|
The agency traces its beginnings to 1844
when the Daughters of Charity first arrived on the streets of Detroit with
only $8.50 in their pockets, with the intentions of opening a school.
Within two years, they responded to community need by establishing the St.
Vincent Orphan Asylum and a hospital. In 1869, the sisters opened a
program to provide for the needs of unwed and/or deserted mothers and
their children.
It is this spirit that began the Daughter’s
150 years of service to those in need in Southeastern Michigan. They had
no idea that they would be responsible for founding the first hospital in
Detroit, Providence Hospital in 1945, the first private psychiatric
hospital in Michigan, three schools, an orphanage, and a home for unwed
mothers and children in just over two decades.
In 1928, a fire destroyed a summer home
located in Farmington Hills that housed children from the old St. Vincent
Orphan Asylum in Detroit. Mr. and Mrs. Charles T. and Sarah Fisher of the
Fisher Body Family read the news accounts of the fire. Because of their
extreme gratitude to the Daughters of Charity and Providence Hospital for
saving the life of their fifth son, Thomas Fisher, Charles Fisher took
action by donating more than $700,000 to build a new structure at the corner of 12
Mile and Inkster Roads.
The formal opening took place one year after
the date of the fire on November 25, 1929. The home reflected contemporary
thinking in the institutional care of children. The Center’s Farmington
Hills campus remained open as a residential facility for foster children
until October 2005.
In 2006, the St. Vincent and Sarah Fisher
Center brought 150 years of family and child experience to the Brightmoor
area and the surrounding community. The statistics for the area are
daunting: A 40% poverty rate for children; a nearly 30% drop out rate; and
unemployment levels that hover around 36%. Children are at risk, and
families are failing under the crushing weight of poverty.
The Center is attacking these problems
head-on by offering services that prepare families to move from poverty to
self-sufficiency. Staff and volunteers are working with kindergarteners
through third graders in the Children's Learning Experience Program – teaching
children the basics, but more importantly, getting them excited about
learning and opening their eyes to new possibilities for their future.
One of the Center’s most successful
initiatives has been the Adult Learning Experience Program, a pre-GED prep class, which has doubled and
redoubled in size since the Learning Center opened its doors. This program
focuses on tutoring adults, who have mustered the courage to face their
educational challenges, so they can begin to take the first rewarding
steps toward earning a GED. It is difficult to imagine making up for years
of inadequate schooling or for an education missed because of a childhood
decision to drop out. But that’s what the Center’s clients are attempting,
and they’re doing so in order to improve their lives and the lives of
their children. The Center is giving them the tools they need to succeed.
In every area, the
Center’s work is bringing positive change. In lives of the families
served, hope is beginning to take root. The St. Vincent and Sarah Fisher
Center is providing opportunities where none existed and continuing its
mission to protect, nurture and strengthen children and families.
Back to Top
|
1851 -St. Vincent’s Home, located on the corner of
Randolph and Larned Streets in downtown Detroit, is established by
the Daughters of Charity.
1869 –The House of Providence on
W. Adams Street in Detroit is established to care for orphaned
children. In order to accommodate the growing number of children,
the home moves to 14th Street, across from St. Vincent’s church, and
then to the northwest corner of Elizabeth and St. Antoine.
1871
–St. Vincent’s Home is incorporated.
1872 – January –The House of
Providence is incorporated. From this corporation grows three
different services, which are originally housed in the same
facility. The functions include services for the unmarried mother,
infants and young children, and a hospital, which is later
separately incorporated as Providence Hospital. |
- September – The cornerstone for a new St.
Vincent’s Home on McDougall Avenue in Detroit is laid. Nearly 100 girls,
ages 2 to 12 years, occupy the building by the end of the month.
1910 –
The House of Providence is converted into a general hospital and is
renamed Providence Hospital. Apartments are built in the hospital to house
unwed mothers and their children.
1920 – The present site of the Center
is deeded. To reduce overcrowding, in the Detroit facility, some of the
pre-school children are moved to this new location.
1921 – Facilitated by the generous
donations of Mr. William Kennedy and Mrs. James Couzens, Lake Pickerel,
located near Brighton, Michigan, is purchased as a summer outing
destination for the children.
1923 – Eighty acres of land, located
on the northwest corner of 12 Mile Road and Inkster Road, is donated to
the Daughters of Charity. Resting on one and a half acres in the southwest
corner is a country house where children ages 2 to 6, enjoy their summer.
