Church of England Waifs and Strays Society
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| Founded | 1881 |
|---|---|
| Founder | Edward Rudolf |
| Type | Charity |
| Registration no. | 221,124 |
| Focus | Childhood |
| Location |
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| Coordinates | 51°31′36.17″N 0°6′42.66″W / 51.5267139°N 0.1118500°WCoordinates: 51°31′36.17″N 0°6′42.66″W / 51.5267139°N 0.1118500°W |
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Area served
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England |
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Revenue
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£42.4m |
| Website | www |
The Children's Society, also known as Church of England Children's Society, is an English charity (registered No. 221124) allied to the Church of England and driven by a belief that all children deserve a good childhood.
The Children's Society was founded in the late nineteenth century by Edward Rudolf, a Sunday School teacher and civil servant in South London. Rudolf led a deputation to Archibald Tait, Archbishop of Canterbury to put forward a plan for the establishment of Church of England children's homes as an alternative to the large workhouses and orphanages common at that time. In 1881, a 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, together with a growing awareness of the scale of child poverty in England and Wales, led to the rapid development of The Children's Society. By 1919 the charity had 113 homes and cared for 5,000 children.
A main feature of The Children's Society's work was its insistence that children should not become long-term residents in homes, but boarded out, fostered or adopted. By the late 1960s The Children's Society had become one of the largest adoption agencies in the country.
In the late 1960s and the early 1970s, in response to the significant social changes of these years, The Children's Society moved away from centralised care, fostering and adoption work and focused more on preventative work designed to support children and young people within their own families and communities. During the 1970s and 1980s The Children's Society introduced family centres throughout the country offering services such as advice centres, play groups, youth clubs and short term accommodation for young, single mothers.
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