Childhaven

Childhaven is a King County nonprofit organization that serves children between the ages of one month and five years who have been abused or neglected, or are at risk. The agency runs three programs: Therapeutic Child Care, the state's first program in which children referred by Child Protective Services or Child Welfare Services receive treatment geared toward their particular developmental needs; the Drug-Affected Infant Program, which includes children affected by in-utero or environmental drug use (and requires parents to enroll in outpatient chemical-dependency treatment); and the Crisis Nursery, King County's only 24-hour program to care for children when their parents face a crisis situation.

The agency encompasses three branches: the Broadway Branch in First Hill, the Eli Creekmore Memorial Branch in Burien, and the Patrick L. Gogerty Branch in Auburn. In addition to other in-state organizations, agencies in South Carolina and Calgary have imitated Childhaven's model.

Childhaven was founded in 1909 by the Reverend Mark A. Matthews. Its original name was Seattle Day Nursery, and at the time it was one of only 50 child-care centers in the U.S. The agency's original nursery building was constructed in 1921 in Seattle's First Hill neighborhood; today, the site is home to Childhaven's Broadway Center, which was completed in 2004 thanks to the Capital Campaign, which raised $15.5 million.

Seattle Day Nursery's name and purpose transformed following a shift in leadership that started in 1973. That year, Patrick Gogerty became the organization's executive director, and he soon changed its focus, establishing the Therapeutic Child Care Program in 1977 with 10 children. This occurred two years before Washington state made the reporting of child abuse mandatory. Under Gogerty's guidance, the agency began to garner national acclaim; in 1984, it was the subject of a major article in Life magazine. The following year, Seattle Day Nursery was formally renamed Childhaven.

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