The Daughters of Charity name this house Villa Marillac.
1926 – Because the children who live
in the hospital are too noisy for the sick patients, Villa Marillac is
remodeled for year-round use. After completion all of the children older
than two are sent from Providence Hospital to live at Villa Marillac. A
Social Services department is set up in Providence Hospital to care for,
place and follow-up with the children after adoption.
1928 – Fire destroys Villa Marillac
with 66 of 67 residents saved. News accounts of the fire report that all
of the furnishings and clothing of the nuns, nurses and children are
completely lost. As an incentive for the children to evacuate the building
as quickly as possible, the nuns tell them that they are going to a party
and cannot be late.
1929 – May - Ground is broken on an
innovative new facility for the orphans of Villa Marillac. A generous
donation of more than $700,000 made by Fisher Body heir Mr. Charles T. Fisher
earlier this year, makes the new facility possible. Mr. Fisher’s children,
Thomas, 8, and Sarah Anne, 5, perform the ceremonial groundbreaking.
- November – The Sarah Fisher Children’s
Home opens on the 80 acres at the northwest corner of 12 Mile and
Inkster Road as a permanent residence for the orphans of St. Vincent’s
Orphan Asylum, toddler age and older.
1945 – An innovative Child Development unit
begins as a demonstration project by Providence Hospital. School of Nursing
and Merrill Palmer School is moved to Farmington. Child development
experts create family groups of children and adults who act as a unit.
1948
– St. Vincent’s in Detroit is closed and the children are permanently
moved to the new Sarah Fisher Children’s Home, thus creating The St.
Vincent and Sarah Fisher Home.
1950 – A group of 40 Sisters and
numerous volunteers from Providence Hospital board a bus, each with a baby
in her arms, and travel to The St. Vincent and Sarah Fisher Home. From
this date forward, children will no longer reside at Providence Hospital.
The St. Vincent and Sarah Fisher Home now cares for children from infancy
through the teen years.
1951 – January16 - The House of
Providence changes its name to Marillac Villa and subsequently changes its
mission to that of exclusively caring for unwed mothers.
- January 22 – The St. Vincent
and Sarah Fisher Home for Children is incorporated to care for the
children of the residents of Marillac Villa.
1953
–Marillac Villa relocates to the corner of Northwestern Highway and
Inkster Road and changes its name to Marillac Hall.
1960 – Seton Day Care opens on the
grounds of the St. Vincent and Sarah Fisher Home.
1979 – St. Vincent and Sarah Fisher
Home merges with Marillac Hall to create the St. Vincent and Sarah Fisher
Center. Unwed mothers, who wish to parent their children, move to the
newly created Louise Hall residential program, which is located within the
Center. It later becomes the Transitions Program.
1983 – The Foster Care Program is
established to provide family placements within private homes for children
who do not require residential care at the Center.
1985-1992 – With state funding the Community Group homes
are established in Detroit, Oak Park and Ferndale serving 18-19 year olds
with their children.
1993
- Marillac Hall residential program for pregnant teen girls is
discontinued and Marillac Outreach Services is established to serve a
larger client population. This program provides counseling and referral
services to young women within their homes.
1993 – The Center begins offering
adoption services for children with special needs.
1994 – Post adoption support services
are implemented for families adopting special needs children. These
services are designed to offer assistance to families after the adoption
has taken place.
1995 –A collaboration of child placing
agencies, with the resources from the United Way Community Services and
the Detroit-Wayne County Community Mental Health Agency, form the
Planned Family Respite Care Program. The purpose of this program is to
support and maintain family stability by providing short-term planned
respite care for children from infancy to 15 years of age who experience
emotional, physical and developmental disabilities.
1996 – In an effort to reduce the need
for psychiatric hospitalizations, a Crisis Stabilization Unit opens in the
St. Vincent and Sarah Fisher Center.
1997 – An innovative new component of
Marillac Outreach Services, the Young Fatherhood Program, opens to support
teen dads in the metro-Detroit area.
1998 – Jendayi House, a group home for
young mothers ages 18-21, opens in Detroit.
1999 – The renovation of 6 cottages is
completed with funds raised in a successful capital campaign.
2001 – To accommodate the growing
needs of the community, the Young Fatherhood program expands and doubles
the number of teen fathers served.
2006 – The Center moves to the Brightmoor area of
Detroit and establishes a
comprehensive, community-based program that engages parents, families and
neighborhoods in the process of creating strong, healthy children.
|
