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In reviewing the work done by us, in this, the first year of our organization, it seems desirable to give a brief sketch of the causes which led to the establishment of the Home. Early last spring a few ladies met to incorporate a new charitable society, having as its object, ''to provide shelter for the women and children of the State, who might be found in the streets, or in bad homes, in police stations, or in public institutions, or discharged from imprisonment, or who are reduced to dependence on public charity and who are not elsewhere provided with a beneficent home influence."
lt had been for years the aim of the station committee of the Women's Christian Temperance Union, to provide for women discharged from imprisonment, homes in some neighborhood, where the surroundings should be such as to encourage them to make a fresh start in life. But places are not found without searching, where a woman of wrong tendencies and a dark record in the past will be received, and the need was deeply felt of a temporary place of shelter, where a good influence could be exerted and the first impulses given towards a better life, while efforts were making towards procuring a more permanent home.
There was a desire to help another class of women also, whose weak moral natures had led them to yield to temptation, and who had been made to feel in consequence that they were outside the reach of sympathy, and that any effort to lead a virtuous life was hopeless. Many of these were in homes where all the influences were bad, and the only hope lay in removing them entirely from their former associations. In addition to those of openly immoral lives, there were others who needed to be shielded from temptation, especially children, who from unfortunate surroundings were almost sure to grow up into vicious and dangerous members of the community, should they have no restraining and ennobling influences thrown around them.
A consideration of all these facts, led to the meeting which has been referred to, for the incorporation of this society. This was held on April 6th, 1882. Later, the number of ladies was increased and constituted a board of managers, an advisory board of gentlemen and an auxiliary state committee were chosen, and the organization completed.
Publication Date
1883
Publisher
William M. Marks, Printer
City
Portland, Maine
Keywords
Temporary Home for Women and Children of Maine, Portland, Maine
Disciplines
History
Recommended Citation
Temporary Home for Women and Children, "1st Annual Report of the Temporary Home for Women and Children" (1883). Books and Publications. 18.
https://digicom.bpl.lib.me.us/books_pubs/18
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