Benevolent Asylums were private institutions set up in the nineteenth century to house ‘destitute’ men, women and children, expectant mothers (lying-in) as well as ‘deserted wives’, ‘waifs’, ‘neglected children’ and ‘orphans’. Click here to see the full Find & Connect glossary
A Reception Centre was an institution designed to provide short term ‘care’ for children before they were sent to a longer-term placement (typically a foster Home). Children in reception centres often went through a process of ‘classification’ before being placed. The term came into use around the 1950s. Children would return to a reception centre…
Residential care (as distinct from home-based care, like foster care or kinship care) is a term used to describe the placement of children and young people in residential units. Residential care is provided by paid staff employed by a non-government agency. Residential care properties usually house three or four people at a time and these…
Family Group Home is the name given to a model of ‘care’ where small groups of children are accommodated in buildings that approximate the size and form of an average home. They began to appear in as a form of ‘care’ in Australia from the late 1940s, following concerns about the lack of individual attention…
Adolescent Community Placement (or ACP) is a term used to describe a home-based care model for young people aged 12 to 18 years who are experiencing crisis and are unable to live with their families for a range of reasons. This type of placement enables young people to reside in a home-like environment with the…
Orphanages or orphan asylums were a prominent feature of Australian urban landscapes from the early nineteenth through to the mid-twentieth centuries. Orphanages founded in both Britain and the United States from the late 18th century were voluntary organisations designed to rescue the children of the ‘deserving’ poor from being admitted to the workhouse. In Australia,…
A Sanatorium was a medical facility for long-term illness, most typically associated with the treatment of tuberculosis. Several institutions existed in Australia where children and young people spent long periods recovering from illness. Click here to see the full Find & Connect glossary
Sending Agency was the name given to the organisation responsible for arranging the migration of children to Australia from the United Kingdom or Malta. Click here to see the full Find & Connect glossary
Temporary Care is a term to describe the short-term, emergency, respite or crisis accommodation of children and young people. Click here to see the full Find & Connect glossary
Therapeutic Residential Care (or TRC) describes placements for children and young people in an environment to help them recover from the effects of trauma from abuse or neglect. In these placements, the child or young person lives with carers with specialised training and accesses specialist therapists. Click here to see the full Find & Connect…