The federally-administered program is currently funded by the Foster Grandparent Program of the NYC Department for the Aging.

Materials include correspondence, agreements, periodicals, clippings, and photographic prints.

This subseries consists of one folder.

The function of the Guidance Clinic changed during its tenure as a Foundling program. Operating out of the Foundling's main building, it provided diagnostic evaluations and therapy, and at various times administered the Temporary Shelter, the Mother-Child program, the Abusing Parent and Child Unit, the Unwed Mother Unit, and the Special Services Unit. The clinic also served clients referred by other departments, such as children from Blaine Hall and foster children. Most of the services related to the Guidance Clinic are represented as subseries in this alphabetical series; please see these subseries for further information.

The subseries consists of materials related to the Foundling's efforts to address the issue of housing for homeless families and families with inadequate housing. It consists of four folders - the first contains the minutes of the Housing Resource Group and related materials, followed by three folders with minutes, reports, memos and other materials related to the development of Sister Cecilia Schneider Community Housing in the Hamilton Heights neighborhood of Manhattan.

See also IV.36-Project Basement for more on programs in the Hamilton Heights community, and IV.46-West End Intergenerational Residence for more on housing for homeless families.

The subseries consists of 5 folders related to a program, initiated in 1986, dedicated to helping teenagers discharged from foster care function independently, via life skills training, counseling and other support services. Materials include minutes, memos, correspondence, photographic prints, and calendars. See also St. Agatha Home.

The subseries contains materials related to four associations that raised money for the Foundling. Associations are arranged in alphabetical order.

The Dongan Guild of N.Y. State Employees held annual Christmas parties and Communion Breakfasts, among other events, to benefit the Foundling. One folder of materials 1961-1974.

The Gothams, Inc. was an association which held an annual debutante ball, of which the Foundling was sole beneficiary. Two folders of materials including photographic prints, circa 1948-1982.

The Ladies Auxiliary was founded in 1869 simultaneously with the Foundling itself. The iconic cradle wherein mothers deposited babies was donated by the first president of the Ladies Auxiliary, Mrs. Caroline Gilbert Thebaud, who served as president until 1902. The Ladies Auxiliary's purpose over the years included, but was not limited to, sewing and knitting clothing for children at the Foundling, hosting benefits, and soliciting donations. Materials include by-laws, constitution and charter, a volume of minutes, correspondence, donation booklets, programs, reports, invitations, clippings, and photographic prints, 1869-1986.

Lots for Little, Inc. was a thrift shop created for the benefit of eight Catholic organizations, including the Foundling. Members of the Foundling's Ladies Auxiliary volunteered at Lots for Little, and served as intermediaries between the Foundling and Lots for Little. One folder of materials 1960-1987.

Other records of Foundling fundraising, excluding these four associations, may be found throughout the rest of the collection. See Series VIII-Events, for programs from Ladies Auxiliary-sponsored events.

The subseries contains one folder documenting a proposed alliance with the Educational Alliance, Inc., for a residential-outreach program for runaways.

The subseries contains minutes, by-laws, reports, correspondence, clippings, a residency certificate, and photographic prints of the Medical Board/Medical Department of the Foundling, 1901-1995. For related material, see Fontana Center subseries (IV.6), and St. Ann's Maternity Hospital volumes in Series XIV.8.

This subseries contains minutes, memos, reports, correspondence, a pamphlet, and photographic prints. Many more photographic prints documenting the program may be found in Series XI, Visual Materials.

The Mother/Child Program began operating in 1972, at the Foundling's main location. Throughout the decade, it expanded its service at that location, added a facility in the Bronx in 1979, and moved entirely to the Bronx in 1988. The program's purpose was to provide temporary residence for teen mothers, and to teach parenting and other life skills. In this respect, it bears a relation to earlier Foundling programs for unwed mothers, such as St. Mary's Shelter.

For related programs in this series, see the subseries Agency-Operated Boarding Homes, Adolescent Girls' Unit, Bronx Teen Parenting, and Mothers' Social Service, arranged alphabetically in this series. For a history of St. Mary's Shelter, see Box 51, Folder 11.

This subseries contains reports, clippings, client work, and photographic prints.

The Mothers' Social Service Program provided comprehensive services (pre-natal and post-natal) to pregnant young women and unwed mothers. It was connected to the Mother/Child Program (see subseries IV.25) and to the Commerford Maternity Residence in the main building of the Foundling at 590 Avenue of the Americas.

For related programs in this series, see the subseries Agency-Operated Boarding Homes, Adolescent Girls' Unit, Bronx Teen Parenting, and Mother/Child Program, arranged alphabetically in this series. For a history of St. Mary's Shelter, see Box 51, Folder 11.

