| Beatrice Caffrey Youth Service, Inc. |
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History
The agency was founded by Mrs. Sadie Waterford Jones. Raised in Tennessee, Arkansas, and
Oklahoma, Sadie Waterford Jones was a graduate of Langston University where she excelled
in physics, Latin, and calculus . She taught Latin at Tuskegee Institute, was active in war work
during World War I, and established the Phylis Wheatley Community Center in Fort Wayne,
Indiana before settling in Chicago in 1926. In Chicago, Sadie gained a reputation as one of the
city’s prominent African-American leaders.
In the 1940s, Sadie became an employee of the Institute for Juvenile Research and was also
associated with the Chicago Area Project. She was the first female and one of the first African
Americans hired by Clifford R. Shaw to become an organizer on Chicago's south side. Sadie
began to enlist a large group of women on the south side who began working with girls who
were ordered to appear in Juvenile Court. From these efforts, Mrs. Waterford Jones organized
a community group known as the Women's Service Committee which was initially headed by
Dr. Dorothy Sutton Branch.
Beatrice Caffrey, an attendance officer with the
Chicago Board of Education, was BCYS's first volunteer.
In this capacity, she assisted Mrs. Jones in program
recruitment and attendance. The organizational name
change coincided with the initiative of the Board of Directors
to assist youth through more formally structured
programs. Mrs. Waterford Jones was BCYS’s
first executive director, a position she retained until
1970.
One of the services of BCYS was to help the courts find
foster homes for African-American girls from broken Beatrice Caffrey
and disruptive environments.
Some of these girls were sent to foster homes, but most ended up in institutions. This troubled
Mrs. Waterford Jones who felt that there should be “an in-between home” for such girls. Some
of these girls, who often had been abused and neglected in the critical stages of their lives,
needed to find hope, encouragement, and confidence in themselves.
The agency's mission is reflected in our central premise that local residents should play an
integral part of identifying and accessing the resources that are available to assist community
youth.
At Beatrice Caffrey Youth Service, our services are especially designed to be child and youth
centered in every respect and at every stage, from conceptualization, to planning, to
implementation. Beatrice Caffrey's specially designed children and youth programs and
services are implemented in such a way that each client is able to benefit, either through
direct services or through numerous referral sources.
The agency was founded by Mrs. Sadie Waterford Jones. Raised in Tennessee, Arkansas, and
Oklahoma, Sadie Waterford Jones was a graduate of Langston University where she excelled
in physics, Latin, and calculus . She taught Latin at Tuskegee Institute, was active in war work
during World War I, and established the Phylis Wheatley Community Center in Fort Wayne,
Indiana before settling in Chicago in 1926. In Chicago, Sadie gained a reputation as one of the
city’s prominent African-American leaders.
In the 1940s, Sadie became an employee of the Institute for Juvenile Research and was also
associated with the Chicago Area Project. She was the first female and one of the first African
Americans hired by Clifford R. Shaw to become an organizer on Chicago's south side. Sadie
began to enlist a large group of women on the south side who began working with girls who
were ordered to appear in Juvenile Court. From these efforts, Mrs. Waterford Jones organized
a community group known as the Women's Service Committee which was initially headed by
Dr. Dorothy Sutton Branch.
Beatrice Caffrey, an attendance officer with the
Chicago Board of Education, was BCYS's first volunteer.
In this capacity, she assisted Mrs. Jones in program
recruitment and attendance. The organizational name
change coincided with the initiative of the Board of Directors
to assist youth through more formally structured
programs. Mrs. Waterford Jones was BCYS’s
first executive director, a position she retained until
1970.
One of the services of BCYS was to help the courts find
foster homes for African-American girls from broken Beatrice Caffrey
and disruptive environments.
Some of these girls were sent to foster homes, but most ended up in institutions. This troubled
Mrs. Waterford Jones who felt that there should be “an in-between home” for such girls. Some
of these girls, who often had been abused and neglected in the critical stages of their lives,
needed to find hope, encouragement, and confidence in themselves.
The agency's mission is reflected in our central premise that local residents should play an
integral part of identifying and accessing the resources that are available to assist community
youth.
At Beatrice Caffrey Youth Service, our services are especially designed to be child and youth
centered in every respect and at every stage, from conceptualization, to planning, to
implementation. Beatrice Caffrey's specially designed children and youth programs and
services are implemented in such a way that each client is able to benefit, either through
direct services or through numerous referral sources.
