Youth welfare

Child and family services is a government and/or non-profit organisation designed to better the well being of individuals who come from unfortunate situations, environmental or biological. People who seek or are sought after to participate in these homes have no other resource to turn to. Children might come from abusive or neglectful homes, or live in very poor and dangerous communities. There are also agencies that cater to people who have biological deficiencies. Families that are trying to live in stable lives come to non-profit organisations for hope of a better future. Child and family services cater to many different types of people who are all in different situations. These services might be mandated through the courts via a governmental child protection agency or they might be voluntary. Child and family services may be mandated if:

The history of the United States' response to child abuse and neglect has been marked by a tension between two missions:

The legal basis for efforts to protect needy children in colonial times rested on the English Poor Law of 1601. This placed the public responsibility for the poor in the hands of local townspeople. Parents were not held accountable for their children, which lead parent’s to tend to neglect their children and their duties as a parent. The attention of community leaders, philanthropists, and social reformers who were concerned about child abuse and neglect focused primarily on the children of the poorest families and on those who were orphaned, abandoned, or unsupervised.

During most of the 19th century, destitute children were sent to institutions operated by private charitable organizations. Many poor or abandoned children were sent to live in almshouses—facilities established in the 19th century in many large cities to house the very poor of all ages. Almshouses provided minimal standard of care to orphaned or needy children and to impoverished, insane, or diseased adults. The almshouses caused the children greater hardships because they were subject to disease and chaos.

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