About

About Bethesda

At Bethesda Lutheran Services, we provide promising futures for children, youth, and families through individualized mental and behavioral health services provided in a residential, school or community setting.

Our Mission

Bethesda Lutheran Services is a ministry providing promising futures for children, youth, and families.
History Timeline

Our History

1919 Bethesda Home
School Students at Home in 1940s
Children on school bus
Bethesda's Trinity Center
Bethesda Education Center
Elderton Campus
100 Year Celebration
Yeany Psychiatric Residential Treatment program
Specialized Programming
Wise Hall Campus
Wise Hall Common Room
1919
Bethesda Children's Home was officially incorporated in 1919 as the Orphans’ Home of the Pittsburgh Synod of the Evangelical Lutheran Church, through the generosity of Mr. William S. Wise who donated his farm for the purpose of creating an orphanage. 

…“a home for orphaned, destitute, friendless, defective or delinquent children without distinction as to race, creed or condition” where these children would be raised and prepared for “the stern duties of life and citizenship”.

The early program at Bethesda was primarily one of custodial care. The girls were taught housework, sewing, and domestic science. The boys worked on the farm, in the fields, gardens, and barn. There was also an on-grounds school which was attended by local children as well.

1948
Social attitudes regarding children and institutions began to change. Bethesda stopped accepting kids under the age of six and began to shift focus from a place that provided basic physical needs of children to one that provided the complex needs of the whole individual and their family.

1950's
Throughout the 1950's boys at Bethesda continued to care for some of the farm animals but the Synod hired out the majority of the farming. 

1966
Thanks to a generous donation from Tom Cozy, a pool was purchased and installed for the children- The Cozy pool. Which is still used today. 

1978
Bethesda opened its Residential Program

1985
Bethesda had begun to focus on the most disturbed youth and by 1985 the population had grown from zero to thirty youth residing on campus and Bethesda decided to resume its own operations. 

1991-1992
Alternative Education & Partial Hospitalization programs were opened on the Meadville Campus.

1996
Bethesda merges with the Trinity Center ministry to take over operations of the Trinity Center, one of Erie's oldest community centers.

2012
Erie County Independent Living Program is established.  ECILP provides services to youth ages 14-23 from Erie County. 

2013
Right Start for Young Mothers Program accepted their first young mother. This program focuses on behavior stabilization, education, and parenting classes. This program has partnered with the New Life Unit at Meadville Medical Center, Early Intervention, and WIC to provide comprehensive care to the mothers and their babies.

2016
Bethesda's Education Center underwent a 17,000 sq foot renovation & expansion.

2017
Thanks to a generous donation, Bethesda acquired a beautiful state of the art building in Elderton, PA to expand programming to the south. IN addition Bethesda underwent a re branding, changing from Bethesda Children's Home to Bethesda Lutheran Services.  Rounding out 2017, Bethesda won the prestigious Winslow Award. 

2018
Bethesda opens an Acute Partial Hospitalization program and expands to offer Truancy services to Erie Schools.  In addition Bethesda opened a new Psychiatric Residential Treatment Facility. 

2019
Bethesda is proud to be celebrating 100 Years of Promising Futures! 

From our humble beginnings as an Orphanage to today serving over 7000 children, youth and families daily all across Western Pennsylvania.  We are proud to continue to be a leading agency in behavioral and mental health services and plan to continue to be as we enter our next 100 years.

2020
Bethesda Erie County Independent Living Program adds a new youth-driven business, the ILP Snack Shack to it's programming. 

2021
Bethesda takes over Alternative Education for all but three school districts in Erie County. 

Bethesda's Erie County Independent Living Program begins a Youth-Driven Business - the ILP Snack Shack. This new food truck is traveling all around Erie County providing delicious food for the community while teaching our youth business skills they will forever carry. 

Bethesda became the very first agencies in the state to become specialized.  Bethesda’s Residential Department became specialized to conform to the Federal Family First Requirements for Congregate Care. The importance of conforming to these new requirements is because CYS/JPO entities can only send their court-ordered youth to a specialized setting in order to receive reimbursement from the State. Understanding that this was going to impact significantly the youth we serve, residential quickly moved forward to accomplish this daunting task. Choosing (1) Specialized Setting for Youth Who Are, Or At Risk of Becoming Sex Trafficking Victims and (2) Specialized Settings for Pregnant, Expecting and Parenting Youth. Each specialization requires new training for the Staff, new child-to-staff ratios, more intensive treatment and discharge planning, family engagement, a complete trauma-informed atmosphere, and the incorporation of a Sex Trafficking Curriculum.

Bethesda expanded its Partial Hospitalization program to 90 children

An additional Psychiatric Residential Treatment unit was opened to serve additional youth. This unit allows for specialized treatment of up to 10 females. 

2022
Bethesda opens new state of the art residential facility Wise Hall on our Meadville Campus. Wise Hall will be home for up to 20 youth. The building is split into two side, with ten in our Ida May Right Specialized setting side, and the other ten in our Yeaney Psychiatric Residential Treatment side. The building is truly the future of Bethesda, and residential specialized care and is a crowing jewel for our agency. 
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