Our mission: Lund helps children thrive by empowering families to break cycles of poverty, addiction and abuse. Lund offers hope and opportunity to families through education, treatment, family support and adoption.
In 1890, ten compassionate members of the Women’s Christian Temperance Union founded ‘The Home for Friendless Women’ a refuge and maternity home for women on the edges of society. They spent the first year raising money to purchase a building, the doors to which opened in May 1893. The first baby was born here on September 12 of that same year.
In 1927, the name changed to the Elizabeth Lund Home, in honor of one of the original founders. This name stayed with the organization until 1988, when it was changed to ‘Lund Family Center’ to reflect our expansion in services.
The initial focus of the organization was on providing adoption services for unmarried mothers. This changed in the early 1970’s, when the face of adoption was changing and many more women were choosing to parent their children. Lund became a family resource center, and began to offer adult education, parenting support, and therapeutic childcare. In 1988 Lund was designated as a Parent Child Center by the State of Vermont.
In 2000, Independence Place, our transitional housing for young families, was opened. Lund formed ‘Project Family’ — a collaboration with the Department of Children and Families to find homes for older children in foster care, and received federal funding to offer residential substance abuse treatment. Then in 2004, our services expanded yet again to offer community-based substance abuse treatment.
We purchased a second building in 2012 — the Hoehl Family Building. At this same time, the Lund Family Center also became simply ‘Lund’. Today, Lund continues to strive to meet the most pressing needs in our community, and is constantly improving and developing programs to ensure the best possible services for women, children, and families.
Our 125th Anniversary
In 2015, Lund celebrated 125 years of helping Vermont’s children and families thrive. Much has changed since 1890, including the name of the organization, but the heart of the mission remains the same. The most vulnerable moms and their children are still at the center of what we do, now as it was then.
