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Congregate Care

Congregate Care was a term used to describe the system in large institutions like orphanages, in which children were housed in dormitories, usually divided by age and gender, under the supervision of rostered staff. Click here to see the full Find & Connect glossary

Babies’ Home

The term Babies’ Home generally refers to institutions for children under the age of three, though not all institutions which served this purpose were named babies’ homes. For instance, in the nineteenth century, such institutions were often known as infant asylums and others were called foundling hospitals. These institutions were usually associated with services for…

Youth Justice Centre

Youth Justice Centre is a term from the Victorian Children Youth and Families Act 2005 to describe a residential institution where a young person (aged between 15 and 21 years) found guilty of an offence can be ordered to be detained. Previously, such institutions were known as Youth Training Centres. Click here to see the…

Female Rescue Home

Female Rescue was a movement based on Evangelical Christian principles, and its aim was to reform ‘fallen women’ (women engaged in prostitution) through a combination of prayer and hard work. Female Rescue Homes were established in Australia from around the 1850s. These Homes were heavily influenced by British models, particularly the Magdalen Asylum in London,…

Youth Training Centre

Youth Training Centre is a term adopted from the 1950s onwards in place of ‘reformatory’ or ‘training institution’ to describe residential institutions designed for children and young people considered to require stronger discipline that those directed to other forms of ‘care’. In some cases, children placed in Youth Training Centres were on remand, or had…

Children’s Village

A Children’s Village usually comprised several cottage Homes, in which children were accommodated in the ‘care’ of cottage parents. The village model was an alternative to institutional, dormitory-style accommodation of children. This model of institutional care has its roots in the late nineteenth century (for example, Dr Thomas John Barnardo established a ‘Village Home for…

Cottage Home

Cottage Home was a model of institutional ‘care’ which began in the United Kingdom in the late nineteenth century. Along with boarding out, cottage home accommodation was seen as an alternative to large scale dormitory-style accommodation (although cottage homes could house up to 40 children). Some cottages used the ‘family cottage’ model where a group…

Hostel

A hostel was one type of institution for young people, usually those leaving children’s Homes or reformatories, to prepare them for life after ‘care’. Hostels generally catered for young people from around the age of 15. They assisted former residents of orphanages and children’s Homes with the transition to paid employment and independent living. The…

Subsidised Institution

Subsidised institution (or scheduled institution) is a term that has been used to describe an out-of-home care institution which received a government payment for each eligible child accommodated there. The subsidies were sometimes referred to as inmate subsidies or capitation grants, and in some jurisdictions institutions receiving subsidies were known as Approved Institutions or Approved…

Apology to Former Child Migrants by the British Government

On 24 February 2010, the British Prime Minister Gordon Brown issued an apology to child migrants, for the United Kingdom’s role in deporting thousands of children to Australia, Canada, New Zealand, South Africa and Zimbabwe. Some former child migrants were funded by the British Government to go to London and hear the Prime Minister’s statement…