1872 – Construction begins on a large, attractive, well-equipped multipurpose facility devoted to the special needs of children and, eventually, their families.
1873 – The Foundling's first recorded placement of a child with a goal of adoption.
1884 – St. Agatha Home opened.
1910 – The number of children who have come through The Foundling’s doors exceeds 27,000.
1921 – Pediatric Nurse training program is established.
1930 – Social Services program is established.
1945 – Dr. Joseph DiLeo opened the pioneering Child Developmental Clinic at The New York Foundling Hospital.
1958 – State-of-the-art building is erected on Third Avenue at 68th Street in Manhattan.
1960's – Several community-based programs across the city are developed, including programs for emotionally disturbed children and adolescents, a daycare center and Family Daycare service, and programs to help young mothers living with their babies achieve stability as a family. These programs greatly increase the reach and scope of The Foundling’s services.
1967 – St. Agatha’s first group home opens in the Bronx.
1968 – The Foundling’s Family Day Care Program begins. It is New York City’s first private family day care program.
1973 – The Foundling establishes a Head Start preschool program in Puerto Rico to serve the island's isolated, rural areas and low-income urban neighborhoods.
1977 – St. Agatha Home for Children, a renowned Rockland County Child Care Agency with a long and distinguished history, merges with The Foundling. St. Agatha Home, also established by the Sisters of Charity, provides compassionate care for children in a cottage-based campus setting. Its services expand over time to include foster homes, group homes, non-secure detention, and residential programs for adults with developmental disabilities.
1980's – The Foundling opens additional group residences for adults with physical and developmental disabilities, and develops a respite program to ease the burdens of the families of those with developmental disabilities.
1988 – The Foundling moves its central office to its current site at 590 Avenue of the Americas. The building houses residences for young expectant mothers and those with infants, The Maria Lucadamo Crisis Nursery, a Diagnostic Reception Center for young children, and The Foundling's administrative offices.
1999 – The Foundling establishes The Vincent J. Fontana Center for Child Protection to honor the contributions to the field of child abuse prevention of Dr. Vincent J. Fontana, whose career at The Foundling spanned more than 40 years. The Fontana Center provides leadership to child abuse prevention and treatment efforts throughout the nation through its Education Center and Research Department.
2005 – The Foundling discontinues its Residential Treatment Program on the St. Agatha Campus, reflecting a citywide shift in emphasis away from congregate care. This permits the agency to concentrate on other program areas, including foster care and adoption, for which the agency receives the highest evaluations by New York City's Administration for Children's Services (ACS).
2006 –The agency receives accreditation from the Council on Accreditation (COA), an international, independent, not-for-profit, child- and family-service and behavioral healthcare organization which sets standards for service delivery. Transfer of Lakeside Family and Children’s Services foster boarding home care and OMRDD residential services to The Foundling is completed, significantly increasing our Queens foster boarding home services and giving The Foundling an office in Brooklyn for the first time.
2007 – The Foundling is the only agency selected by ACS to pilot Blue Sky, a $4 million, two-year demonstration project with the potential to fundamentally change the manner in which the juvenile justice system operates. The goal of the Blue Sky is to provide support and guidance to youth involved in the juvenile justice system and their families, so that the youth can remain in their homes, rather than be removed from their communities and detained in an institution.
2008 – The Foundling, with its partner, Mott Haven Academy Charter School (Haven Academy), undertakes a groundbreaking effort to create the first Charter School in the nation specifically designed to meet the needs of one of our country’s most academically underserved populations: children in the child welfare system. The school meshes a rigorous academic program with a fully integrated system of social support services. Haven Academy opens in fall 2008 with a total of 90 students in kindergarten and first grade.
