In 1971, the Methodist Department of Childcare merged with the Presbyterian Department of Social Services to create the Presbyterian and Methodist Child Care Service. Graeme Gregory was the Director. The merger led to a reorganisation of the adoption services of the Presbyterian and Methodist Babies' Homes. The Child Care Service was the sole Victorian agency supervising inter-country adoptions and placements of children from Vietnam during the 1970s. From 1971, the arrangement of adoptions and supervision of placements was carried out by Methodist Babies' Home staff.
In 1971 the Presbyterian Babies Home and the Methodist Babies Home were amalgamated to form the Copelen Street Family Centre. Together the Centre and Presbyterian and Methodist Child Care Service offered a wide network of services to support family life. This included counselling for single mothers, including those living at the Presbyterian Sisterhood and those at the short-term accommodation unit for single mothers and their children at Eden Court in Ascot Vale. The foster care and adoption programs were staffed by Child Care Service social workers who also worked with families and children connected to Kildonan and Orana Children's Homes, Kilmany Park farm-home for boys and the Presbyterian Babies Home.
By 1985 the Presbyterian and Methodist Child Care Service was a multi service agency which operated at local, regional and statewide levels. Services included day-care and kindergarten facilities, emergency housing, family support, foster care and special needs adoption.
Sources used to compile this entry: James Jenkinson Consulting, Guide to out-of-home care services 1940-2000 - Volume One: Agency Descriptions, Department of Human Services, Unpublished, November 2001, https://www.childabuseroyalcommission.gov.au/sites/default/files/DHS.3004.011.0367.pdf.
Prepared by: Leanne Howard
Created: 16 November 2011, Last modified: 6 May 2013
Last updated: 7 August 2023
Cite this: https://www.findandconnect.gov.au/ref/vic/biogs/E000779b.htm
First published by the Find & Connect Web Resource Project for the Commonwealth of Australia, 2011
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