Mission & Purpose
St. Peter-St. Joseph Children’s Home was originally founded as an orphanage by the Sisters of Charity of the Incarnate Word in 1891. Today St. PJ’s is both a home to children who have suffered as victims of sexual and emotional abuse, neglect, poverty and broken homes and it is a community counseling and service center for families in crisis. St. Peter-St. Joseph Children’s Home continues today as an independently governed non-profit agency.
St. Peter-St. Joseph Children’s Home campus is located on Mission Road, directly across from historic Mission Concepcion. On the main campus, there are two dorms, serving boys and girls respectively. Each dorm has a wing dedicated to children Ages 6 – 10 and a second wing dedicated to children Ages 11 – 16. Children Ages 2 – 5 live in a separate dorm, the Kiddie Kottage. Older children live off-campus in our Transitional Living homes.
Yesterday & Today
It was early as early as 1869 that three Sister of Charity of the Incarnate Word ventured from Galveston to San Antonio to aid in the plight of the sick and homeless. Soon after, the first orphaned children were admitted into their care at the Santa Rosa Infirmary. As needs grew, St. Joseph’s Orphanage for girls and St. John’s Orphanage for boys were established. The nuns tirelessly looked after the well-being of the children and soon realized that a separate building for the boys was greatly needed. In 1891, the year that marked the official founding date of the current children’s home, the boys moved into a newly erected building on the grounds of Santa Rosa. St. John’s Orphanage was the pride of the city in its precedence as the first Catholic orphanage in all of Texas.
Today, most of the children in St. PJ’s care (95%) have been removed from their family by Child Protective Services and placed here for long-term care (on average nine months). The remaining 5% of the children are ‘privately placed’ by a family member or relative; we call these children our ‘Guardian Angel’ children. These children are at St. PJ’s because for one reason or another, their family cannot give them an appropriate home at this time. Although the average length of stay in the long-term residential care program is 13 months, some children have lived at St. PJ’s for more than six years. St. Peter – St. Joseph Children’s Home also provides comprehensive therapeutic services in a safe, peaceful environment – healing body, mind and spirit.
Please support and pray for St. Peter-St. Joseph Children’s Home.