Jcca history

1860 The Hebrew Benevolent Society creates New York City’s first Jewish orphanage.

1878 When an overwhelmed HBSOA votes to accept only Manhattan’s children, Brooklyn’s Jewish community is granted a charter for the Hebrew Orphan Asylum of the City of Brooklyn.

1879 Hebrew Sheltering Guardian Society is founded with a woman president and an all-woman board to care for destitute children, orphaned or not.

1884 The Hebrew Orphan Asylum opens a huge new building on 136th Street and Amsterdam Avenue to accommodate the children of sick and overwhelmed immigrants.

1912 Four hundred and eighty children leave HSGS on 150th Street in Manhattan for the Pleasantville Cottage School — the first cottage-style institution in the United States.

1917 Twenty-four Manhattan and Bronx agencies, including HOA, HSGS, and the Home for Hebrew Infants, form the Federation for Support of Jewish Philanthropies.

1919 The HOA establishes two summer camps, “Wakitan” for boys, “Wehaha” for girls.

1920 HOA is one of the charter members and founding agencies of the Child Welfare League of America.

1922 Jewish Children’s Clearing Bureau is founded to aid placement in 10 Manhattan Jewish agencies.

1925 Operated by the HOA, a 123-acre site in the Edenwald section of the Bronx becomes a home for 15 developmentally disabled teenage girls.

Soon, younger girls are added, and in 1929, a separate school for boys is built on the grounds.

1934 The Foster Home Bureau and HOA are among the agencies that organize to help 600 Jewish refugee children from Germany.

1940 After decades of discussion, the merger of Hebrew Orphan Asylum, Hebrew Sheltering Guardian Society, Fellowship House and the Jewish Children’s Clearing Bureau is negotiated by Doctor Maurice Hexter.

In 1942, it will merge with JCCA and close its institution.

1946 JCCA responds to the needs of young survivors of World War II, helping 430 young people restart their lives in the United States.

1947 Recognizing the need for help in re-entering society, JCCA founds two halfway houses — Friendly Home for Girls and Fellowship House for Boys for young people discharged from JCCA institutions.

1953 JCCA establishes the first of its agency-owned foster homes in Midwood, Brooklyn.

A cross between a group residence and a foster home, a second home in Midwood is purchased in 1956.

1960 Jewish Youth Services of Brooklyn merges with JCCA.

1962 Hartman Homecrest, an Orthodox children’s agency, merges with JCCA, adding significantly to its number of group homes.

1965 Through passage of state legislation, a Union Free School is created to serve the young people at PCS and later Edenwald.

1967 In response to a child care crisis in the city, JCCA opens its placement divisions to children of all faiths.

1968 Youth Residence Center, an innovative, coed, therapeutic residential treatment program for 40 older adolescents, ages 16 to 21, is built on Manhattan’s East Side.

1971 Vernondale Group Residence is founded for eight orthopedically handicapped young people who do not need hospital care but cannot return home.

1972 Pleasantville Diagnostic Center is founded to provide intensive diagnostic evaluations for boys.

1973 A six-million-dollar Building Fund Campaign begins to modernize Pleasantville Cottage School and construct a new Edenwald on the same campus.

1975 Edenwald relocates to the Pleasantville Campus where it houses 96 young people with both emotional and cognitive difficulties.

1978 Two Together, a program which provides volunteer tutors to children, comes to JCCA.

1980 Kingsbrook Residence in Brooklyn joins Mt.

1983 New group day care center opens in Forest Hills that eventually serves hundreds of children, many from immigrant families.

1984 Brooklyn Child and Adolescent Guidance Center is founded, the first new outpatient mental health clinic funded by the state in 10 years.

1985 Networking Adoption Program begins to help parents adopt privately.

1988 New York’s Mayor Koch salutes Pleasantville Cottage School on its 75th Anniversary, saying “we needed you and you were there.”

1989 Group Home Division opens a new Independent Living Program in Queens for teenage mothers and their babies.

1990 JCCA receives Child Welfare League of America Award for its outstanding contributions to the field of child welfare.

1991 The JCCA Research Department is established to focus on practice-oriented studies.

1993 JCCA and the Ackerman Institute develop the Kinship Project to link expertise of a family therapy institute with kinship foster care.

1994 Brooklyn Families First helps families who are recently relocated or who have been homeless; the Therapeutic Foster Boarding Home Program offers specialized care to 24 troubled children who have the potential to remain within a family unit in the community.

1997 Agency-owned foster homes for large sibling groups are created to allow children to remain with their siblings.

1999 JCCA receives a contract from New York City for 335 foster home beds in the Bronx.

2007 JCCA celebrates 185 years of service to children and families and presents inaugural Tikkun Olam award to philanthropist Howard N. Blitman.

2008 JCCA opens Brooklyn Democracy Academy, a transfer school in partnership with the Department of Education.

2009 JCCA opens the Kew Gardens Hills Youth Center, a new prevention and interventive afterschool program for Orthodox Jewish male teens who live and attend schools and yeshivas in this neighborhood of Central Queens.

2010 JCCA purchases a new, larger, permanent home for the Bukharian Teen Lounge, an afterschool program for Bukharian youth in the Queens community.

2011 JCCA opens a brand new building that headquarters our Brooklyn programs: Mental Health and Prevention Services, Foster Home Services, and Bridges to Health.

2012 JCCA opens ARCHES Juvenile Justice Program in Brownsville.

JCCA acheived Hague Accreditation through the Council on Accreditation (COA) as authorized by the United States Department of State, for a five year period, ending February 28, 2013.

2014 Ametz Adoption Program celebrates 30 years of creating families.

2015 Judge Ronald E. Richter is named CEO of JCCA effective May 18.

2016 Jewish Child Care Association officially changes its name to JCCA. JCCA opens the Center for Healing, a holistic therapeutic center for kids who have experienced sexual abuse or sex trafficking.

2017 JCCA is featured in the PBS Docuseries Treasures of New York, which highlights JCCA’s impact as a founding member of UJA-Federation of New York.

2018 JCCA hosts inaugural conference on the Commercial Sexual Exploitation of Children (CSEC) entitled Prevention, Policy, and Clinical Practice.

2019 JCCA hosts the second CSEC conference, Layered Vulnerabilities: CSEC Policy, Practice, and Prevention for Multiple-Risk Populations.