Our history
Action for Children
Action for Children has been helping children and young people break through injustice, deprivation and inequality for 140 years. The Reverend Dr Thomas Bowman Stephenson, a Methodist minister, founded the Charity (as the National Children's Homes and Orphanages) in 1869 in response to the plight of homeless children on the streets of London. Stephenson was a pioneer and set up the first small-group homes in Britain at a time when most children who could not stay with their families lived in big institutions, such as work houses.
As well as providing homes, we promoted fostering adoption and became an adoption agency in 1926. During the post-war years, our objectives shifted towards preventative work, supporting vulnerable, children, young people and parents through the family aid scheme, day nurseries and family centres.
Today, we provide services to help children and young people:
· whose families need support
· who cannot live with their birth families
· who are disabled
· who experience severe difficulties in their lives.
We continue to work closely with our partners in the Methodist Church, whose values, tradition, heritage and ethos we share.
What we do
Action for Children works with the children and young people who most need support to achieve their full potential. We tailor our work to local circumstances, in partnership with children and young people, families, communities and local organisations.
Children are at the centre of our work. Our work is informed by our values of equality, passion and hope. We listen to children and young people and involve them in defining the issues they face and in finding solutions to help them achieve their full potential.
As an independent charity, we campaign for changes that will end injustice, deprivation and inequality. Our campaigns aim to make a difference to all children, young people and families across the UK as well as those that we work with directly.
The scope of our work
Action for Children is one of the UK’s leading children’s charities working with over 156,000 vulnerable children, young people and their families each year. We provide services in England, Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland. We also support work in southern Africa, the Caribbean and Central America.
We are experts at working in partnership with a wide variety of organisations to deliver services and campaigns for the most vulnerable children and young people, and can work as a broker, bringing together a range of partners’ knowledge and expertise to provide responsive services that meet the social, health and educational needs of local communities
Date Published: 18/05/09