Children’s Services of Roxbury was founded in 1972 by community and church leaders, Reverend Richard Richardson and Mrs. Jestina Richardson, to prevent children of color from being removed from their home communities when placed in foster care. Fostering 25 children themselves, the couple built a network of multicultural families across the state to follow their example. In the 50 years to follow, Children’s Services of Roxbury grew and evolved to meet community needs.
Today, the organization provides wraparound services to over 6,000 of Massachusetts most vulnerable residents through a wide breadth of programs. Their Behavioral Health program, is the state’s only Black-specialized provider of children’s behavioral health services, engaging more than 3,000 children and parents annually across the state. In response to the escalation of family evictions due to Roxbury’s rapidly escalating rents, their Housing and Stabilization program supports over 1,000 homeless children and parents each year. In addition, they provide early education and care for children Boston and Worcester. Their center-based care in Roxbury serves children with evidence-based and trauma-informed curriculums to prepare children academically and emotionally for kindergarten. In its most recent years, CSR developed youth development programs, including Hip Hop Therapy, a Young Adult Access Center for youth aging out of the foster care system, and Youth Purpose and Partnership -aimed to expose and connect young people to STEM career opportunities.
Partnering with the Lynch Foundation
In 2021 Children’s Services of Roxbury, acquired its 57,000-square-foot headquarters stretching a city block in Roxbury. This purchase signaled to the Roxbury community that they are forever invested in the children and families who live there. In 2022, they launched a capital campaign to renovate and expand their facility. At this time, they approached the Lynch Foundation to support the campaign. The Foundation was excited about the opportunity to help Children’s Services of Roxbury grow their programming by 25%, and serving an additional 1,500 children and parents annually. The Lynch Foundation’s two part grant includes a challenge grant component. The Foundation saw the challenge grant as a vehicle to enhance Children’s Services of Roxbury’s fundraising efforts and attract other local funders to support the campaign.
The facility expansion and renovations will result in:
- Increasing early education programming by 42% reaching 132 children at full capacity
- Dedicated space for a resource center for families in crisis serving 400 families
- Expanded space for their youth program serving an additional 200 young people