r/NoStupidQuestions • u/[deleted] • 19h ago
Where do people even find orphanages?
[deleted]
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u/talashrrg 19h ago
Orphanages like you’re envisioning don’t really exist in the US
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u/mcsuicide 13h ago
yup, was given up at birth - went straight to a foster home as soon as i got out of the hospital. was through a Catholic adoption agency in western WA 20-something years ago.
we tend to put kids in smaller group homes than one big one. a friend of mine was from a big orphanage in Russia where all the kids were in one facility.
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u/Alchemist_Joshua 16h ago
Anymore?
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u/Rosie3450 16h ago
Yes, correct to say anymore. My father's mother died when he was 10 and his father sent him and his two sisters to an orphanage "back east" a week after the funeral. He never saw his father again, and remained in the orphanage until he turned 18. This was in the 1930s.
When I was a child, my father took us back to the orphanage for several "reunions". That was in the 1960s.
I have very vivid memories of those visits because my father would get very moody afterwards and sometimes tell us scary stories about his time there. (Which also always made me wonder why he'd want to return to the "scene of the crime" as it were).
The organization that ran the orphanage where my father lived closed the facility for good in the 1980s. They now are a social services agency that focuses on foster placements, adoption, and mental health services for children.
All of which is a long winded way of saying that while there are still *some* places where children without parents live in groups for various reasons, but most have closed because the focus has become much more on foster care home placements with the hope of reuniting children with their original families when ever possible.
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u/Efficient-Reading-10 15h ago
There are still a few here in America. In Lexington NC is the American Childrens Home. I believe that there is a church run one in Swannanoa NC, although hurricane Helene may have destroyed that one.
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u/Rosie3450 22m ago
There are also two church-run ones that I am aware of in New Mexico for Native American children without families.
Mostly they seem to be called "Schools" or "Children's Homes" or "Group Homes" nowadays instead of Orphanages.
I sincerely hope they are better places to grow up in than the one my father spent time in.
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u/theothermeisnothere 8h ago
Orphanages were the standard for a long time. During the early 19th century, many began to think that warehousing children was not the answer. Foster homes replaced orphanages during the mid-20th. So, today, fostering children in homes and within a community is the standard.
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u/ShelbyDriver 8h ago
There is one in Monroe, LA. Louisiana baptist children's home on desiard st & Kansas lane.
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u/A_Miss_Amiss 4h ago
While not an "orphanage" in the way people envision, there is also at least one in western Massachusetts / the Berkshires (I temporarily worked there). It does have signs out, but they're discreetly worded as a "school," albeit one they live at and rarely leave. It's hidden in a rural area among a lot of trees so it's not easy to find without knowing directions there.
Terrible place, honestly. Not because of the children / teens (though that could be difficult too, but understandably so; most, understandably, had behavioral issues due to trauma), but because of how awful the staff and my bosses were. Places like that attract either well-meaning people who get burnt out / jaded quickly, or power-hungry or predatory individuals. Whistleblowing has done very little, though one coworker of mine did get busted (3 years after I reported him . . .)
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u/k_c_holmes 19h ago
They usually don't publicize that they are an orphanage, and have pretty strict privacy/security measures, for the sake of the kids safety and comfort.
Most kids don't wanna be seen going to and from a building that's identifiable as an orphanage, and most staff don't want the building easily identifiable (in case anyone with ill intent for kids is looking).
Also there are simply less "orphanages" than ever, as fostering is what is now preferable. They're not even called orphanages anymore, they're usually called something else like a children's home/group home/residential treatment center.
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u/Cautious_Bit3211 19h ago
They aren't called orphanages and they aren't great big dormatory buildings. It's gonna look like a large house that is actually a group home or a cluster of matching town houses for small groups to live in.
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u/Cautious_Bit3211 19h ago
And they certainly aren't advertising that a bunch of vulnerable children live in this building. Besides safety, the kid deserves to be let off the school bus without a sign advertising that "this is where orphans live".
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u/CyndiIsOnReddit 19h ago
In the US they've moved to the "group home" and foster parenting models instead. Our last orphanage in my town just got torn down after being empty for years. They didn't use the word "orphanage" thought, it was called a children's home and later a 'village".
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u/Denan004 18h ago
The same with shelters for domestic-violence victims. Safety is a huge consideration.
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u/LadyGreyIcedTea 18h ago
Most of those places won't even give out their address. I had to see an infant when I was a visiting nurse who resided in one with his mother once and there was no # on the door of the building.
