Boys & Girls Aid

Specialties

For 125 years, we’ve been helping Oregon’s children. We do this in a number of ways. We find children permanent homes through adoption. We provide temporary safe places to stay through shelters and foster homes.

History

Established in 1885.

In 1885, Portland’s civic leaders founded Boys & Girls Aid to find safe homes and permanent families for children with neither. More than 125 years later, we’re still making that happen. Boys & Girls Aid is dedicated to impacting the lives of children in need. To do this, we offer programs for children and youth that provide permanent homes and safe places to stay temporarily.

It is no coincidence that Boys & Girls Aid was founded just two years after the transcontinental railroad reached Portland. Oregon’s only city at that time, the railway opened Portland’s doors to a growing and diverse population. Entrepreneurs, adventurers, and opportunists crowded Portland’s streets. And so did homeless children.

Portland’s leaders came together in search of a solution. Rather than employ the traditional orphanage model, these men broke with convention. Children, they asserted, thrive best within a family. Boys & Girls Aid was created.