Children's Place, Inc has its roots in many organizations formed during the 1950’s and 60’s in grassroots efforts to help low income working parents and their families. The two primary organizations were the Community Christian Child Care Center formed in 1951 and the Services Council of Aiken County formed in 1961. The Community Christian Child Care Center began when Mrs. Mary Price recognized the need to have childcare for low income working mothers to prevent older children from dropping out of school. This center operated from the St. Augustine’s site until 1970 when it merged with the Services Council of Aiken County and moved to the current site, the Immanuel Presbyterian Church built in 1886, at 310 Barnwell Ave, NE. The Services Council of Aiken County was the outgrowth of work by the YWCA, which had also begun in 1951 with the beginning of the Savannah River Plant.
The Services Council of Aiken County began in 1961 as the last major contribution by the YWCA as that organization collapsed over the integration issue. The Council operated out of a four-room residence until it moved to the Immanuel Presbyterian Church. It provided programs or both young and old, with a mission of providing recreational, intellectual, and moral development for children, youth, and adults. Their pledge was to serve our communities better by developing citizens of today and tomorrow through programs of growth in spirit, in heart, in mind, and in body. Out of YWCA organization came both the Services Council and Mrs. Josie Smith Hazel. Mrs. Hazel was a social worker and the first director of the Services Council. She stayed in that position for over 10 years. During her tenure she helped to form many service organizations including the Croft House, the Red Cross, and the Aiken Area Council on Aging, the Salvation Army, Vocational Rehabilitation and Smith-Hazel Recreation Center. She was a volunteer youth leader and in 1976, named Women of the Year by the Aiken Chamber of Commerce.
In the early 1980’s, the Executive Director and Board of Directors of the Services Council realized the need for children facing particularly difficult problems in their home, such as abuse, neglect, domestic violence, drug and alcohol addiction, mental illness, and parents with mental retardation, needed more help than the present program offered. With the help of St. John’s Methodist Church and a grant from the South Carolina Governor’s Office the Services Council opened a small pilot project, called the Children’s Place. That project existed serving 13 children with comprehensive treatment for the child and their family for five years until 1991. In 1989, the Board of Directors for the Services Council decided to change their name to the Children’s Place, Inc. The Children’s Place modeled after a similar program in Kansas City, Missouri was located in the Salvation Army Shelter on Park Avenue. In 1989 shortly after the name was changed Peggy Ford became the Executive Director. In 1991 all programs were relocated back to the original site at 310 Barnwell Ave. NE and the Learning Center and the Children’s Place missions and children merged. In 1995 the Kid’s Help Program was added following the dissolving to the Family Counseling Center of Aiken and in 1999 the Parent Support Network of Aiken was added. In 2000 the Board of Directors became the Aiken County affiliate of Prevent Child Abuse South Carolina adding quality primary prevention services to our programming.
Last year, Children's Place, Inc. served 120 children age’s 6 weeks to 12 years of age daily with comprehensive early intervention services for children and their families. Due to the loss of the Baby Building to mold, we are only serving about 100 children ages 2 to 12 years of age. We are currenlty working on building another baby bulding and may have it as early as the Fall of 2007.