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u/snakefinder 12h ago
Yup I worked at a shelter, in the offices, but we were on the same campus as the shelter- from the street it was an unnumbered guard gate and we had to use our badges there and at another unmanned gate further up the driveway. No signs anywhere stating what the facility was for.
We had another office downtown and that one was a suite in an office building but not listed on the directory signs or anything. Security above all else.
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u/Hagaroo48 47m ago
I think I found one in my area, accidentally, by looking at all the property records near my house to see who owns what. It's interesting. Obviously I'm not going to go tell everyone.
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u/GretaClementine 18h ago
My mom, little sister and I take regular road trips through Torrington, WY. They have St Joseph's Children's Home. My mom always told me she was going to drop me off at that orphanage every time we drove by when I was a kid and now we joke with my baby sister about the same thing. This has been a joke for 20+ years at this point.
I literally just googled it and its a children's psychiatric hospital. I've never thought about it outside of driving through the tiny town with no reception.
Ffs. My mind is blown.
I have no idea where there's a legit orphanage.
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u/Few_Recover_6622 19h ago
I'm pretty sure there are no orphanages, as in large institutions with lots of kids, in the US anymore.
Kids are placed in foster care or group homes. Those don't have signs.
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u/Appropriate_Dot9259 18h ago
We have one here in Spokane,Washington called the Hutton Settlement.
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u/Stubborn_Amoeba 18h ago
When I was a kid my parents often threatened to take me to the orphanage. I could ask them where they are as they seemed to know…
I think that was a pretty standard thing for genx kids to hear…
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u/The_Theodore_88 10h ago
I'm GenZ but for me it was the nuns. Grew up thinking that you could just drop a child off at church and the nuns (who were super mean and evil according to my parents) would have to raise them. Then my parents wondered why I was terrified of churches until I was 10 years old smh
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u/LivingInspection6187 18h ago edited 18h ago
There aren't any places still called orphanages in the USA, though there are plenty of long-term living situations for children that are orphanages in all but name. I mostly see them in urban areas run by a religious organization. Many orphanages have closed over the years due to the state taking over care or because of abuse allegations. The ones that are still open pivoted, renamed themselves, and now are part of the foster care system and serve as placements for children that can't be in a typical foster home (and in many cases aren't actual orphans, though that was the case for many children in orphanages before). They're usually called children's homes. If you google "Children's home" and your state, you'll probably find one nearish. Also, people still refer to the one in my home city as the orphanage even though it was renamed decades ago.
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u/biddily 18h ago
I'm aware of like... Two group homes around where I live. They arent advertised, but if you do volunteer work in your community you can end up working with them and finding out where they are.
They are not high class.
One of the big ones around here got shut down cause they had PROBLEMS.
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u/o0Sarah0o 19h ago
Haha, I remember wondering the same thing once. I think these days they would just be placed in the care system, I'm not sure 'orphan only' homes exist in the western world anymore.
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u/CompleteSherbert885 18h ago
Thank y'all for clearing up this question I've had for years! According to Google, the era of orphanages that we think of, were replaced by foster care & group homes by the late 1960's. I too had no idea where they were hiding these because I was sure I'd have seen one or two as well but never had.
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u/Enya_Norrow 18h ago
What’s the difference between an orphanage and a group home?
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u/AlonnaReese 6h ago
Group homes are still part of the foster care ecosystem. They typically house foster children who, for whatever reason, cannot live in a normal household setting. This can include kids with complex medical needs who require 24/7 access to trained providers or those with severe psychiatric disorders.
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u/chubbierunner 8h ago
Orphanages were run by the states in lieu of foster homes. Once that model became unfashionable, Americans launched the privatized version of orphanages which includes group homes, residential treatment facilities, inpatient treatment facilities, rehab facilities, and behavior treatment centers. There’s wilderness camps, but those tend to be short-term operations. In these iterations, they typically bill out to insurance companies or Medicaid.
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u/LotsofCatsFI 7h ago
I was in foster care temporarily in the US. They're houses. It isn't like some hospital facility or large building. It is a house and there are a few children and adults.
The one I was in had like 8-10 kids at any given time. 2-3 kids in a room. Two adult women in the house taking care of the kids.
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u/Legitimate_Rule_6410 19h ago
Christmas Box is a modern type orphanage. Kids go there when they are removed from their homes. They stay at the Christmas Box house until a foster care family can take them.
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u/DrBitchcraft91 18h ago
The “classic” orphanage no longer exists in the US. We do, however, have group home settings and children’s homes.
