1884 Founded as Orphanage and Home for the Friendless

1891 Renamed Daniel Memorial Home for Children

1893 Daniel Memorial was incorporated as an agency

1905 Daniel Memorial Home for Children moves to corner of Hubbard and Seventh Street.

1925 Charter member of the Jacksonville's United Way.

1928 State Welfare Board approved Daniel Memorial Home for Children to operate as a Child Care Institution.

1951 Daniel Memorial Home moved to 2500 block Riverside Avenue.

1953 A second home for boys was purchased on an adjoining lot.

1956 Foster care and family counseling services were added.

1968 A boys and girls cottage were build on 10 acres on Belfort Road.

1973 Daniel Memorial Home became a residential treatment center.

1976 The “Home” was dropped from the name to reflect change in mission.

1979 A third 12 bed cottage was built on campus.

1981 The Therapeutic Foster Care program was implemented.

1982 The Therapeutic Group Home program (Mills House) was started.

1984 Accredited by the Joint Commission on Accreditation of Health Care Organizations.

1985 Children from the Northeast Florida State Hospital were transferred to Daniel Memorial.

1986 Hillside Cottage was constructed.

1987 Independent Living Program started.

1988 National conferences and catalog sales efforts started.

1989 Daniel Memorial’s Institute, Hospital and Foundation were separately incorporated.

1992 Early Delinquency Intervention and Prevention program was implemented.

1993 Community based services in schools and housing projects were developed.

1994 Statewide Adoption Information Center was established.

1995 STARS, an employment agency for not-for-profits originated.

1995 The second Early Delinquency Intervention and Prevention program was awarded.

1996 Youth Employment Services was started.

1997 Daniel Payne Academy, a middle school for at-risk students was launched.

1998 Daniel Memorial begins a fund raising and financial development program.

1999 Daniel Memorial, Inc. changes its name and look to daniel – Improving the odds for kids.

2000 daniel was awarded the first pilot Statewide Inpatient Psychiatric Program (SIPP) in the state of Florida.

2000 Choices program expanded to New Port Richey.

2001 Board Member Beth Sumner-Wiggins announces and initiates the Sumner-Wiggins Challenge, an endowment scholarship fund to help kids who need daniel’s services.

2001 daniel starts the Children Uniting with Parents (CUP) program focusing on building positive family relationships between inmates and their children.

2001 First Golf Tournament fundraiser.

2002 daniel exceeds the goal set forth in the Sumner-Wiggins Challenge campaign. SIPP program that started at daniel in 2000 as a pilot is replicated across the state of Florida.

2002 Accredited by Council On Accreditation.

2002 First Motorcycle fundraiser.

2003 Sumner-Wiggins Scholarship Endowment Fund Challenge attained.

2002 Weaver Family Foundation Challenge initiated.

2003 Weaver Family Foundation Challenge exceeded.

2003 Privatization of Foster Care attained, daniel launches its Community Based Care program to provide foster care and adoptive services. Can Do program is expanded into two more Duval county schools.

2003 JaxBuild, a program designed to help youth learn a construction trade while obtaining a GED, gets underway. As a result of the state of Florida privatizing its foster care program.

2004 Inaugural Board Alumini Reunion Reception.

2005 Launch of new Behavior Mangagement program.

2005 daniel hosts inaugural six-week summer camp for emotionally/behaviorally challenged children.

2005 daniel receives HUD grant funding JaxBuild through 2008.

2006 Launch of new Mentoring Program.

2006 Daniel Memorial begins planning campus renovations.

In my work as a clinical social worker over the past 32 years, I’ve gazed into the faces of hundreds of abused, neglected and emotionally-troubled children. Some were bruised and scarred. Others had furrow lines around the brows appearing decades too early. Still others had an angry curl to their lips. Yet nearly all had a similar look in their eyes — a filmy look that hovered somewhere between defeat and “don’t care anymore.”

Fortunately, in many cases, I have also been privileged enough to witness that look — in fact their whole faces — change over time. The lines smoothing. The scowl tipping toward a smile. And, the spark that belongs in all children’s eyes slowly rekindling. Becoming the force of change behind these young faces is what daniel is all about.

Daniel helps an average of 1,500 children and their families each day, through a diverse range of services at every level; from prevention to intervention, from foster care to adoption.

With our help, an abused, angry girl can avoid abusing her own children later in life. By providing a stable, safe environment, we can encourage a child once surrounded by crime and drugs to not to succumb to them himself. With independent living skills learned at daniel, the homeless boy can prevent himself from becoming a homeless man.

The added advantage of daniel is that although we begin the helping and healing process with each individual child on a local level, our work blossoms outward, helping children on state and national levels as well.

Daniel pioneered Florida’s Statewide Inpatient Prevention Program, now the state’s standard approach for dealing with serious emotional problems in children requiring out-of-home care. The agency helps 700-plus children each year find foster or adoptive parents and serves as Florida’s Adoption Information Center, fielding 17,000 calls annually. Daniel’s Independent Living Program has also become a national model for helping abandoned and homeless teens transition to successful adulthood.

Change for children in crisis is not only possible, but essential. Collectively, children are indeed our future. So if done well, with each child we help, we are also helping shape our community, and ideally our state and nation too. Now, as daniel celebrates its 125^th anniversary, I look forward to continuing the agency’s evolution to ensure it endures for another 125 years, providing children the resources and hope they need to make positive changes in their lives.