Serving Children and Families for More Than a Century

Boys and Girls Home and Family Services, Inc. is a non-profit, human service agency that has cared for children and families for over 113 years. In 1892, a civil war widow began caring for orphaned children in her home located in Sioux City, Iowa. Two years later in March 1894, several Sioux City women formed the charitable association - Boys and Girls Home. According to the organization's original by-laws, Boys and Girls Home was founded to provide "a home for friendless, neglected boys and girls until suitable homes could be found, to detain and care for such truant and tramping boys and girls, to prevent the association of children and youth in jails and workhouses with old and hardened criminals and to seek enactment of such laws as may benefit children".

During the first years of its existence, Boys and Girls Home operated in various locations in Sioux City. The second annual report for the year ending 1896 noted that 49 "friendless and destitute children were cared for." Community interest grew as the number of children needing care increased. In 1903, after several fundraisers, construction began on a new building. The three story brick building at 26th and Douglas Streets in Sioux City was completed in 1908, becoming the permanent residence for Boys and Girls Home. In the early years, children came to Boys and Girls Home for a number of reasons. Poverty was widespread, which resulted in many children living on the streets and becoming orphans. It was not uncommon for a family to travel through Sioux City looking for work and leave their children at Boys and Girls Home, never to return for them. In addition, local families who were unable to financially care for their children would bring them to the home to be cared for until they were able to again support them.

As welfare legislation began to provide financial assistance for needy children and families during the early to mid decades of the 1900s, the original purpose of Boys and Girls Home began to change. New legislation allowed orphaned or abandoned children to remain in their own homes or with relatives. With fewer children to care for, Boys and Girls Home found itself housing private cases, juvenile court cases and county children, all for "suitable compensation". As the number of these cases increased it became more and more apparent that the agency needed to evaluate its future role in the community to best serve the changing social and economic structures of Sioux City and the surrounding area.

It was at this time that the agency's focus began to move toward counseling and caring for troubled teenagers and their families, where need was the greatest. This programming has remained the primary focus of the agency over the years. Boys and Girls Home has experienced tremendous growth and expansion of programs to meet the ever-changing challenges facing families.

As time progressed it was determined that Boys and Girls Home and another agency in Sioux City, the Family Service Center, were duplicating services. In order to better coordinate programs and services both United Way agencies agreed to share an executive director. In 1960, Family Service Center moved its office to Boys and Girls Home and in 1968, the merger of Boys and Girls Home and the Family Service Center became operational under the new corporation Boys and Girls Home and Family Services, Inc.

During the 1970s the agency extended its range of services to include the elderly through the homemaker home health aide program. This program provided in-home support and assistance to elerly individuals, allowing them to remain living independently. The agency also began providing protective services for children and adults. These services provide regular contact and support to adults who are at-risk because of mental illness and handicaps and to children who have been removed from their home due to abuse and/or neglect. Staff supervise visits between parents and the children and support efforts for family reunification by teaching parenting skills, appropriate discipline and healthy family relationships.

As a result of significant changes in welfare legislation in Iowa, the agency became a Psychiatric Medical Institution for Children in 1987. The expansion of the residential program and services for youth resulted in the acceptance of clients who required much greater mental health and behavior modification programming. In addition, the agency established accreditation with The Joint Commission the same year. The agency also expanded its outpatient therapy services to provide groups for sexual perpetrators, victims and their families. The agency employed trained and certified therapists in the area of sexual abuse.

Throughout the 90's, the agency expanded programming across both the state of Iowa and the state of Nebraska.  Numerous sites were established in Iowa providing a day treatment program and interim education programs for youth struggling with emotional and behavioral problems.  Across the state of Nebraska multiple sites were opened to operate staff secure shelter and group home programs.

As state and federal funding has changed, so has the availability of Boys and Girls Home programs and sites through Iowa and Nebraska.  Today the largest residential program continues to operate in Sioux City, Iowa and South Sioux City, Nebraska.  In 2006, the agency officially established Boys and Girls Home of Alaska, Inc. after it was awarded a Certificate of Need by the state of Alaska enabling the agency to establish a residential treatment facility in Fairbanks.

With the ongoing changes in the child welfare system, Boys and Girls Home and Family Services, Inc. remains committed to helping improve the lives of children and families and carries out this mission daily... just as it has for more than a century.