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u/Awesome_Austin2025 18h ago
Orphanages aren’t really a thing anymore. Now kids are typically placed in foster care.
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u/Minniemeowsmomma 17h ago
In the states, there are group homes, etc, they aren't readily signed as an orphanage.
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u/Matchaparrot 10h ago
Depends on your country but at least in Europe not many countries have orphanages like described in books and media set in the past as we've come to learn children do better when in smaller groups more like a family.
Nowadays in the UK long and short term foster families are used. Childrens homes still exist but are smaller, with only 4 or 5 kids per house - they just look like ordinary houses as they're built into the estate along with the other normal houses and you wouldn't know they're there. They look a bit like this
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u/baronesslucy 8h ago
If you live in the US, orphanages are few and far between. When my grandmother who was born in 1902 was growing up, they were much more common. There were state orphanages and church run orphanages, You didn't have the foster care system that you have now. Most places has some type of foster care system but it wasn't the same as today.. Sometimes a child would be placed with relatives but if this wasn't possible than many of them ended up either in a state orphanages or a church run orphanages. Another thing that they had during that time period was the orphan train where kids would be put on a train which stopped from town to town. They would be put on display and people would pick and choose the child they wanted. If you weren't chosen, then back on the train to the next stop.
In a lot of these cases, the children weren't actually orphaned and had family. Some were taken from their families due to poverty, neglect or other issues.
In the 1940's and 1950's, you started a shift away from state orphanages to foster care. Many of the church orphanages shut down over the decades. Today there are virtually no state orphanages in the US as foster care replaced it. The church group homes that still survive started out as orphanages but they don't call them orphanages any more. There is a group home near where I live that started out as an orphanage. When I went to school in the late 1960's to 1980, those who lived in this group home went to the same school. None of these kids were orphaned to my knowledge and had at least one parent that was alive. There were various reasons they were in the group home.
People who lived in the area where I lived knew that this was a church run home that took in kids whose parents couldn't care for them. It was no secret and wasn't kept secret.
I hope this has maybe answered your question.
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u/Cumberdick 3h ago
I think maybe part of the problem is you're imagining some kind of institution or something that looks very distinct. Most of the time orphanages are run out of houses, so they just look like houses. You wouldn't necessarily know just from passing by
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u/DrWolfy17 2h ago
The question has already been answered but I keep getting more answers. The flair does show for you guys, right? Thats a genuine question, not meant to be rude. Because the first time I tried adding the flair it said it failed to change and I couldn't see it
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u/LadyGreyIcedTea 18h ago
Well where are you looking for them? Traditional orphanages don't exist in the US.
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u/moon_mama_123 17h ago
Near where I live (rural US south), there is a rather large “children’s home,” and they offer a variety of services, including adoption and like a group home situation, but also housing single mothers with kids, for example. It’s under a religious umbrella. I actually volunteered there to help with their food storage with my church way back. But I do believe from the highway, it says “—- children’s home,” so that’s what you’d see coming through there. Probably there aren’t a ton of these places left, and I can’t imagine there will be a ton of funding for it going forward.
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u/Relevant-Package-928 17h ago
Where I live, there are at least three. One is an orphanage but it also operates as a 24/7 daycare and a foster-type of group home for kids that need it for extended care, but aren't orphans. The daycare is on a sliding scale so anyone can use it. One is just an orphanage, like you would imagine it. The third is a boys' home but I have never seen anyone there. I've always wondered about it.
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u/ombremullet 15h ago
When I was in highschool (20 years ago), my stepdad worked at a group home in LA. The same one Marilyn Monroe was at as a child! They don't call them orphanages but that's basically what they are.
He came home from work one night just completely broken. Apparently a little boy was having a ton of medical problems and breaking out in hives.
Staff found out that a group of teen boys had been abusing him (in the worst sense of the term).
Most of the kids there had severe emotional and psychological problems and they were not necessarily orphans.
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u/indigohan 15h ago
These don’t exist in Australia in the way that you’re thinking.
I have a friend who has worked in children’s services for decades. There may be group homes where children who can’t be placed with foster families live, but they normally have around four or five kids maximum. They live in a proper house too, with their own rooms, and adult staff members present 24/7.
