ABOUT
Mission & History
For over 110 years, Lydia Home has stood alongside Chicago's most vulnerable children and families, grounded in faith, driven by compassion, and committed to lasting change.
OUR MISSION
Strengthening families to care for children and caring for children when families cannot.
Lydia Home is a Christian, nonprofit organization serving children and families across Chicagoland. We believe every child deserves safety, stability, and love, and that families, given the right support, are the best place for children to grow.
Our work spans prevention, intervention, and aftercare, meeting families wherever they are and walking with them toward healing and wholeness.
"Learn to do good, seek justice, encourage the oppressed. Defend the cause of the fatherless, plead the case of the widow."
ISAIAH 1:17
OUR STORY
Over a century of service
What began as a small home for children in Chicago has grown into a comprehensive network of programs serving thousands of children and families each year.
1913
A calling begins
The Ladies Aid Society of Salem Evangelical Free Church begins sewing and distributing clothing to children in Chicago's orphanages. Visiting those homes, they find them filled to capacity, and feel a deeper calling to do more than deliver clothing.
1916
Named for Lydia, founded in faith
The women respond to their calling and formally establish the LYDIA Children's Home Society, named for Lydia of Thyatira, the woman of faith in Acts who opened her home without hesitation to those in need.
1917
The first home
When Dora Ogne, one of the Society's own, dies of scarlet fever, her husband Andrew offers their home to the group, asking only that they care for his seven children. Those seven children become Lydia Home's first residents. Beauty from ashes.
1920
A permanent address
As the number of children in Lydia's care continues to grow, the organization purchases a larger, permanent property on West Irving Park Road, giving the children a stable home to call their own.
1950's
Foster care launches
Lydia Home expands into licensed foster care, connecting children who must leave home with trained, loving families across the Chicago area, built on the belief that children thrive best within a family.
1980's
Clinical care expands
Lydia deepens its capacity to care for children with complex needs, adding therapeutic residential care and professional counseling services for children, individuals, and families.
2003
Safe Families for Children co-founded
Lydia Home helps launch Safe Families for Children, a volunteer movement that mobilizes families and mentors to prevent children from entering the child welfare system. It has since grown to hundreds of chapters around the world.
Today
A full continuum of care
Lydia Home serves thousands of children and families each year through four core programs: foster care, residential treatment, family preservation, and counseling. The challenges are great. The calling remains the same.
Faith in action
Motivated by our Christian faith to serve with humility and love, welcoming all people of any background or belief.
Family first
Children belong in families. Everything we do is aimed at keeping families together or finding new, permanent ones for those who need them.
Whole-child care
We address the physical, emotional, relational, and spiritual needs of every child, because healing is never just one thing.
Community partnership
No organization can do this alone. We partner with volunteers, churches, donors, and sister organizations to extend our reach and deepen our impact.
Excellence & accountability
Clinically, financially, and ethically, we hold ourselves to the highest standards. The children and families we serve deserve nothing less.
Hope & resilience
We approach every situation with the conviction that healing is possible and that every child's story can change.
PROGRAMS
See how our programs work together
From prevention to aftercare, every program at Lydia Home is part of a connected whole - built to meet families wherever they are.