An orphanage is a residential institution, total institution or group home, devoted to the care of orphans and children who, for various reasons, cannot be cared for by their biological families. The parents may be deceased, absent, or abusive. There may be substance abuse or mental illness in the biological home, or the parent may simply be unwilling to care for the child. The legal responsibility for the support of abandoned children differs from country to country, and within countries. Government-run orphanages have been phased out in most developed countries during the latter half of the 20th century but continue to operate in many other regions internationally. It is now generally accepted that orphanages are detrimental to the emotional wellbeing of children, and government support goes instead towards supporting the family unit.
Foster care is a system in which a minor has been placed into a ward, group home, or private home of a state-certified caregiver, referred to as a "foster parent", or with a family member approved by the state. The placement of a "foster child" is normally arranged through the government or a social service agency. The institution, group home, or foster parent is compensated for expenses unless with a family member.
Charles Loring Brace was an American philanthropist who contributed to the field of social reform. He is considered a father of the modern foster care movement and was most renowned for starting the Orphan Train movement of the mid-19th century, and for founding Children's Aid Society.
Food For The Poor, Inc. (FFP) is an ecumenical Christian nonprofit organization based in Coconut Creek, Florida, United States that provides food, medicine, and shelter, among other services, to the poor in Latin America and the Caribbean.
Catholic Charities USA is the national voluntary membership organization for Catholic Charities agencies throughout the United States and its territories. Catholic Charities USA is a member of Caritas Internationalis, an international federation of Catholic social service organizations. Catholic Charities USA is the national office of 167 local Catholic Charities agencies nationwide.
Coptic Orphans Support Association, better known as Coptic Orphans (CO) is an international development organization that has transformed the lives of over 86,000 children in Egypt since 1988. Its mission is to break the cycle of poverty through long-term programs that focus on education.
An orphan school is a secular or religious institution dedicated to the education of children whose families cannot afford to have them educated. In countries with universal public education systems, orphan schools are no longer common.
The Orphan Train Movement was a supervised welfare program that transported children from crowded Eastern cities of the United States to foster homes located largely in rural areas of the Midwest. The orphan trains operated between 1854 and 1929, relocating from about 200,000 children. The co-founders of the Orphan Train movement claimed that these children were orphaned, abandoned, abused, or homeless, but this was not always true. They were mostly the children of new immigrants and the children of the poor and destitute families living in these cities. Criticisms of the program include ineffective screening of caretakers, insufficient follow-ups on placements, and that many children were used as strictly slave farm labor.
The Jewish Board of Family and Children’s Services is one of the United States' largest nonprofit mental health and social service agencies, and New York State's largest social services nonprofit.
Zakat Foundation of America is a Chicago-based NGO providing emergency relief, post-disaster rehabilitation, sustainable development, education, healthcare, orphan sponsorship, and seasonal programs such as Ramadan iftars and Udhiya/Qurbani. Zakat Foundation of America is registered under 501(c)(3) as a non-profit charity organization.
The New York Foundling, founded in 1869 by the Roman Catholic Sisters of Charity, is one of New York City's oldest and largest child welfare agencies. The Foundling operates programs in the five boroughs of New York City, Rockland County, and Puerto Rico. Its services include foster care, adoptions, educational programs, mental health services, and many other community-based services for children, families, and adults.
Gerald Warner Brace was an American novelist, writer, educator, sailor and boat builder. His work frequently employed settings from rural life in New England.
John Franklin Gray was an American educator and physician, a pioneer in the field of homoeopathy and one of its first practitioners in the United States. He is also recognized as an important medical reformer.
Lincolndale Agricultural School for Boys was a Catholic charity run by Barnabas McDonald in Lincolndale, New York. It opened in 1912 for orphans to be trained for agricultural and industrial work. In time, this evolved into Lincoln Hall, which remains active in 2021.
The Illinois Soldiers' and Sailors' Children's School, founded by the State of Illinois as Illinois Soldiers' Orphans' Home (ISOH) for orphans of the Civil War, was a children's home located in Normal from 1865 until 1979.
Catholic Guardian Services (CGS) is a human services non-profit organization sponsored by the Catholic Charities of the Archdiocese of New York with programs to help members of the disadvantaged population in the New York metropolitan area.
Stephen O’Connor is an American writer of fiction, nonfiction and poetry. His most recent novel Thomas Jefferson Dreams of Sally Hemings has been published by Viking. His short fiction has appeared in The New Yorker,The Best American Short Stories, Conjunctions, and New England Review. His essays have appeared in The New York Times, and Agni. His poems have been in Poetry,The Beloit Poetry Journal, and Missouri Review.
Graham Windham is a private nonprofit in New York City that provides services to children and families. It was founded in 1806 by several prominent women, most notably Elizabeth Schuyler Hamilton. Since 2015, the organization has gained renewed attention because of the success of the Broadway musical Hamilton, in which the character of Eliza Hamilton describes the orphanage as her proudest achievement.
Lily Nie is the founder of Chinese Children Adoption International, which has overseen the international adoptions of over 10,160 Chinese children. She was inducted into the Colorado Women's Hall of Fame in 2008.
Rising Ground is a large human services organization in New York City, with approximately 1,600 employees supporting more than 25,000 children, adults, and family members annually. Founded in 1831 as the Leake and Watts Orphan House, Rising Ground focused on providing child welfare services for much of its existence. Currently, Rising Ground services include child welfare, juvenile justice services, services for people with developmental and intellectual disabilities, special education school programs, services for survivors of gender-based violence, early childhood services, and services for unaccompanied minor children, among others. The organization has approximately 50 programs located at about three dozen sites in New York City and Westchester County, New York. In April 2018, the organization changed its name from Leake and Watts to Rising Ground.
$140.2 million (2014) [4] 
