A Brief History of Child Welfare in Lorain County
In 1866, construction started on the Lorain County Infirmary (the forerunner of what is now known as Golden Acres). People of all ages were admitted to the Lorain County Infirmary.
In fact, during the first year, the ages of people living at the Infirmary ranged from 11 months old to 90 years old. They were admitted for various reasons, including "reasons of insanity, intemperance, loss of property or shiftlessness."
Children were admitted with or without their parents, often for reason of "desertion" or "poverty." The first young child to stay at the Infirmary was an 18-month-old boy. A few months later he went to stay with a family in a different county.
Between 1866 and 1898, the County Infirmary was the only local public residential resource for dependent and neglected children. In 1898 Lorain County voters approved a measure authorizing the Commissioners to build a children's home in order to increase specific services and care for children. Both the Reverend F.C. Eldred and Col. J.W. Steele led the effort and made arrangements with the city of Oberlin to locate the home there.
The Commissions purchased 15 acres at a total cost of $3,675. The children's home, formally named Green Acres Children's Home was built for approximately $32,500. The first children placed on August 4, 1900 were three siblings, aged 6, 8, and 12. By the end of its first 10 years of operation, a total of 445 children had been admitted to Green Acres Children's Home. Green Acres was capable of housing 65 children at a time, however during periods when the country was at war, the home's population rose to close to 100 children.
Despite the common perception of such homes as being orphanages, only a few of the children were indeed orphans. Until 1908, children attended school on the grounds. Beginning in 1908, children began attending the Oberlin City Public Schools.
In 1969, Lorain county voters approved a tax levy that would allow Green Acre's to be re-built into a more contemporary structure better able to keep up with the needs and requirements of both best practice (at that time) and the needs of the children who lived there. The total cost to build the new facility was approximately $800,000 and it was ready for occupancy in September of 1972.
As with the original home, "houseparents," married couples who lived on the premises and functioned as the directors, were hired to oversee the Children's Home. Between the 70s and the 90s, the use and functioning of Children's Homes changed resulting in the need for three shifts of child care workers. Child welfare shifted to preferring foster homes rather than institutions for caring for children.
By the mid 1990s less than 20 children lived at Green Acres. With the shift continuing toward placing children with families as opposed to institutions, Lorain County Children Services decided it no longer needed to operate a Children's Home and the property was returned to the Lorain County Commissioners.
Green Acres Children's Home closed in 1995.
Girl's Group Home
In 1980, a Girls Group Home was established to provide a place for abused, neglected or dependent teen-aged girls to live. The Group Home could house up to 8 girls at a time. As the shift toward foster care increased, the need to have children learn daily living skills in a group home environment lessened and the Girls Group Home was closed in 1996. Teen aged girls, like all children, stay with their family/relatives or with a foster family and make the transition into adulthood within a family setting, not an institutional setting.
Casework Services
The Ohio legislature created the Child Welfare Board in 1946. In 1953 the General Code of Ohio was changed to the Ohio Revised Code. On September 17, 1957, the former chapter of the Ohio Revised Code, which described the purpose of the Child Welfare Board, was repealed. The new language became chapter 5153 of the Ohio Revised Code. On August 13, 1969, the name "Child Welfare Board" was changed to the "County Children Services Board."