KIDSPEACE NATIONAL CTR.-KIDS history

In 1886 the Thurston Home was renamed The Children’s Home of South Bethlehem and the first live-in matron was hired.

James Wiley, donated $6,000 in 1895 to build a new Children’s Home facility in the newly incorporated village of Fountain Hill.

In 1926, the Anne Wiley Children's Home became The Children's Home of Allentown and Bethlehem.

Later, the Children’s Home shifted focus to providing foster care to children whose families were split amid the Great Depression and the start of World War II. The organization adopted the informal name of “Wiley House” as its official designation in 1943.

In 1975, it incorporated as Wiley House.

Wiley House changed its name to KidsPeace in 1992.

In 1993 KidsPeace Children’s Hospital opened – making Orchard Hills one of the premier children’s treatment centers in America.

In 1998, state police investigated a death at the Orchard Hills complex after 14-year-old Mark Draheim of New Jersey lost consciousness while being restrained by three counselors.

The not-for-profit corporation now offers services in all 50 states, employs more than 3,000 people nationally and operates with a $172 million budget -- up from $100 million in 1999, O'Donnell says.

In 2003, KidsPeace posted a $4.6 million net loss on $156 million in operating revenue, which it attributed to operating problems at several sites and a billing dispute with Medicaid.

A residential treatment campus in west Georgia was located in the town of Bowdon and began accepting kids in 2004.

Like nearly every field of endeavor, KidsPeace’s work was severely affected by the emergence of the COVID-19 coronavirus in the spring of 2020.

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