Chapin Hall’s roots go back to 1860, when it was founded as the Chicago Nursery and Half-Orphan Asylum. For the next 100 years, it flourished as a group home for the city’s disadvantaged children. During that period, it was sustained largely through the generosity of private donors.
By the early 1960s, however, the institution then known as Chapin Hall had become increasingly dependent on public funding. As a result, it altered its focus, first to sheltering wards of the state and then to treating emotionally disturbed children. The 1980s brought a fundamental shift in government policy that led to the reallocation of financial support from residential programs like Chapin Hall’s to programs delivering foster care. Faced with the inevitable loss of funding, Chapin Hall’s leaders recognized that they would soon be unable to provide direct services to young people.