Through God’s love, we foster hope by empowering families, youth, and adults to lead fulfilling lives.

During the 1930s and 1940s, Trustees of the Baptist Orphanage noticed a change in the children who came to the Orphanage. More and more often the children were not actually orphans; instead, their families placed them with the Baptist Orphanage because of economic hardships. By the early 1950s, very few residents of the Orphanage were actually orphaned. To more accurately reflect the nature of their ministry efforts, the Board of Trustees voted to change the Orphanage’s name to Virginia Baptist Children’s Home in 1953.

Over the next three decades, the Baptist Children’s Home noticed yet another shift in the situations that brought children into care. Increasingly children came to the Home because of abuse or neglect rather than families’ financial difficulties. In response to this societal change, the Children’s Home developed new ministries to reach and heal not just the children, but their families as well. By 1985, the Board of Trustees again recognized the need for a name change to reflect the Home’s expanded goal of healing the children in its care and their families. Thus, Virginia Baptist Children’s Home became Virginia Baptist Children’s Home & Family Services.

The services the Children’s Home provided continued to evolve as time passed and society’s needs changed. In 1992, the Children’s Home ventured in a new direction by founding a ministry that serves adults with intellectual disabilities – the Developmental Disabilities Ministry. This new effort focused on creating home-like environments to provide long-term support for adults who need specialized support to live full, productive lives. The Developmental Disabilities Ministry now operates 19 group homes across Virginia from Abingdon to Virginia Beach.