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The New York Foundling Hospital
On the night of October 11.1869. Sister Mary Irene Fitzgibbon of the Sisters of Charity placed a small crib at the entrance of an East 12th Street brownstone, hoping her order’s new ministry could save at least a few of the babies being abandoned after the Civil War.
By the end of the night, the “Foundling Asylum Society” had taken in its first infant — and by the end of their first calendar year, over 1,000 children had been left to the Sister’s care.
Since that historic evening, the New York Foundling Hospital has grown into one of the largest child and family service agencies in the United States, operating 43 programs that help improve the quality of life for deprived, neglected, abused and disabled children, and their families.
Throughout its 120-year history, the Foundling has repeatedly distinguished itself as one of the pioneers in child and family care.
As early as the turn of the century, Foundling had established progressive hospitals for pregnant women (St. Ann’s) and sick children (St. John’s). In the early 1900s, it created training programs for pediatric nurses (1921) and one of the country’s first large-scale social service bureaus (1930).
The Foundling still offers the basic core services begun by Sister Mary Irene and the other Sisters of Charity: adoption, foster care, and a shelter for unwed mothers.
But in the past 20 years, the hospital has created a series of innovative programs
—	many of them community-based — that now offer a wide range of preventive services to children and families in need throughout the greater New York City area.
In the late 1960s and early 70s, the hospital was at the forefront of a national de-institutionalization movement when it established a number of community-based programs to meet the needs of people released from state and federal care.
In addition to outreach programs for disabled children, deaf youngsters, and abusive parents, the v— Foundling organized comprehensive day care services, including an experimental
program that sent staff members into homes to provide specialized care.
In the late 1970s, when runaways and juvenile delinquency were making headlines, the Foundling merged with St. Agatha’s Home for Children in Nanuet, New York, (Rockland County) adding almost a dozen new program to its roster, and expanding its care to include emotionally disturbed and troubled teens.
Today, Foundling continues that pioneering spirit creating programs that respond to the troubling social ills of the 1980s. They include nationally-recognized projects in child abuse and teenage parenting as well as Foundling’s newest effort, “Project HOPE,” a city-backed program that hopes to find homes in New York City for babies afflicted with AIDS.
As a final step toward decentralization, Foundling moved from its Third Avenue and 68th Street location of 30 years to a smaller, 14-story facility on Sixth Avenue in the Chelsea neighborhood in Manhattan.
That facility will house four existing programs (the crisis nursery, a program for expectant mothers and two diagnostic centers for emotionally disturbed pre-teens) and one new program
—	a Skilled Nursing Facility for the pediatric, medical and rehabilitative care for 160 children.
The Foundling’s 38 other programs will be largely community-based.
New York Foundling Hospital “then" and “now”
Volume 14
8
Orphan Train Heritage Society of America