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Years of aid to the children

Philadelphia boasts a storied tradition of volunteerism. This spirit of civic concern and community solidarity was responsible for many of the city's first hospitals, schools, and, in the case of the Children's Aid Society of Pennsylvania (CAS), one of the nation's first organizations dedicated to the care of children.

Philadelphia boasts a storied tradition of volunteerism. This spirit of civic concern and community solidarity was responsible for many of the city's first hospitals, schools, and, in the case of the Children's Aid Society of Pennsylvania (CAS), one of the nation's first organizations dedicated to the care of children.

In 2016, as in centuries past, a parent's incarceration, desertion, or death creates difficult situations for children. Unlike today, however, it could not always be taken for granted in the past that these children would not be tossed into almshouses or mental asylums, or that wards of the state would not be "bound" by government officials through indenture or apprenticeship.

Founded in 1882 by predominantly female Philadelphians "for the care and training of neglected and homeless children, who are trained to self-reliance and habits of industry through the services they receive," the CAS set out to place children "into private family homes where natural and healthful conditions might speedily absorb them into the life of the community."

Measured against modern practice, these ideas of foster care and adoption placement do not ring radical. However, for a sense of the difference 134 years makes, consider that one of CAS's first activities was promoting the passage of a law that forbade children from being committed to the same institutions as adults, as was the practice at the time.

Many Philadelphia organizations today were inspired by CAS's efforts to help children. The Pennsylvania School of Social Work - known today as the School of Social Policy and Practice - traces itself back to CAS's 1908 development of "a course of training in child helping," one of the earliest efforts of its kind in the field.

In an effort to provide rudimentary health care for children in its custody, CAS pooled its resources with others to create the Associated Medical Clinic - which later became an important part of Children's Hospital.

During the Second World War, it was to CAS that the U.S. Committee for the Care of European Children turned for help placing refugee - principally Jewish - children from continental Europe in Philadelphia.

As CAS grew, it absorbed several other child welfare agencies, including the Philadelphia Home for Infants, one of the few institutions to care for children under age 3.

In 2008, CAS merged with the Philadelphia Society for Services to Children and formed Turning Points for Children, which now provides holistic services to more than 9,000 children and caregivers.

Beginning in 2015, the Historical Society of Pennsylvania's archivists created a database of the Philadelphia Home for Infants' records. For adoptees or the children of adoptees, this database offers a rare opportunity to trace family stories and histories.

HSP's latest document display, "Discoveries and Encounters," features items from CAS and the Philadelphia Home for Infants. Free and open to the public, the display opens Thursday.