Founders and Brief History
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Founders and Brief History
1877 It all began in 1876 with Mrs. Delia Louise Rockwood Wardner, wife of Brigade Surgeon Horace Wardner. She accompanied her husband to Cairo, Illinois, and soon realized the great need of the many homeless and destitute children, especially girls, brought to Cairo after the war. She gathered support to found the Illinois Industrial School for Girls in 1877 as "a home and proper training school" for girls orphaned by the Civil War. Illustrious members of the board included Governor John L. Beveridge, and soon there was supporting legislation in 1881. The act provided "for each child committed to industrial schools, the county would pay $10 per month plus a certain amount of clothing."
1908 For thirty-two years the school operated in Evanston. In 1908 the school moved to a forty-acre farm in Park Ridge. Hannah Greenebaum Solomon, a civic and social welfare activist, led the reorganization of the school's financial structure. Her considerable social connections permitted her to invite generous philanthropic support. With the help of Chicago's mayor, a charitable baseball game in the national league baseball park (later to become Comiskey Park) was a key source of funding that year. Mrs. Solomon also invited her close friend Jane Addams, the founder of modern social work and Chicago's Hull House, to join the school's board. They believed the school's focus should be on family life, education and training in domestic skills. The girls were to become independent and productive members of their communities.
These two extraordinary women brought the "English Cottage" model to the school. This innovative alternative to large congregate care orphanages called for small individual homes managed by a housemother. Holabird and Roche, the noted Chicago architectural firm, designed the buildings for the school. As the financing donor for the first of the thirteen buildings constructed on the farm, Julius Rosenwald required that it be named in honor of Hannah Solomon. Today, the Solomon Cottage still stands designated by the National Registry of Historic Places and soon becomes home for the Park Ridge Historical Society.
1913 In 1913, the name of the school was changed to Park Ridge School for Girls.
For the next sixty years, private funding sustained this resource for families touched by crisis and for orphaned girls. At first, education in the domestic arts provided girls a way to support themselves in the world. Sewing, cooking and managing a household were marketable skills. Over time secretarial skills became a good focus for the great abundance of opportunities. The school's curriculum adjusted with the needs of the times. By the 1950's and 1960's living at the campus included attending the local high school and mainstreaming became possible providing the best schooling and opportunities for higher education. Whether trained for domestic or secretarial employment or prepared for college, girls from the Park Ridge School for Girls were to become responsible and productive members of society.
1977 The 100th anniversary of the school was celebrated in 1977 and a new program announced: residential teen pregnancy care. It was one of two such programs in Illinois. Also, Vietnamese refugee families were given shelter in some of the buildings.
Evolution and Reinvestment: 1980-2000
1980 Many significant changes occurred in 1980: boys were admitted for the first time, the Teaching Family model of care was adopted and the name was changed to the Park Ridge Youth Campus.
1992 Foster Care became a new focus and prompted the opening of a Chicago office from which to recruit, train and support foster families across the Chicago area. A new name was needed to indicate this broadening of scope: The Youth Campus.
Beginning in 1994 and for several years, a program for Medically Complex Infants treated children suffering from the effects of drug exposure. Many members of the community volunteered countless hours holding and rocking the babies.
During these years, significant support from members of the Park Ridge community sustained the organization during change and promoted progress toward new goals. The Sasser and Wohlers families, the Robert R. McCormick Tribune Foundation and others contributed challenge grants and substantial financial gifts to broaden services outreach to the community and to improve the facilities and grounds of the campus.
Innovation and Specialization: 2001-2007
Changes in child welfare prompted The Youth Campus to develop new initiatives supporting permanency in placement, services to biological families and community-based collaborations and prevention programs. The Illinois Department of Children and Family Services had significant impact on The Youth Campus during these years as TYC's mission to serve children and families in need focused on the greatest need: children removed from their homes for abuse and severe neglect and prevention of removal in cases of medically or developmentally challenged children.
2008 With facilities in Park Ridge and Chicago, programs now include:
The Youth Campus has a rich heritage. The visions, formulated by Hannah Solomon and Jane Addams in 1908, remain focused on assisting children to become independent and productive adult members of their communities. In September 2008, Dr James Guidi assumed leadership as CEO and began the task of installing his clinical model of care throughout all programs. A consummate teacher, Dr. Guidi meets with staff, neighbors, community leaders and volunteers spreading The Youth Campus philosophy of care. This philosophy is grounded in solid medical and psychological research and applied after extensive experience with populations in mental health, juvenile corrections, hospitals and other residential programs. He says "... any program or model of a program will only be as good as the people who are managing it." That said, the current focus is to assure the competency of all staff and to spread the education to neighbors, friends and volunteers.
To serve children and families in need by developing, implementing and advocating for effective programs and supportive services.
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