Mission & History

Our Vision

In 2023, The Children’s Center, Inc. (TCCI) is celebrating 145 years of continuous service. The organization provides a trauma-focused continuum of caring, providing safety, housing and mentoring for children and youth who are survivors of abandonment, abuse, neglect, and exploitation. TCCI utilizes federal grant resources to intervene in crisis events experienced by runaway and homeless children. The Children’s Center, Inc. serves the Texas Gulf Coast through eight federal grants from Louisiana/Texas border to Texas/Mexico border. TCCI provides prevention and intervention services in eight critical urban hubs and twenty-four counties.

 

VISION

In 2023, The Children’s Center, Inc. (TCCI) will celebrate 145 years of continuous service. It provides a trauma-focused continuum of caring, providing safety, housing and mentoring for children, youth and families, who are survivors of abandonment, abuse, neglect, and exploitation. The Children’s Center, Inc.  serves the Texas Gulf Coast from Louisiana to Mexico and provides prevention and intervention services through outreach in Mexico and Central America.

The Children’s Center: A History of Providing Solutions for a Complex Problem

The level of expertise inherent in the Children’s Center is a result of 145 years of caring for youth in the Galveston community.  In fact, their cutting-edge intervention into the problem of runaway and homeless youth was recognized when the Youth Center was featured as a “core program” for a “60 Minutes” television documentary on CBS, narrated by veteran newsman Robert McNeil.

The Galveston Children’s Home was established as an orphanage in 1878. Illnesses and poverty left many children on the streets and Galveston Daily News Publisher, George Dealey, spearheaded efforts to establish the orphanage to better care for these less fortunate children.

In 1901, the Society for the Help of Homeless Children opened a home in Galveston to care for the growing number of children without parents to care for them. A home was purchased and later named the Lasker Home for Children in honor of Morris Lasker, who supported the establishment of the orphanage. In 1923, Charlie and Albertine Yeager purchased a home in Galveston, Texas. The Yeager's used the home initially as a day nursery and kindergarten. By 1930, the home became an orphanage dedicated to African American children in the community.

In 1970 in response to the growing number of runaway and youth on the streets and beaches of Galveston, the YWCA of Galveston established an outreach effort. A “Shell-ter” or mobile beach patrol utilized a mobile home to meet survival needs of Homeless and Runaway youth. The “Shell-ter” evolved into development of an emergency shelter operated by the YWCA and led by youth advocate June Bucy.   In 1973, Dean Coryll was arrested in Houston, Texas ending one of the most horrific serial murders in U. S. History. Over twenty youth were killed in the area. The national spotlight was focused on the plight of runaway and homeless youth. In 1974 concerned citizens from the area, including June Bucy and Steve Wicke of Houston worked to create national support for the plight of Runaway and Homeless Youth. Founding of Texas Network of Youth Services resulted from these efforts. June Bucy became the Executive Director of what was then called National Network of Runaway and Youth Services. Through continued efforts, the RHY Act was established by Congress in 1976. In 1988, the Galveston Children’s Home, the Lasker Home, the Albertine Yeager Children’s Home and the YWCA of Galveston merged to become The Children’s Center, Inc. The Yeager Children’s Home became the Yeager Youth Crisis Center, taking over the work of the YWCA shelter. The Children’s Center evolved into childcare, foster care, and shelter care for youth.

 

On a stretch of Interstate 45 between Houston and Galveston, over 30 young women and girls have disappeared since the late nineteen-seventies. The area is now known as “the Texas Killing Fields”. In 1997, the Congressional Congress for Missing and Exploited Children was established by Rep. Nick Lampson who represented the Galveston area. With the support of his office, the Children’s Center embarked upon establishment of Safe Place sites throughout the area to educate youth and better promote their safety.  Today, The Children’s Center is engaged in programs providing Street Outreach, prevention and early intervention services, foster care, emergency shelter, transitional living and permanent supportive housing for domestic and immigrant youth and families who are at risk or are victims of abuse, neglect, trafficking and domestic violence.    The Children’s Center, Inc. has a long history of culturally competent hiring and service provision. As a result, the LBGTQ population has always been provided safe and secure shelter and services. As of 2016, this has become an increased priority to due to the Orlando shootings, which left 49 dead in a gay bar and now ranks as the nation’s worst mass shooting.

TCCI has emerged as a critical state and national resource.

 

TCCI is vetted resource for The Polaris Project -National Runaway Hotline and National Runaway Safeline.

 

 

 

Our Core Values

The Children’s Center, Inc. is engaged in changing and saving lives through rescue, nurture and empowerment of children and youth in a quality continuum of caring that facilitates the achievement of satisfying living opportunities.