The Children's Home of Pittsburgh & Lemieux Family Center

Description

Mission
The Childrens Home of Pittsburgh established in 1893 is an independent nonprofit licensed organization whose purpose is to promote the health and wellbeing of infants and children through services which establish and strengthen the family

History

EARLY YEARS

The work of The Childrens Home of Pittsburgh began in 1893 as The Pennsylvania Childrens Home Society The organization was founded to care for orphaned children and place them in permanent homes In the late 1800s many similar institutions were established in Pittsburgh to house large numbers of homeless children the result of difficult economic times

The first Childrens Home was located on Penn Avenue in Wilkinsburg Pennsylvania and due to a fire was moved to Potter Street in Shadyside shortly thereafter In 1912 the home moved to Pennwood Steet in Edgewood a suburban Pittsburgh neighborhood

In 1935 the Society moved from Pennwood Street in Edgewood to South Aiken Avenue in Shadyside and officially became The Childrens Home of Pittsburgh In March of 1969 the organization moved to a custombuilt Colonial at 5618 Kentucky Avenue in Shadyside

ADDING TO THE CONTINUUM OF CARE

In the 1980s and 1990s The Childrens Home added two distinct innovative medical programs with the purpose of furthering the continuum of care for children The Transitional Infant Care TIC hospital opened in 1984 to provide a new model of subacute care for infants and their families In 1998 Childs Way was established as yet another model of alternative care for pediatric patients a Pediatric Extended Care Center PECC The Childrens Homes Chief Executive Officer Pamela R Schanwald RN MHSA was the catalyst for the creation of Childs Way Modeling the program on PECC programs in other states she led the legislative efforts to obtain Pennsylvania state licensure and in 1999 Senate Bill 670 became Act 54 enabling Childs Way to become the first licensed PECC in the state of Pennsylvania

BUILDING PATHWAYS TO GROWTH

Demand for The Childrens Homes unique programs continued to grow over the years The quotBuilding Pathways to Growthquot building project and capital campaign were developed to expand our services and continue meeting the communitys needs The Childrens Home of Pittsburgh amp Lemieux Family Center opened in April 2007 in a new facility at 5324 Penn Avenue in Friendship This facility provides greatly enhanced capacity and capabilities for Adoption Childs Way and our Pediatric Specialty Hospital units Transitional Infant Care TIC and the new Transitional Pediatric Care TPC unit

After more than a century of service The Childrens Home of Pittsburgh amp Lemieux Family Center is continuing the organizations mission to promote the health and wellbeing of infants and children through services which establish and strengthen the family