Action for Children (formerly National Children's Home)

Action for Children is the children's charity of the Methodist church.  On 14 July 2002, we  celebrated 133 years of helping the children who need it the most.

For well over a century, we have been finding families for vulnerable children.  Our founder, Revd Thomas Bowman Stephenson initiated a radical shift in the approach to child welfare in the late 19^th century.  He succeeded in setting up small family-type homes with half a dozen children in the care of a housemother and housefather.  He also matched children who could no longer live with their birth parents with individual families.  When the first adoption legislation was passed in 1926, we had by then already placed some 1,000 children with families and became the first approved Adoption Agency.

Action for Children has continued to be at the forefront of pioneering adoption for the most vulnerable children.  Most of the children adopted through them today have already experienced considerable damage to their young lives through abuse, neglect, disability or illness.  We find families for children of a range of ages with challenging backgrounds and complex needs.

There are now more than 55,000 children in care - and only about 4% of them are adopted each year.  The effect of a childhood in care is significant for that child's future, with fewer opportunities in life and more obstacles to overcome.  We need to find more families who can offer a child a loving home, a sense of healing for their past and opportunity for their future.

Thousands of children have been adopted through Action for Children during the last 110 years, many of them through Methodist families.  The church, as a whole, as well as countless individuals have supported and invested in this work through their generous giving over the years.  This year we need to raise £200,000 to continue to find families for vulnerable children and to be able to offer ongoing support to them and their parents.

Help us to be there for as long as it takes.

Action for Children believe that no child should be neglected. Please make your donation today to help support our work -  

http://www.actionforchildren.org.uk