Anglicare, established 1997, is the urban mission and community care arm of the Anglican Diocese of Sydney. It dates back to the Home Mission Society of the Anglican Diocese of Sydney, established in 1856. Anglicare provides a range of community services and programs across the Sydney metropolitan and Illawarra regions of New South Wales. When…
Anglicare Child and Family Services replaced Care Force in 1997. It held and managed the records of a number of Church of England children’s homes in the Sydney Church of England/Anglican Diocese. In 2008 this organisation became known as Anglicare Out-of-Home Care, part of the Anglicare Child Youth and Family Services Department. Anglicare Out-of-Home Care…
The Australian Church Social Improvement Society was established in 1886 to ‘carry out social and charitable work in Richmond and Collingwood’. It became involved in placing ‘neglected children’ on farms and other accommodation in the country. Registered under the Neglected Children’s Act 1887 as Child Rescuers, it received children from the police court as well…
CatholicCare was formerly known as Centacare Catholic Family Services. The name change was in line with other organisations within Catholic Social Services Australia, the peak body for Catholic community service providers in Australia. The new name was adopted to emphasise the continuing links between these services and the mission work of the Catholic Church. In…
The Ministering Children’s League was a British organisation founded in 1884, with branches operating globally and across Australia. The League conducted charitable work, such as supporting, fundraising for, and running various institutions such as hospitals, respite/convalescent homes, and children’s homes. The League was non-sectarian and included adult and child members. It operated with the objective…
The Catholic Social Service Bureau was established in 1935 by Archbishop of Melbourne Daniel Mannix. One of the Bureau’s functions was to administer applications for children to be admitted to the many Catholic children’s homes in Victoria. It also counselled unmarried mothers and arranged foster care placements and adoptions. In 1956, it changed its name…
The Wesleyan Church Neglected Children’s Aid Society came into being in 1891. Previously it was known as the Central Dorcas Association Help and Rescue Society. The Society ran the Methodist Children’s Homes in Cheltenham. Responsibility for the day-to-day running of the Homes however lay with the ‘ladies’ of the Executive Committee.
The Presbyterian Sisterhood began in Warrnambool in western Victoria. It was established by the Rev. Donald A. Cameron, who was Director of Home Missions within the Presbyterian Church of Victoria. The aim of the Presbyterian Sisterhood was ‘to rescue and help women in distress’ (Argus, 1908). From around 1901, the Sisterhood ran a refuge in…
The Young Christian Workers’ Movement (YCW) was established in the late 1930s in Melbourne. It was part of a worldwide YCW movement, founded in Belgium in 1912. By 1950, YCW groups had been established in 60 countries. The group established in Melbourne was originally for boys – there was also a National Catholic Girls Movement,…
The first branch of the Church of England Boys’ Society (CEBS) in Australia was established in around 1914 in Kew, Victoria. It was initially under the guidance of the Church of England Men’s Society. CEBS played a role in a number of children’s institutions in Victoria, sometimes delivering services in conjunction with St John’s Homes…
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