The Children's Aid Society

The Children's Aid Society (CAS) was founded in 1853 to help impoverished and orphaned children. In the process of fulfilling its mission, CAS may have unwittingly planted some of the first participatory seeds that grew into youth empowerment, elements of which were eventually incorporated into parts of the modern US foster care system. Specific empowering aspects of CAS's include (1) providing asset-building opportunities, (2) adult facilitation of a prosocial environment, and (3) treating children as independent clients who helped shape the program. This article provides evidence of the participatory aspects of CAS using examples from nineteenth-century periodicals and annual reports.