Childhaven - AbsoluteAstronomy.com

Childhaven is a King County nonprofit organization

Nonprofit organization

Nonprofit organization is neither a legal nor technical definition but generally refers to an organization that uses surplus revenues to achieve its goals, rather than distributing them as profit or dividends...

that serves children between the ages of one month and five years who have been abused or neglected, or are at risk. The agency runs three programs: Therapeutic Child Care, the state's first program in which children referred by Child Protective Services

Child Protective Services

Child Protective Services is the name of a governmental agency in many states of the United States that responds to reports of child abuse or neglect. Some states use other names, often attempting to reflect more family-centered practices, such as "Department of Children & Family Services"...

or Child Welfare Services receive treatment geared toward their particular developmental needs; the Drug-Affected Infant Program, which includes children affected by in-utero or environmental drug use (and requires parents to enroll in outpatient chemical-dependency treatment); and the Crisis Nursery, King County's only 24-hour program to care for children when their parents face a crisis situation.

The agency encompasses four branches: the Broadway Branch in First Hill, the Eli Creekmore Memorial Branch in Burien, the Patrick L. Gogerty Branch in Auburn

Auburn, Washington

-Parks:Auburn has an extensive system of parks, open space and urban trails comprising 29 developed parks, 5 undeveloped sites under planning, 2 skate parks, 2 water roatary parks, and over of trails , and almost of open space for passive and active recreation.-Environmental Park:The Auburn...

, and the Lake City Branch, the smallest of the branches (located in Lake City). In addition to other in-state organizations, agencies in South Carolina

South Carolina

South Carolina is a state in the Deep South of the United States that borders Georgia to the south, North Carolina to the north, and the Atlantic Ocean to the east. Originally part of the Province of Carolina, the Province of South Carolina was one of the 13 colonies that declared independence...

and Calgary

Calgary

Calgary is a city in the Province of Alberta, Canada. It is located in the south of the province, in an area of foothills and prairie, approximately east of the front ranges of the Canadian Rockies...

have imitated Childhaven's model.

History

Childhaven was founded in 1909 by the Reverend Mark A. Matthews

Mark A. Matthews

Mark A. Matthews was a Presbyterian minister in Seattle, Washington from 1902 until his death; Dale Soden characterizes him as "without question… the most influential Protestant clergyman in the Pacific Northwest in the first half of the twentieth century." He was an enigmatic figure, holding...

. Its original name was Seattle Day Nursery, and at the time it was one of only 50 child-care centers in the U.S. The agency's original nursery building was constructed in 1921 in Seattle's First Hill neighborhood; today, the site is home to Childhaven's Broadway Center, which was completed in 2004 thanks to the Capital Campaign, which raised $15.5 million.

Seattle Day Nursery's name and purpose transformed following a shift in leadership that started in 1973. That year, Patrick Gogerty became the organization's executive director, and he soon changed its focus, establishing the Therapeutic Child Care Program in 1977 with 10 children. This occurred two years before Washington state

Washington State

Washington State may refer to:* Washington , often referred to as "Washington state" to differentiate it from Washington, D.C., the capital of the United States* Washington State University, a land-grant college in that state- See also :...

made the reporting of child abuse mandatory. Under Gogerty's guidance, the agency began to garner national acclaim; in 1984, it was the subject of a major article in Life magazine. The following year, Seattle Day Nursery was formally renamed Childhaven.

That same year, Congress threatened to cut off Childhaven's funding. Gogerty enlisted the help of his friend Rep. Jim McDermott

Jim McDermott

James Adelbert "Jim" McDermott is the U.S. Representative for , serving since 1989. He is a member of the Democratic Party. The 7th District includes most of Seattle and Vashon Island, and portions of Shoreline, Lake Forest Park, Tukwila, SeaTac, and Burien.He serves on the House Ways and Means...

, who brought the Life article to a House session and told the story of a specific child the agency had rescued. Persuaded, Congress continued to provide funding for Childhaven's work. Before Gogerty retired in March of 1998, The Seattle Times published an editorial lauding his achievements; its headline was "Fighting for Kids Unable to Fight for Themselves."

Childhaven recently celebrated its centennial, and a number of events were planned, including a large-scale luncheon and several open houses.

Crisis Nursery

Childhaven's Crisis Nursery, which offers parents up to 72 hours of emergency overnight child care, is one of roughly 70 such nurseries in the United States. (There are eight in Washington state.) Parents usually place their children in the Crisis Nursery through a voluntary and confidential process. The program serves children up to 7 years old and relies on foster families for overnight care and a North Seattle day-care center for daytime placement. Parents use the Crisis Nursery for a wide variety of reasons, including sleep deprivation

Sleep deprivation

Sleep deprivation is the condition of not having enough sleep; it can be either chronic or acute. A chronic sleep-restricted state can cause fatigue, daytime sleepiness, clumsiness and weight loss or weight gain. It adversely affects the brain and cognitive function. Few studies have compared the...

, postpartum depression

Postpartum depression

Postpartum depression , also called postnatal depression, is a form of clinical depression which can affect women, and less frequently men, typically after childbirth. Studies report prevalence rates among women from 5% to 25%, but methodological differences among the studies make the actual...

, or even participation in an in-patient chemical dependency treatment program. (Children of parents in drug treatment may receive Crisis Nursery care for as long as 30 days.)

Media coverage

Online presence

The source of this article is wikipedia, the free encyclopedia. The text of this article is licensed under the GFDL.