The Copelen Street Family Centre was established in 1974 in South Yarra. It included a children's care centre, offered family counselling, and provided foster care. By the late 1980s the South Yarra property was sold and in 1991, the Centre was renamed Copelen Child and Family Services.
The Copelen Street Family Centre grew out of a Parents and Children's Centre, established in 1974 in the buildings of the Methodist Babies' Home, at 12 Copelen Street, South Yarra.
This centre offered a variety of programs including Adoption and Permanent Care, parent skills training, a day care centre, a drop-in centre, and family counselling and support.
It was also a provider of foster care in the inner suburbs of Melbourne.
In 1984, the adoption legislation in Victoria led to Copelen setting up an Adoption Information Service.
By the end of the 1980s it was decided to sell the South Yarra property to enable Copelen Street's programs to be located closer to their client base in Windsor. In 1991, the Centre was renamed Copelen Child and Family Services.
1929 - c. 1974 Methodist Babies' Home
1974 - 1991 Copelen Street Family Centre
1991 - 1998 Copelen Child and Family Services
1998 - 2000 Copelen
2000 - 2017 Connections UnitingCare
2017 - 2020 Uniting - Connections
2017 - Uniting (Victoria and Tasmania) Limited
Sources used to compile this entry: 'Historical Details', Kildonan Uniting Care, 7 September 2007; Reconnections and Recollections: Charting the History of Connections UnitingCare, Connections UnitingCare, May 2010, http://web.archive.org/web/20140320060720/http://connections.org.au/pdfs/ReConnections-and-ReCollections.pdf.
Prepared by: Cate O'Neill
Created: 21 April 2009, Last modified: 12 March 2019