Ruthven Hostel was run by the St John’s Home for Boys and Girls in association with the Church of England Boys’ Society. Located in Reservoir, it provided accommodation for 6 to 8 boys. In the 1980s, the Church of England Boys’ Society established the Community Services Foundation Youth Welfare Trust, as a means of attracting…
The Girls’ Friendly Society (GFS) was established in Victoria in 1883. The movement was originally established in England in the 1870s. It had strong links to the Church of England. In Melbourne, the GFS provided accommodation and services to immigrants and female travellers. According to O’Hanlon, the Girls’ Friendly Society ‘operated a system whereby unchaperoned…
Mission House was the headquarters of the Mission to the Streets and Lanes. From the 1950s until the 1970s, some single mothers were accommodated at Mission House during their pregnancies. In 1952, the Mission relocated from Mission House in Spring Street, Melbourne, to new premises at 116 Fitzroy Street, Fitzroy. In the early 1970s, Mission…
The St Paul’s Home for Boys was established in 1955 by the Mission of St James and St John. It was located at Newhaven, Phillip Island, on the site of the former St Paul’s Training School. In 1979, it ceased to be a Home and became the site of the St Paul’s Discovery Centre, a…
St Faith’s was established by the Mission to the Streets and Lanes in 1975. It was one of two cottages (the other was Unit 64) on Wilson Street, Brighton. The cottages provided specialist temporary residential care to children and adolescents. St Faith’s and Unit 64 were closed in 1984. In 1975, the Mission to the…
The Broadmeadows Family Centre was a service established by the Mission to the Streets and Lanes in October 1974. It provided family counselling, emergency foster care and a ‘home making’ service. The Centre was set up in response to requests to the Mission for a social worker in that area, and the need to regionalize…
The Heathfield Homes Reformatory School for Protestant Boys, Apollo Bay, was opened on the 4 July 1905 at Apollo Bay and run under the auspices of the Church of England. Boys sent to the Reformatory were trained in farm work. The School closed on 29 October 1915. The Heathfield Reformatory was opened on 4 July…
The first branch of the Church of England Boys’ Society (CEBS) in Australia was established in around 1914 in Kew, Victoria. It was initially under the guidance of the Church of England Men’s Society. CEBS played a role in a number of children’s institutions in Victoria, sometimes delivering services in conjunction with St John’s Homes…
The Community of the Holy Name is a religious order founded in Melbourne, in 1888. The founder of the order, Emma Caroline Silcock (also known as Sister Esther), led the work of the Mission to the Streets and Lanes in Melbourne, and the two organisations had a close association. The order was not formally established…
Peninsula Family Services was established in 1980 by the Mission of St James and St John. The Andrew Kerr Memorial Home had been closed in 1978, with its residents being moved to family group homes in the Mornington Peninsula region. Peninsula Family Services was first located above a coffee shop in Main Street, Mornington. In…