About

Our Story

At the core of ChildSavers’ mission is a fundamental commitment to the mental well being of children and the positive bond between adult and child. ChildSavers supports this with clinical treatment and education and training services. These services offer reassurance, healing, and the skills necessary to achieve normal life and development.

ChildSavers was founded in 1924 by Martha Patteson (Mrs. Melville C.) Branch in memory of Dr. McGuire Newton. Dr. Newton was one of Richmond’s first pediatricians. Originally established to serve our region’s children during a flu pandemic, ChildSavers soon turned to addressing the mental health and developmental needs of children. Today ChildSavers’ mission specifically focuses on supporting those who have experienced trauma.

We are a community-supported nonprofit governed by a volunteer Board of Directors. ChildSavers is licensed by the Virginia Department of Behavioral Health & Developmental Services and accredited by the Council on Accreditation for Child and Family Services. We are members of the national child advocacy organization, Alliance for Families and we are the Central Virginia Child Care Aware and Virginia Quality agency.

Mission

ChildSavers guides our community’s children through life’s critical moments with trauma-informed mental health and child development services.

Mission

ChildSavers guides our community’s children through life’s critical moments with trauma-informed mental health and child development services.

Vision

ChildSavers believes that all children can be safe, happy, healthy, and ready to learn.

Statement of Shared Values

Relationships

We believe that quality of service is defined by the strength of our relationships. We will build strong positive relationships on a foundation of mutual respect, open communication, and collaboration with each other, our children, families, providers, community partners, volunteers, and contributors.

Diversity

We believe that the services we provide are strengthened by respecting and nurturing our differences. We will honor the diversity of the people and organizations we serve by striving to understand, respect, and accept our differences. We will honor diversity of opinion, background, belief, culture, race, and ethnicity in all aspects of service delivery, management, and organizational leadership.

Integrity

We believe that it is a primary and essential responsibility of each person in this organization to conduct him or herself with personal honesty. Integrity nurtures trust: trust of each other, trust that we will follow this statement of values, trust that our children and providers have for the organization. Trust is the key to our success. We will strive to be honest with ourselves, tell the truth to each other, be transparent in our decision making, and prioritize making progress over who receives the credit.

Passion

We believe that our work gives people the opportunity to improve their lives. Through the professional development services our organization offers, we help providers achieve a higher quality of care and a higher quality of life. The mission inspires us to be passionate about our work. We will always do our best in the most creative, resourceful, energetic, thoughtful, and compassionate way possible.

Impact

We believe that we have an obligation to ourselves, to the organization, to our clients, and to the community to provide services that produce tangible, significant results. We are all stewards of the resources of the organization and have the responsibility for using those resources to achieve the most effective outcomes. We will use the best available knowledge and information, develop the best of our abilities and skills, and hold ourselves and each other accountable to make the greatest impact possible. We will measure and openly report on our results.