OUR HISTORY

The Sisters of Mercy purchase 120 acres of farm land from the Van Nostrand family in Syosset, NY, and begin constructing a home for orphaned children so they can feel safe and cared for, and be surrounded by nature. The convent still exists today on the original campus.

The Sisters of Mercy get St. Mary of the Angels Home ready for occupancy by the summer. The new “home” on Syosset’s Convent Road will serve as a rural summer refuge for orphans from their Convent in Brooklyn.

The Angel Guardian Home devoted exclusively to the care of young children is founded by the Sisters of Mercy in Brooklyn, NY. The first residents are young orphaned girls, from two to seven years of age.

After World War II ended, Angel Guardian Home began placing more and more children with foster families and a formal Adoption Department was created to place orphaned children from Europe in Brooklyn and Long Island homes.

St. Mary of the Angels Home becomes incorporated as a separate child care agency and construction of modern, homelike cottages on its Syosset campus begins to care for older adolescent boys.

Angel Guardian initiates one of New York’s first Preventive Services programs and opens its first Mother/Child Residences in Brooklyn to meet the needs of pregnant and parenting foster care teens and their babies .

St. Mary’s launches Group Home program on Long Island to serve the older adolescent boys to prepare them to be self-sufficient and learn independent living skills. Program is later expanded to include older adolescent girls.

St. Mary’s is selected to provide the first Preventive Services program in Nassau County to help strengthen families and avoid the need to remove at-risk children from their home and into foster care.

Angel Guardian and St. Mary’s merge, uniting two of New York’s leading human and social service organizations. The merged child welfare agency is re-named MercyFirst in 2004.

MercyFirst is awarded Sanctuary certification to become the largest child welfare agency in the country to be certified in this trauma-informed approach to providing services to children and their families.

The MercyFirst Syosset campus goes co-ed to meet the ever changing complex needs of abused and neglected youth. Among many benefits, this gives youth the chance to create bonds with the opposite gender.

In keeping with our mission and the critical concerns of the Sisters of Mercy, MercyFirst begins its START With Hope program, providing residential, home study and post-release services to unaccompanied migrant children.