History & Philosophy

The mission of CHRIS Kids is to break the cycle of abuse by healing children, strengthening families and building community. We believe that the best place for a child to be is with their own family if this is at all possible. To help make that happen, CHRIS Kids developed a range of prevention and intervention services and a reunification program that assists children in returning to live with their families. We created a no-eject summer day camp, Camp CHRIS, to help families provide structure, safety and enrichment for their children. But some kids need more and for them we offer a community based treatment alternative – a CHRIS Kids family. Over half the children who come in to our group homes have no identified family member involved in their lives so we try to locate relatives and provide mentors to ensure lasting relationships. While living in a CHRIS Kids family children receive mental health treatment designed to help them learn how to behave responsibility at home, at school, and in the community. CHRIS Kids strengthens families and offers opportunity, hope and healing to victimized children.

In a CHRIS Kids family we seek to heal some of the most challenging children in Georgia’s child welfare system - children and adolescents who, by virtue of a well-established entanglement in a failed placement cycle, have not been able to change their ‘blueprint’ of failure and disruption. These children frequently are entrenched in the entire child welfare continuum - including foster care, adoption disruption, intensive psychiatric treatment programs, psychiatric hospitals and juvenile detention centers. Our goal is to interrupt this harmful cycle by making a steadfast commitment to the child – to ‘hang on’ to them beyond the short-term; even when they – consciously or unconsciously - try to keep this dangerous pattern in process. We are dedicated to an inclusive treatment approach that searches out long buried strengths and talents, honestly acknowledges problems and then builds for the future so that children and their families can live their lives responsibly and productively.

In 1981, CHRIS Kids was created to provide a treatment alternative for these victimized children that would allow them to remain a part of their communities when the Atlanta Junior League responded by collaborating with the Menninger Foundation to establish an independent CHARLEE (Children Have All Rights – Legal, Educational, Emotional) demonstration project in the metropolitan Atlanta area. Originally known as Georgia CHARLEE, Inc., the organization’s name was changed to CHRIS Homes, Inc. in 1992, when it became a totally independent, Georgia-based program. In 2004, we became CHRIS Kids, Inc. – a name which reflects both our values and our core commitment to healing children.

CHRIS Kids is a leader and innovator.

• 1986, recognized the need for life and job skill training for older youth aging out of the foster care system, and created the CHRIS Independent Living Program.
• 1987, expanded our strength-based, family-focused work to reach out to family members and to empower relatives to become re-engaged and actively connected to their children with meaningful permanency plans. Foster, surrogate and mentoring relationships are developed and nurtured as alternative permanency plans.
• 1995, founding member of Metro Area Alliance for Children, a continuum of care created by five private non-profit organizations that has grown to eight organizations with several affiliates.
• 1996, founding member of public/private system of care (ChAMPS) for mental health services to children in Fulton County that stepped up to provide the Family Resource Center and placement alternatives for children when the Fulton County Shelter closed in 2003.
• 1996, recognized the need for more prevention and built on our work with families to create the Keeping Families Together Community Programs to strengthen families so that their children can stay safely in their own homes.
• 1997, began Camp CHRIS to provide a “no eject” nine week summer day camp for at-risk children who were not permitted to attend mainstream summer programs due to their behavioral problems.
• 1998, initiated, created and implemented the first State Treatment Services “wraparound” pilot. The pilot was successful and now Wraparound is an in-home treatment component available Statewide as an alternative to residential treatment.
• 1998 -2000, operated an Assessment Center (Emergency Shelter) in DeKalb County for children, ages 4–12, as one of five statewide First Placement/Best Placement pilot sites for the State Department of Family and Children Services. The pilot was successful and First Placement/Best Placement assessments were incorporated in the State Plan, eliminating the need for the Center.
• 2000 responded to yet another unmet need and stepped forward to open the CHRIS Kids Rainbow Program to provide shelter and life and job skills training to homeless and runaway sexual minority youth, ages 17–21.
• 2003 partnered the Rainbow and Independent Living Programs to enhance the effectiveness of both programs.

It is critical to provide youth and families who have been alienated from society a legitimate opportunity to re-invest in their own lives. It is equally critical that they have some vehicle to develop a sense of parity with their "mainstream" peers in the community. CHRIS Kids’ community-based approach provides both families and youth that sense of parity by offering them a positive model to replicate – a safe home within a community; consistent and steadfast support and structure; social and community support and involvement and a commitment to both the child and family based in hope and action.

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