Cunningham Children’s Home was founded in 1895 in Urbana, Illinois. It is a safe place for youth (ages 5-21) to “heal, learn, and grow.” Children that come to Cunningham may have emotional or behavioral problems do to a variety causes ranging from abuse or neglect to neurological abnormalities. Such problems often lead to learning challenges or special education needs. Cunningham offers what public schools cannot to children with such setbacks.
Judge Joseph Oscar and Mary Cunningham (a College Preparatory School educator) donated their rural Urbana home and its surrounding 15 acres to the Women’s Home Missionary Society of the Illinois Conference (WHMS-IC) Methodist Episcopal Church Thanksgiving Day in 1894. The warranty deed ensured that if the Home was not being used for the purposes of aiding children in need, the Cunningham’s could legally claim the property back. It began as both a Deaconess Home and an Orphanage. Cunningham Home started hiring local employees to work in the orphanage in 1906 due to a shortage of deaconesses available, and in 1910 the name was changed to Cunningham’s Children Home and became solely an orphanage. Fifteen years later Cunningham’s Children Home was incorporated into the State of Illinois not-for-profit institutions.
Most children that attended Cunningham in the beginning came from households whose parents were in need of help due to incidences such as divorce, sickness, or desertion of one parent and were paid to keep their children at the Home. The need for an orphanage in the community didn’t come about until the 1900’s. More children were being brought to the house and additional buildings were constructed to accommodate the children.
In 1949 Sarah English, a new superintendent, started incorporating modern child care methods and introduced professional social work philosophies and techniques which slowly and unintentionally transformed Cunningham into a residential treatment center. By 1968 Cunningham met the 1964 Child Welfare of America League definition of a treatment center due to their social work and therapeutic focus. The Home is more elite now in that children must be deemed dependent, but not delinquent by the court.Today Cunningham focuses on using programs and activities to cultivate self-esteeem and self-reliance for the needy youth. They have special education and special therapy services for children with behavioral and emotional disabilities. And they provide foster parent care for the youth. Cunningham also hosts several fun events for their children and others interested in learning about the Cunningham Home such as a Festival of Quilts and the annual Kendall Gill Golf Tournament, which is sponsored by former Illini and NBA player Kendall Gill.
Kendall Gill Golf Outing 2010
The Cunningham Home provides many job opportunities ranging from specialists and nurses to counselors and teachers. Employees can expect a team oriented and stable work environment. They have internship openings that provide good quality work experience to someone interested in one of those fields and also provide opportunities for long term employment.
Cunningham is currently undergoing several phases of renovation. Under a plan approved in 2001, they have already built a new Residential Treatment Center and Spiritual Life Center. They now have goals set to create a new education and special therapies complex. With this plan Cunningham hopes to create a living and learning environment that can provide for its clients 24/7.
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