About

Founded in 1874, the New York Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Children (NYSPCC) is the first child protection agency in the nation. The NYSPCC’s founders wrote the basic tenets of child protection laws in the United States. Today, the NYSPCC remains dedicated to reducing the incidences and impacts of child abuse and neglect through prevention programs that improve the safety of children and intervention programs that help children and families heal. Over the past 149 years, the agency has served more than two million children.

Mission

The mission of the NYSPCC is to respond to the complex needs of abused and neglected children, and those involved in their care, by providing best practice counseling, legal, and educational services. Through research, communications and training initiatives, we work to expand these programs to prevent abuse and help more children heal.

Vision

The vision of the NYSPCC is for all children to be safe from abuse and neglect. The NYSPCC intends to accomplish this by establishing best practice primary, secondary and tertiary child abuse and neglect prevention programs that serve the most complex and challenging cases. We can impact the child protection field by establishing a national presence through publication of our work and by teaching and training on local, state, and national levels. By achieving a national presence, we will positively impact the lives of countless children and their families.

To realize this vision, the NYSPCC has developed a variety of best-practice counseling, educational, and legal services. The NYSPCC is dedicated to providing these services, free of charge, to the most vulnerable children and families in New York City, as well as to the caring professionals who work in these populations.

Our work in New York City reaches several thousand children and families each year. In order to help more children and families, we have developed curricula and workshops to teach and train others on how to keep children safe. Through the NYSPCC’s Training Institute, our reach and impact are expanded exponentially to child welfare and child protection professionals around the country – and the world – with our best practice models, ready for replication and implementation.