ST CHRISTOPHER-OTTILIE

Community > Community Organisations

SCO Family of Services has responded to the needs of New Yorkers for more than a century. It all began in 1895, when a group of wealthy women established the Country Home for Convalescent Babies in Upstate New York. The Country Home admitted “sick and suffering small children, whom hardly anyone else can take” after they were released from the hospital following an acute illness, and before they were returned home to their families. The children recuperated at the home for several weeks.

Two years later, a new home was built on 14 acres in Sea Cliff, Long Island. The Bakers, Carnegies, Morgans, Phipps and Whitneys, in addition to many other prominent New York families, supported the facility. During World War II, the Home closed briefly and then reopened in 1947 under the auspices of the Diocese of Brooklyn, when it was renamed St. Christopher’s Home.

In 1967, Foster Home Program begins; the first home is licensed.

In 1978, Center for Family Life opened in Sunset Park, Brooklyn to promote positive outcomes for children, adults and families through a comprehensive range of neighborhood-based family and social services.