History
Pressley Ridge got its start as the Protestant Home for Children and the Pittsburgh and Allegheny Home for the Friendless, two of Pittsburgh's oldest child care agencies. The Protestant Home, established in 1832 by the First Presbyterian Church, was the first agency for abandoned, neglected, and orphaned children west of the Alleghenies. The second was the Home for the Friendless, incorporated in 1861 by the Second Presbyterian Church.
Over the next 100 years, both institutions continued to serve similar populations of children within the same community, the Northside of Pittsburgh. In 1866, the Home for the Friendless became known as Pressley House. Its early contributors included steel men Richard Hays, Alexander Nimick, William Holmes and his brother John, and bankers William Thaw, Charles J. Clarkes and E.F. Denney. A rising young industrialist, who listed himself only as A. Carnegie, gave $100. "Pittsburgh Jane" Holmes, a well-known philanthropist, supplied $60,000 of the $75,000 needed to build the large, rambling orphanage on Pressley Street.
Given the similarity of these two institutions, it was not surprising that a merger discussed in the 1930s eventually lead to a complete merger in 1969. Between the two institutions, more than 16,000 children had been served since their incorporations in the 1800s. At the time of the merger, a study carried out under the direction of Nicholas Hobbs, Ph.D., then Provost of Vanderbilt University, lead the Board of Directors to adopt the Re-education Philosophy as the model for services and treatment for troubled children. This treatment philosophy is still used today.
A few years after the merger and this study, the combined program was named Pressley Ridge School to capture the historic roots of the two institutions and the adoption of a Re-education approach to the treatment. Over the next twenty years, the school's diversity of services grew tremendously along with its geographical reach. The Ohiopyle program in Pennsylvania's Laurel Mountains was developed; the program was then replicated in West Virginia as Laurel Park, which opened in 1983.
The development of PRYDE, our therapeutic foster-care model, served as a catalyst for expansion beyond Pennsylvania - throughout West Virginia, Maryland, and Ohio. During the 1980s, PRYDE also brought national recognition. It was developed after a study conducted study with the Allegheny County Children and Youth Services. By the end of the decade, the PRYDE program was recognized as a national model by the National Institute of Mental Health. Today, therapeutic foster care programs exist in every United States state and Canadian province.
In 1985, Pressley Ridge School was renamed The Pressley Ridge Schools to reflect our diverse programs and locations. The decision to maintain "schools" in our identify was based on the Re-Education treatment philosophy, where "school" is defined as a community of teachers and those who are taught to gain skills or knowledge. In this sense all of Pressley Ridge's programs are "schools" for children and families, even those programs that have no classrooms.
By the late 1990s, Pressley Ridge was providing services to more than 1500 children and their families each day in DE, DC, MD, OH, PA, and WV. The agency had also developed an evaluation system that initiated a national movement for mandating outcomes for children's services. In 1996, Pressley Ridge and the Office of Child Development at the University of Pittsburgh established the Pittsburgh International Children and Family Institute. PICFI handled the growing requests for consultation and training from the international community. During 1998-1999, Pressley Ridge worked with the University of Lusofona in Lisbon, Portugal, to replicate PICFI in Europe.
Today, because of continued innovation in our services, Pressley Ridge serves fewer children in residential facilities and more and more children within their own homes, schools, and communities. Our intensive community-based care has enabled even some of the most challenging kids to remain successfully within their own communities and families - a goal that has driven Pressley Ridge's services from the beginning.