The Children's Society

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

The Children's Society, formally The Church of England Children's Society, is a UK charity (registered in England No. 221124) [1] whose aim is help children whose needs are overlooked, neglected or ignored. Currently it is focusing on four groups:

children at risk on the streets
children in trouble with the law
disabled children
young refugees

In its 2004-2005 financial year, The Children's Society's net income was £36,713,000 and expenditure was £33,569,000, compared to income of £29,148,000 and expenditure of £29,675,000 in 1997-98.

1 History
- 1.1 A new era: 1970-1990s
- 1.2 The 21st Century
2 External links

[edit] History

The Children's Society’s roots go back to the late nineteenth century when Edward Rudolf, a young Sunday School teacher and civil servant in South London, became concerned one Sunday when two of his regular pupils did not turn up for lessons. He set out to look for them and found them begging on the streets. He discovered that their father had died leaving their mother struggling to bring up seven children under 11 years old, and realised that here was an unanswered need.

Rudolf led a deputation to the Archbishop of Canterbury to put forward a plan for a central Church of England children's home, and in 1881 Rudolf's new organisation was registered as the Church of England Central Society for Providing Homes for Waifs and Strays. It kept this name until 1946, when the title was changed to the Church of England Children's Society; and since the 1980s it has been known as The Children's Society.

The first home was opened in Dulwich in 1882. Its success and the growing awareness of the scale of child poverty in England and Wales led to the rapid development of the Society. By 1919 the Society had 113 homes and cared for 5,000 children.

The Society's homes were part of the local community. The children attended local schools and were often entertained and helped by local people and organisations. Opportunities for training were also available. Several of The Children's Society's homes actually specialised in training for employment - for example, the Standon Farm Home in Staffordshire provided agricultural training.

A main feature of the Society's work was its insistence that children should not become long term residents in homes and should be given every opportunity to have a family life by being boarded out, fostered or adopted. By the late 1960s the Society had become one of the largest adoption agencies in the country.

[edit] A new era: 1970-1990s

In the late 1960s and the early 1970s, in response to the significant social changes of these years, the Society moved away from its traditional centralised care, and its fostering and adoption work. The aim now was to develop preventive work designed to support children and young people within their own families and communities. During the 1970s and 1980s the Society introduced many family centres throughout the country. These offered a wider range of services, including advice centres, play groups, youth clubs and short term accommodation for single young mothers.

During the 1990s the Society moved into a new era of working for social justice. This work built upon the experience and understanding gained in the previous twenty years' work on the ground. Understanding the issues faced by young people enabled The Children's Society to respond to the needs of children and young people more effectively through new projects, lobbying to change legislation and welfare provision, and allowing young people to speak and act for themselves so they can shape their own lives.

[edit] The 21st Century

In 2003 The Children's Society defined its vision of how it would carry on its work on into the 21st century. It now focusses its efforts upon four particular groups that most need help: