The Story of Mary Ellen Wilson preview

OUR LEGACY:

A CENTURY OF KEEPING CHILDREN SAFE

In 1873, a Methodist missionary found a dirty, thin, ragged and bruised 10-year-old orphan named Mary Ellen Wilson in a Manhattan tenement house. With legal help from Henry Bergh, the founder of the American Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals, the missionary gained custody of Mary Ellen.

The much publicized case inspired agencies to advocate for laws to rescue and protect abused children -- that ultimately led to the establishment of the Societies for Prevention of Cruelty to Children in various locations across the United States.

HISTORY

Safe Space was founded in 1919 and originally known as the Queensboro Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Children.

Our mission has remained unchanged: to ensure that vulnerable children and youth receive the care they need to remain free of violence, abuse and neglect. A brief overview follows of how our programming has evolved to achieve this goal:

  • The U.S. Supreme Court ruled in 1874 that all children should be protected.
  • Soon after, several Societies for the Prevention of Cruelty to Children were formed nationwide. (Although it is interesting to note that this was ten years after the first Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals was launched.)
  • Our Queens-based organization was founded in 1919 as the Queensboro Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Children with the single focus of rescuing vulnerable children from abusive situations.
  • A decade later, a group of our committed volunteers opened the agency's first children's shelter. Leading the way in establishing innovative children's services that included the establishment of an on-site school.
  • By the late 1970s, the organization had officially changed its name to the Center for Children and Families and focused primarily on child abuse prevention, designing family-centered services.
  • Throughout the 1980s and '90s, our programming expanded throughout Queens. Including establishing new school-based partnerships to provide after-school and supportive care services for youth and families with mental health issues.
  • We became the first New York State child protective agency (March 1986) licensed to provide mental health services.
  • In 2001, we expanded our programming to Manhattan to focus on high-risk teens. Providing educational outreach, HIV/AIDS prevention and case management services, group homes for foster youth, home-visiting programs for young pregnant and parenting mothers and the first ever residential program for HIV-positive homeless youth in New York State.
  • Since our work with at-risk adolescents in Manhattan focused on keeping at-risk adolescents safe, our highly successful street outreach initiative, SAFE SPACE, was launched. Since the name perfectly reflects our focus and mission, the entire agency was officially renamed in 2001.
  • In 2010, Safe Space began an organizational initiative to return to our roots and focus on the high-need neighborhoods of Southeast Queens.
  • We now operate three newly renovated and conveniently located "hub" locations anchored within Jamaica, Far Rockaway and Richmond Hill. We continue to protect the children and youth we serve, but our goal has expanded to also help strengthen families prevent violence, abuse and neglect before it leads to foster care placement.