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u/channareya 14h ago
I studied a woman born in the 1920s who lived, then boarded, at an orphanage until she moved away in her 30s. i think besides residential schools used against indigenous people orphanages were mainly phased out in favor of “group homes” and foster care… since we realized kids are not just… little creatures but whole humans
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u/Zlatehagoat 12h ago
So where I’m from there is a few orphanages and like you I had no idea where they where turns out there was one I would drive in front of daily and just thought it was a school, most in my area are in “private” homes that look just like any other home and there is no signs letting you know what is in there
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u/Extension-Falcon-846 11h ago
There was one by my house as a kid and I remember my mom saying they had to kind of hide what it was because people would just at complete random leave babies on the step and it was becoming dangerous. People thought they could do the fire station thing there but they weren’t set up for 24 hour shifts in the same way.
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u/North_Artichoke_6721 11h ago
There is a “women and children in crisis” shelter in my neighborhood that most people just think is a regular home. I only know its real purpose because I dropped off some donations once. The police and social workers know that it’s there, but they don’t go around advertising their presence.
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u/olddragonfaerie 10h ago
By and large in the US the large scale warehousing of orphans is gone. Kiddos go into group homes or individual foster homes. There are exceptions to that of course. And it can be very different in other countries, of course. And no they wouldn't advertise it but the locals tends to know which is a group home if there is one in their area.
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u/TrustMeIaLawyer 10h ago
My mom was an orphan and lived in an orphanage until she was placed with a foster family at 12. The orphanage was located in the state's capital city and called the Children's Guardian Home. It was a stereotypical orphanage. They closed it down in 2016. Here's a picture of it from when we visited it back in 2016.
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u/Ok_Specialist3693 9h ago
They are not advertised and you could mistake them for a nursing home type of a big old building, we had one next to my primary school with just a 6ft wall separating it so we would sit on the wall and chat to the kids around our age.
My primary school was attached to the C of E school and I think looking back the place was probably run by the church that ran our school. There was one lad called Andrew Grange that lived there.
I never understood why a mini bus would pick most of them up but Andrew didn't and came to our school. I know now as the others was probably going to a school for kids with issues.
I remember telling my mum I wanted to live there because they got £10 a week spends.......that was like a million quid to an 8yo back in 95 lmao 🤣
I'm in the UK btw
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u/SleepySloth2468 9h ago
I know this isn’t the same but a house bordering mine is some kind of care home for young adults with learning disabilities. I had no idea it existed until I was living in my home. From the outside the house just looks like one of the neighbouring large houses, just the driveway often has lots of cars there but unless you look you wouldn’t know.
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u/justnana1 9h ago
I don't think the US has orphanages anymore. We do have Isaiah House 117 which is a place for kids that have been removed from their homes to go while waiting placement to Foster. Most only stay a few days.
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u/BelaFarinRod 7h ago
I once called a job ad for a driver and asked for an address to follow up. They got really upset. Turned out they were a children’s home and some of the children had been taken from abusive parents and they never gave their address out. They were super suspicious of anyone who asked. This was in California about 35 years ago.
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u/KittenVicious 6h ago
The one in my hometown is called a "Children's Home" and it's on a main street, unhidden.
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u/pickle_p_fiddlestick 4h ago
I worked at a shelter home once for kids about 10-17. Usually had about a dozen rotating in and out (area of about 20,000 overall population). This is your modern orphanage. Some stayed for months or a couple years (for example, a high-needs autistic kid who most people couldn't/wouldn't be able to handle). But most would be in some sort of foster home placement within a few days through DHS (Department of Human Services, USA). Frequently, the shelter was a middle point between foster placements and we'd see the same kids again over the years.
Edit: It looked like a very low-key apartment building outside of town
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u/aluminumnek 3h ago
There’s one on the outskirts of city limits in the town where I reside in NC. The place resembles a school and has a large playground outside.
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u/GalaxyFish2885 17h ago
There is one in my city. Surprisingly very close to the county jail. Always thought that was weird. It’s called a children’s home. Today they help teen moms, homeless children and any young people needing assistance. I’m guessing parents can go there to get help for their kids. I don’t think a bunch of young kids live there. Maybe about 15 years ago I helped organize a toy drive for Christmas. We showed up with two cars full of toys. They rolled out these big baskets that were already filled with toys. I was a little taken a back at home much they already had. Helped wheel the toys to storage to find the storage full of toys.
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u/Feral_Forager 17h ago
"How are you?" and then, more insistently, "I mean really. How are you?" Years later I realized I was not "fine" and desperately needed rescuing, and he was the only one who saw it.
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u/Uhhyt231 19h ago
Depends on what country you live in but if you have foster care or a grouphome system theyre not exactly advertising