The Parent and Child Developments Services, Inc. is located in Savannah, Georgia and is a private social service agency that strives to provide comprehensive programs within the area of family and child care. It is a multi-service agency that offers pre-school, maternity day and residential care, youth services, and adoption and foster care. The roots of Parent and Child Development Services originate in Savannah's early awareness of social concern. Their Youth Services program was originally the Savannah Female Orphan Asylum and then the Savannah Home for Girls, but has always been a charitable organization to educate, clothe, support children as orphans or whose parents were unable to support them. The Savannah Female Orphan Asylum had originally been part of the Bethesda Orphan Home in Savannah, which was organized by the Union Society of Savannah in 1750 and admitted both sexes, but became a separate organization in 1801 with a Board of Managers made up of women. In 1951, their name was changed to the Savannah Home for Girls. This organization became a part of United Way in 1940 and a member of Savannah Children's Center in 1971, which was a division of Parent and Child Development Services. Their Maternity Services program was originally the Florence Crittenton Home which offered a haven for 'wayward girls.' It was a home that provided shelter, medical care, and employment for pregnant teenage girls and unmarried women. Women usually stayed in the home until the baby was born and either went back to live with their families or the Home helped them to find a permanent home and job. From this service, the adoption service evolved. It was originally called Child Placement Services and was chartered in 1947. This organization was founded by the Savannah Junior League as the first professional adoption and foster care service in Savannah. Parent and Child Development Services' preschool and daycare programs have its origins with the Kate Baldwin Free Kindergarten program. This program was founding in Savannah by the children of Kate A. Baldwin as a memorial to her. It was incorporated in 1899 as a "benevolent and charitable institution for the free training, instruction, and education of young children under the kindergarten system of education, so as to inculcate in them habits of industry and morality and fit them for entrance into institutions of higher education." It operated kindergartens (as many as five at one time) and a training school (also referred to as the Normal Department) for kindergarten teachers. In 1946, the Kate Baldwin Free Kindergarten program became a child care center and was called the Savannah Nursery School. It was between 1971 and 1973 that Parent and Child Development Services absorbed all of the aforementioned agencies and they continue to work as a non-profit organization serving those in need in the Chatham County, Georgia community.
From the description of Parent and Child Development Services, Inc. records, 1840-1988. (Georgia Historical Society). WorldCat record id: 430966455
