The Children’s Home Society is officially launched in a small office in Meridian, Mississippi, on January 2, 1912, with four children in need and 25¢ in cash. Over its first year of operation, the fledgling society serves 45 children.

He also provides $75,000 to build the Kate McWillie Powers Receiving Home for Children.

The only maternity home in Mississippi licensed by the Department of Public Welfare is approved by the Mississippi Medical Association.

The new facility is built on the site of the former Kate McWillie Powers Receiving Home.

The home contains eight beds for troubled girls.

Mississippi Children’s Home Services becomes the only fully-accredited agency in the state to hold that distinction.

CARES is accredited by the Joint Commission on Accreditation of Healthcare Organizations.

MCHS opens CARES School program in Jackson to serve children with educational challenges related to behavioral or emotional disturbances affiliated with the CARES Center and serving children from area public school districts.

The donation is used to purchase 21 acres at North West Street and Woodrow Wilson and becomes the Jean Austin Bagley Campus.

The program is named Mississippi Youth Programs Around the Clock (MYPAC), and provides state-wide home and community-based mental health services.

MCHS opens school day program in Hattiesburg. Receives Kresge Foundation grant to help fund cottages and school completion. Carol Biedenharn’s generous donation funds the completion of the W.L. Albriton Arts and Education Center on our Bagley Campus.

MCHS partners with MS Department of Human Services to begin to delivery of Mississippi’s only state-wide family preservation and family reunification services, the Comprehensive Family Support Services Program (CFSSP). Receives a grant from the Mississippi Development Authority to construct two, 10-bed group homes and a vocational/educational facility on our 80-acre Gulf Coast Campus.

Receives grant from Blue Cross & Blue Shield of Mississippi Foundation to construct a fitness trail on Bagley Campus.

Upon receiving a grant from the Mississippi Division of Medicaid to develop an early intervention autism pilot, MCHS joins in collaboration with University of Mississippi Medical Center to integrate primary and behavioral health as well as provide telehealth behavioral health services to families and children statewide.

They enter into a management agreement with the Child Abuse Prevention Center, host Mississippi’s first Children’s Mental Health Summit, and receive a $1 million donation from Gertrude C. Ford Foundation for Autism services.

Canopy’s new name drives clarity of what solutions we offer through the agency. It also creates an identity that is memorable, unmistakable, and easily understood by the children and families we serve and those who support our crucial work.