Materials in the subseries include proposals, certificates, pamphlets, storyboards for public service commercials, and circa 75 photographic prints, as well as negatives and contact sheets.

The Mott Haven Prevention Program began as a school-based program in 1976, and moved to a dedicated building in 1990, providing preventive services such as counseling, advocacy, referral, youth groups, home-based casework, and drug rehabilitation to families in Mott Haven, the Bronx, to stabilize families and prevent foster care placement.

See also subseries IV.7-Bronx Community Services.

The subseries is arranged with mixed materials (correspondence, pamphlets, minutes, a textbook, newsletters) arranged chronologically, followed by a nearly complete set of yearbooks from most graduating classes 1948-1965 and 1970, followed by circa 100 photographic prints 1936-1964. Three yearbooks from 1948 also contain photographic prints, attached with photocorners.

The correspondence in the series appears to have been grouped to reflect the program at three milestone points -- its inception, its shift to becoming a child care training program, and its closing. There is no correspondence from intervening years.

For related material, please see Series XVI - Nurse's Capes, as well Series IV.29, Nursery School. Foundling nurses and nurses-in-training worked with the children of the nursery school, and the programs shared a director and staff.

The Foundling operated a school for baby nurses beginning in 1927. Between 1941 and 1950 the program went through a state of flux, as St. John's Children's Hospital at the Foundling closed and the mission of the nursing school changed to reflect the mission of the Foundling -- to care for dependent or neglected children, rather than sick children. State certifying agencies also expressed concern that Foundling students trained in the care of well babies and children should not be confused with practical or registered nurses trained and licensed to work with sick babies and children. Beginning around 1950, students graduating from the Foundling's year-long residential program were formally known as Infant and Child Care Technicians; informally they were still often called baby nurses. They received a Foundling diploma and pin, recited the Baby Nurse Pledge and wore a nurse's uniform and cap, but were not licensed nurses. In the late 1960's the program was renamed the School of Child Care Workers, and then the School for Infant and Child Care, with graduates continuing to wear the uniform, cap and pin. The program was phased out in 1973.

The subseries contains one folder. For related material, see Subseries IV.28 - Nurse Training School

The subseries contains correspondence, blank forms, clippings, and photographic prints related to the program through which children were sent by the Foundling to live with families in the country, arranged chronologically, with newsletters by the Orphan Train Heritage Society and other non-Foundling publications at the end of the subseries.

Most of the material relates either to the 1904 "Arizona Incident," in which a mob of non-Catholic Anglo families forcibly removed children from Catholic Mexican families with whom they had been placed by the Foundling, or to reunions, correspondence, or newsletters of former "orphan train riders," 1962-2002. In between, there is one vintage photographic print of a group of orphan train riders, and one folder of blank forms. There is no 19th century material. Case files from the "orphan train" are in the possession of the N.Y. Foundling Hospital and are not part of this collection.

Volumes from the boarding department are in Series XIV and are restricted. For unrestricted materials, see also subseries IV. 3 - Adoption, and IV.6 - Boarding Department. There are several published volumes about the orphan train and the "Arizona Incident" in Series XVII.

In 1873 the Foundling began chartering trains (now known as "orphan trains") to carry children to Catholic families in Maryland, and later to other states in the West and South. The Foundling's placing-out program was part of a larger movement, run by many organizations from the mid-nineteenth century through the 1920s. During this period, tens of thousands of children without families willing or able to care for them were transported out of the city to country homes, contributing to the country's westward expansion. Most children from New York City were sent either by the Children's Aid Society (beginning in 1853) or the Foundling (beginning 20 years later). Families receiving children from the Foundling signed a document agreeing to raise the child Catholic, and giving the institution legal right to remove the "indentured" child should the placement prove unsatisfactory. Before children went west, they lived and attended nursery school at the Foundling.

The subseries contains two folders of materials from the Richard Smith Department of Parent Education.

The subseries contains one folder of materials from a grant-funded project in which parent clients of the Foundling were given more input in agency policy for services they used.

The subseries contains eight folders of material on the Pathway Center for Family Treatment. The substance abuse recovery program provided drug treatment along with comprehensive preventive services to families in Manhattan. Materials are arranged chronologically, and include photographic prints and ephemera.

Materials in the subseries include pamphlets, brochures, memos, correspondence, reports, and circa 100 photographic prints.

For related material, see IV.21-Infant Stimulation Program, and V-St. Agatha Home.

The Unit of Special Services was founded in 1973 to centralize the Foundling's residential services for children with disabilities. In 1976 this unit became the Health Related Facility, providing medical care and a range of therapies and social services. The program continued to evolve, and in 1987 the Sisters of Charity restructured and renamed it the Pediatric Center (aka the Medical Center for Pediatrics and Rehabilitation, or the New York Foundling Hospital Center for Pediatric, Medical, and Rehabilitative Care), an affiliate of the Foundling, located in the Foundling's building.

