HISTORY
Lincoln Families has responded to the needs of local youth and families since 1883. For 140 years, we have worked to empower children and families to build strong futures. These are some of our stories.
1970
Lincoln opens its second group home.
1973
The Junior Alliance publishes The Best Parties Ever cookbook, gaining international attention.
The 50-Year Member Tea is held to honor eight Lincoln members for their years of volunteer services and unprecedented dedication to Lincoln and its children.
1974
1976
Lincoln opens its third group home.
The James Mann Award is established in honor of Lincoln’s former charismatic and visionary leader. Recipients are recognized for their dedication to Lincoln and its children.
1977
Lincoln’s Daffodil Flower Group is formed and sponsors the grand opening of Golden Gate Fields, raising funds for Lincoln Child Center.
1979
The Beginning
Rebecca McWade makes history by incorporating the Little Workers Home, as it was known, and accepting infants and children. It is the first racially integrated orphanage in Northern California.
1883
The Little Workers becomes the West Oakland Home. The Crocker family donates funds to help purchase a large house on Campbell Street in West Oakland for use as a foundling home and orphanage. The first dues are collected making the West Oakland Home a membership agency.
1888
The West Oakland Home is serving 80-90 children, and the Crocker family steps in again to help build a larger home.
1890
1981
The Lincoln Foundation is formed, two years before the establishment of the Second Century Fund.
Intensive Residential Treatment (IRT) opens, the Nonpublic School is opened, and the Junior Alliance Building begins to be used for children’s programming.
1987
1990
The middle school is established.
1991
The Taste of Summer becomes Lincoln’s signature fundraising event.
The Holmgren House is built for IRT, the Opportunity School Program begins, and the Bee Hive Thrift Store closes its doors.
1995
Group homes are closed. Now in both Alameda and Contra Costa Counties, Lincoln begins providing school-based mental health services, later named the Helping Open Pathways to Education program (HOPE).
1997
Executive Director Mary Ann McKale, reports to the Board that Lincoln now has programs based in 12 schools in Alameda and Contra Costa Counties, as well as three leased sites in Pittsburg and Oakland.
1999
In response to COVID pandemic shutdown orders, Lincoln closes all four of its offices in Alameda and Contra Costa counties. Lincoln quickly shifts to a telehealth model to provide essential mental health services, serving more youth and families than ever before.
2020
For a second year of the pandemic, Lincoln staff provides essential supports to youth and families in transitions back to the classroom and gathering together again.
2021
2022
Lincoln hosts our annual ROOT event again in-person after two long years of the pandemic.
2000
Champlin House residential facility is completed.
The Kinship Support Services program is created as a response to the growing number of caregivers who voluntarily raise a relative’s children. The Therapeutic Behavioral Services program launches to provide short-term intensive supports to children in Lincoln’s foster care program to reduce hospitalization or placement changes.
2001
2003
The Lincoln Child Center Foundation is dissolved and absorbed by the Lincoln Child Center.
Christine Stoner-Mertz becomes President & CEO and begins a significant transformation of the organization.
2006
Project Permanence is created as a program to respond to the increased need for community as well as family support.
2007
Early Childhood Mental Health Consultation and School Engagement Programs are created to respond to community needs. Lincoln Child Center leases a large building in West Oakland and begins the transition back to its roots in the community.
2010
The Residential Treatment program is closed as part of an overall change in service approach to provide programming in homes, schools, and communities.
2011
The property on Lincoln Avenue is sold. Lincoln launches the Oakland Freedom Schools©, a literacy development, and cultural enrichment summer camp. Lincoln also launches its first school-based Highland Family Resource Center in East Oakland.
2012
Lincoln begins the move of its headquarters back to West Oakland and the Multi-Dimensional Family Therapy program is launched to provide intensive in-home services to youth struggling with co-occuring mental health and substance use challenges.
2013
Lincoln continues the move back to West Oakland and transitions its nonpublic school into school-based delivery of special education through its new EXCEL program. The West Oakland Initiative is created as a program to improve school attendance and decrease the school achievement gap. The Intensive Home-Based Services program begins to create stability for foster youth.
2014
Lincoln holds its new signature event, ROOT, which raises a record amount in support of programs.
2015
2016
Rebranding is launched with a new logo, website, and new organization name.
Lincoln launches a Policy & Advocacy team to promote change in systems impacting children, youth, and families.
2017
Lincoln celebrates 135 years by launching a capital project for a new community-based Family Resource Center in West Oakland. The Mandela FRC opens its doors the next year.
2018
2019
Allison Staulcup Becwar is selected to lead Lincoln and implement a newly adopted strategic plan.
Property is purchased in Crow Canyon for a summer camp where 50 children live the first summer. The camp runs until 1929.
1916
1918
The orphans, known as the Little Workers, number 103. The endowment grows to $8,525.
The West Oakland Home is greatly impacted by the Spanish Flu epidemic, with the remains of the deceased going to rest at Oakland’s Mountain View Cemetery.
1919
1920
Lincoln becomes a charter member of the United Way’s Community Chest Fund.
1925
The West Oakland Home catches fire and is condemned.
A group of women form the Junior Alliance and open its first Thrift Shop, launching a nearly 100-year legacy of providing support and raising funds for the needs of Lincoln.
1929
Children move into the two newly completed cottages at 4368 Lincoln Avenue. Twelve women volunteer to help with gardening on the new grounds “in the country,” and the first of many Junior Alliance Flower Groups in support of Lincoln are born.
1930
1934
The Junior Alliance holds its first fashion show in support of Lincoln’s building fund.
1935
The Junior Alliance administration building is completed.
Mrs. George P. Baldwin, nee Edoff, leaves what will be a $300,000 bequest to Lincoln establishing the James P. Edoff Memorial Fund.
1939
The name is changed to the Lincoln Home for Children. The term “emotionally disturbed” is first used and reflects the philosophical change in the population served. Trained social workers are hired, Lincoln is re-organized as a foster care agency, and case management becomes an integral part of the services provided to children.
1940
Lincoln Home for Children changes its name to Lincoln Child Center, and opens another residential facility, the Bushell Cottage.
1950
Clayton Nordstrom and Lincoln Executive Director, James Mann, plan a three-day conference to address the Child Welfare League of America’s new report that “12 percent of Oakland school children need special treatment for special problems.” Lincoln responds by opening its first classroom.
1954
1956
Lincoln’s members open the Bee Hive Thrift, which quickly becomes an Oakland landmark.
1960
Lincoln’s first group home is created.
Lincoln receives 35% of its funding from the Montgomery Ward’s United Way Bay Area Crusade Donations. Lincoln Child Center offers tutoring workshops to bring troubled youth in Oakland public schools up to grade-level proficiency.
1966
“With Lincoln’s help, I built my own bold future. Now I make my own contributions to Lincoln to ensure that this legacy will live on through the lives of so many others who need this open door, just as I once did.”
--- Michael, Lincoln Alum