A History of The Family Conservancy

A Kansas City Legacy: Supporting Families and Children Since 1880

We began in 1880, created to meet the needs of a rapidly growing Kansas City. For nearly 150 years, we’ve stood with families through every major challenge — from providing emergency relief during the Great Depression to pioneering mental health services, mobilizing child care during World War II, and helping early educators navigate the COVID-19 pandemic.

Through it all, one truth has become clear: the earliest years of life matter most. Today, as The Family Conservancy, we’ve built on that legacy to focus where it counts — strengthening the caregivers, educators, and families who shape a child’s first five years. Because when children have a strong start, our entire community grows stronger.

1880: The Beginning

As Kansas City grew rapidly during the era of western expansion, the need for organized relief efforts also increased. In response, Father William J. Dalton gathered 19 civic leaders at the Coates House Hotel to establish the Provident Association.

In the early years, the organization acted as Kansas City’s central relief agency, providing aid in response to floods, smallpox outbreaks, and times of widespread unemployment.

Shifting Approaches and Professional Social Work

In its first decade, the organization served more than 237,000 people. Help often came with conditions — men could saw wood in exchange for groceries, coal, or clothing, while women worked in a laundry washing, ironing, and mending clothing.

By 1887, the approach had evolved. The organization began connecting individuals with permanent jobs in the broader community. Still, like many charitable models of the time, the focus remained on individual effort rather than the deeper structural causes of poverty.

As the depression of the 1890s deepened, it became clear that volunteers alone couldn’t meet the growing demand. Under the leadership of board president August Meyer, the organization transitioned from an all-volunteer model to a professional workforce — reflecting a larger national shift toward professionalizing social work.

By 1904, the organization adopted home-visiting and case management practices, employing ‘friendly visitors’ to build relationships with families, assess their needs, and provide personalized support.

“To insist on a family living normally, when the elements of a normal life are lacking is unreasonable and unscientific.” George F. Damon (executive secretary 1911)

Strengthening Collaboration Across Kansas City

In 1910, the organization entered into a partnership with the Board of Public Works to provide case management services. This work quickly expanded, positioning the organization as a key connector within Kansas City’s growing social service network. It provided intake and casework services not only for families, but also for a wide range of institutions — including city departments, state hospitals, juvenile court, and numerous churches, schools, clubs, and charitable organizations.

By 1924, as other organizations built their own teams, these services were phased out — but they helped lay the foundation for the collaborative values that still guide our work today.

The Great Depression

Amid the mounting hardship of the Great Depression, the organization again responded with swift, large-scale action.

In 1930, a partnership with the Kansas City, Missouri PTA provided school clothing to children in need. By the end of 1931, more than 100 families a day were seeking food and clothing. To meet the overwhelming demand, an innovative bulk distribution system was created and became a national model for how to deliver emergency aid at scale.

The First Child Care Crisis

As World War II drew millions of women into the workforce, the organization recognized an urgent need for safe and reliable child care. In 1942, it opened a child care information center to support “work-time orphans” — children whose mothers were working long hours in war-related jobs. The initiative trained volunteers and conducted door-to-door surveys to assess and improve care options. A report from executive secretary Helen Gant in 1944 captured the dilemma many families faced: “To begin with, the home is most important in the life of a child. Much delinquency begins in the home where the mother feels it is her duty to work and consequently leaves the sometimes very small child to prepare himself for school and find things to fill his idle hours in the evenings. In these cases it usually proves unsatisfactory for the war plant as well because a great deal of money is spent on training but shortly finds she cannot manage both home and work and quits the job.”

While shaped by the gender norms of the time, this early effort recognized the need for child care as a cornerstone of family and economic stability — a belief that continues to guide our work today.

Post-War Mental Health Expansion

Though the organization’s counseling work began in the 1930s, the aftermath of World War II brought new and lasting challenges for families — including trauma, grief, domestic violence, and rapid cultural shifts. The passage of the National Mental Health Act in 1946 signaled a national turning point, and the organization responded by significantly expanding its mental health services. By the 1950s, new offices opened across the Kansas City metro to better meet the growing need.

Therapeutic approaches also evolved during this time. Counseling moved beyond individual treatment to include couples and families, with an emphasis on communication, self-awareness, and shared healing. A brochure from this period describes the impact of this work as, “improved relationships, a positive attitude toward the self and family, and enhanced skills for living are being seen every day.”

By 1955, a form of play therapy was being offered via, “a playroom in which children are observed at play by a caseworker who may find in their activities some clue to behavior patterns, frustrations, desires and difficulties.” as described in a Kansas City Times article from May 16, 1955.

This era laid the foundation for our understanding that supporting the emotional well-being of children, families, and caregivers is essential to helping every child thrive.

A New Approach to Parenting

The 1960s brought a growing recognition that parenting was a skill that could be learned, supported, and strengthened. In step with this national movement, the organization expanded its services to include parenting courses, peer support groups, and community presentations.

A newsletter from the time captured this shift in thinking, “Parenting is one of the most important, yet difficult tasks one can undertake. Until recently, there has been little or no preparation or training prior to the undertaking or assumption of this task other than what one learned from their own parents.”
This work focused on everyday challenges — from discipline to communication — and offered practical tools like conflict resolution and relationship-building strategies. Rather than treating family struggles as personal failings, the approach recognized their strengths and supported their growth.

A Growing Investment in Early Childhood

As the number of working mothers doubled between 1960 and 1980, and research increasingly highlighted the lasting impact of early childhood experiences, the agency began adapting to meet the needs of modern families.

Throughout the 1970s and 1980s, services continued to expand — including child care resource and referral support, Child care startup assistance, and the introduction of the Child Care Food Program to ensure children received nutritious meals. A 1986 annual report captured this evolution, “It is through the family that children develop a basic orientation to life. Rapid changes in today’s family structure have prompted this agency to develop services to meet the needs of growing numbers of single parents and working families.”

In the 1990s, the commitment to early childhood education and family well-being deepened. In 1995, national focus on the importance of child care was reinforced by a landmark study on the impact of quality care on child development. The organization responded by launching an accreditation project which provided coaching and training to help programs meet national standards for high-quality care. By 1999, 39 child care centers, serving 3,500 children, had become nationally accredited. In 2000, the program was expanded to support in-home child care providers with accreditation.

As research in the 1990s and early 2000s made clear — with neuroscience confirming that up to 90% of brain development happens before age five — we sharpened our focus on early childhood as the most powerful window for lifelong impact.

In 2005, we became a Head Start delegate, expanding access to high-quality early learning and centering caregivers as key agents of change.

Today: Investing in the People Who Prepare Children

Over the past decade, we’ve built on what we’ve learned to introduce innovative approaches that nurture the small moments that shape brighter futures. From expanding access to high-quality early learning, to embedding mental health support in child care settings, to providing one-on-one support for parents — we’ve developed strategies that meet people where they are.

Join us on This Journey

Whether you’ve been with us for generations or are just learning about our work, we invite you to take this step with us. Our brand may be changing, but our mission is stronger than ever.

Together, we can create a Kansas City where every child thrives — and every caregiver is supported to help them get there.

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