History

In October of 1894, a man rose to address a Toronto conference, announcing that "the child-saving movement has been making a history itself in the city of Kingston." The Speaker was Rev. James R. Black, who was representing Kingston's Children's Aid movement at a gathering of similar workers from across Ontario. Although the Children's Aid organization in Kingston was hardly five months old, Rev. Black could not have been more accurate, or more prophetic. The descendant of the movement described by Rev. Black, which we now know as the "Children's Aid Society of the City of Kingston and County of Frontenac," has been making history for more than a century. What follows here is a brief account of that history, and an invitation to the reader to learn and celebrate a rich tradtion of assistance, counselling, and community service to Kingston's children and their families.

The article was written by Roger Neufeld on the occasion of the Society's centenary; it was made possible by the Ontario Heritage Foundation.

The history is divided into two periods, 1894 to 1945, and 1945 to the present.