OUR PROGRAMS

Watson’s story stretches all the way back to 1977, a time in which there were few places children who had endured abandonment or abuse could go. When there was nowhere else to turn, social workers and police officers would contact retired schoolteacher Janice Watson, who selflessly welcomed children in dire circumstances into her own home. 
 
Watson’s scope of care has grown so much in the forty-seven years since our inception. We now have twenty-four beds between two shelters, complete with beautiful grounds and a bedroom for each child. And when children stay at Watson, they are nurtured with wrap-around, trauma-informed care twenty-four hours a day.  
 
But we at Watson know that providing a safe haven for children who have already endured trauma and abuse isn’t enough: The cycle of abuse needs to be headed-off and prevented.  To confront the cycle head on, Watson launched Healthy Foundations in 2018. Healthy Foundations is a voluntary home-visitation program for families who are at risk, rooted in one of the most rigorously research-based child abuse prevention models in the nation. Healthy Foundations undertakes an average of 500 home visits with 27 different families each year, empowering them to break free from the cycle of abuse and neglect.    
 
Together, our shelter program and Healthy Foundations form the Watson Continuum of Care. They are two different hands of the same body, working in unison towards a goal far more effectively than they ever could apart: Ensuring all children and families lead happy and healthy lives.

Shelter Care