In 2005, now fully independent from the Foundling, the Pediatric Center was renamed the Elizabeth Seton Pediatric Center. It has continued to expand and to decentralize, while temporarily leasing space in the Foundling's building. As it is not administered by the Foundling, the records of the Elizabeth Seton Pediatric Center are not part of this collection.

The subseries contains several employee handbooks or manuals - some for maintenance staff, some for professional staff, and some organization-wide. It also contains recruitment brochures, reports, and memos produced by the Personnel (later Human Resources) Department. Materials are arranged chronologically by first item in folder.

The subseries contains proposals, correspondence, reports, memos, pamphlets, brochures, a manual, invitations, clippings, and photographic prints and negatives. Photographic prints and negatives are arranged at the end of the subseries.

The Project Basement program began operating in 1972. Project Basement is a community service center serving Hamilton Heights in Northern Manhattan, operated collaboratively by the Foundling and ProBase, Inc., a community organization. Services include both preventive social services and community services such as a food pantry, after school and summer children's programs, advocacy and referral. A group home for boys operated from 1974-1980.

For another program serving the Hamilton Heights community, see IV.19 - Housing.

The Foundling opened a branch office in Puerto Rico in 1973, to continue foster care/adoption supervision and services to children and families who had moved back to Puerto Rico from New York. In 1985 it opened the first of many federally-funded Head Start centers. In 1995 the Mortimer J. Harrison Trust foundation began funding an enrichment program providing a variety of services for orphans.

The subseries includes, but is not limited to, reports, proposals, pamphlets, newsletters and circa 200 photographic prints.

St. Joseph's-by-the-Sea opened on Staten Island in 1910 as an overflow center for children and mothers, to supplement the Foundling's facilities on 68th Street. The property was a gift to the Sisters of Charity from Charles and Eugenia Schwab, and the center was at first known as "the Eugenia Schwab." The Sisters of Charity repurposed the location as a high school in 1963. The last Foundling children left the property around 1965.

The subseries includes, but is not limited to, administrative correspondence, inspection reports and legal documents, and photographic prints and other visual materials. The records document the center from prior to its donation until after it closed as a Foundling facility, but there are no records from its current incarnation as a high school. Folders are arranged chronologically, with miscellaneous and photographic materials at the end. Photographic prints are also affixed to a 1935 document.

Volumes created at the center, including baptism and intake books, are arranged in the St. Joseph's-by-the-Sea subseries of Series XIV - Records of Children and Mothers. Volumes in that series are restricted.

Materials include correspondence, proposals, annual reports, pamphlet, newsletters, and photographic prints.

The Seton Day Care Center, founded in 1972, and Elizabeth Seton Pre-School, added in 1980, are Montessori-based child care and education programs financed by tuition, fees, and donations. Originally run out of the Foundling's main building, they moved to 1675 Third Avenue in 1988.

The subseries contains one folder. The Sister Irene Residence was a 15-bed diagnostic residential program for girls, operating in 590 Avenue of the Americas from circa 1988 to 1994.

The subseries contains two folders. The mission of the chaplains of the Spiritual Development Department is to nurture the spiritual lives of both Foundling clients and staff, through individual sessions, retreats, prayer services, support groups, bereavement counseling, funeral services, and other services.

The Foundling's services on Staten Island include an emergency residential diagnostic center for children (The Staten Island Reception Center, opened in 1974), other group homes, foster boarding homes, and Staten Island Preventive Services, which provides counseling, skills training, recreation, substance abuse counseling, support groups, and other services for families and children.

The subseries contains 12 folders of material documenting the development of these programs, in chronological order, with clippings and photographic prints arranged at the end.

For similar programs, see subseries IV.4 - Agency-Operated Boarding Homes, IV.6 - Boarding Department and Foster Care, and IV.9 - Child Abuse Prevention Services. For another Staten Island program, see IV.38 - St. Joseph's-by-the-Sea.

The subseries contains reports, manuals, minutes, newsletters, programs, clippings, and photographic prints and negatives. For other volunteer materials, see Ladies Auxiliary and other Fundraising Associations (subseries IV.22).

The West End Intergenerational Residence, on 83rd Street and West End Avenue in Manhattan, opened in 1989 as a mixed-age housing, education, and social service program, providing transitional housing for single mothers with pre-school aged children, as well as permanent housing for low-income senior citizens.

The subseries contains 9 folders. See also IV.19-Housing.

The Westchester Office opened in 1965 as a branch of the Boarding Department. The subseries contains one folder with photographic prints and one clipping.