About Us
A History of Caring for Children and Families in Need.
Baptist Children’s Home & Family Services has been caring for children and families in Illinois since 1918.
Baptist Children’s Home began 1918 in response to a need in Illinois to care for dependent children who were orphaned as a result of WWI and the great influenza epidemic that struck Illinois.
Illinois Southern Baptists had the dream of building an orphanage but it was the hard work of three men who made the dream a reality. The pastor of Carmi First Baptist Church, D.F. Marlin, and two of his deacons—Eben Renshaw and John W. Hall led the charge to raise the money needed to build the orphanage.
Through the years, the Children’s Home’s ministry has evolved in response to the needs of children and families. No longer a need to care for orphans, the mission changed to focus on the dependent, neglected and/or abused children. In 1995, our name changed to Baptist Children’s Home & Family Services to better reflect that we are more family-focused in our work.
Today, BCHFS is a multi-faceted family crisis center in Southern Illinois consisting of five ministries that work together to protect, heal and restore struggling children and families. Whether it is helping teens in trouble, young women with unplanned pregnancies, or Christian counseling services – BCHFS has been helping those who need it most reach their full potential.
Protect
Heal
Restore
BCHFS Executive Team
An Experienced Team of Professionals…Helping Children and Families Become Stronger
Kevin Carrothers
Executive Director
Chris Cox
Director of Accounting
William Foote
Director of Programs and Compliance
Paula Joy
Director of Development and Marketing
BCHFS and the five ministries that make up our mission:
Baptist Children’s Home (BCH) Residential Care
Carmi, IL
BCH Residential Care is a Christian juvenile group home for troubled teens. Residents live under the care and guidance of Christian houseparents and receive individual, group and family counseling. Our goal is to restore the family and return the child to the community, better equipped to deal with life. Learn more.
Angels’ Cove Maternity Care
Mt. Vernon, IL
Angels’ Cove is a residential maternity home for women facing an unplanned or unwanted pregnancy. The Angels’ Cove staff provides young moms with the best in prenatal care, counseling, parenting classes and life skills training. Believing every life is precious, we strive to provide women with loving alternatives to abortion. Learn more.
Pathways Counseling Services
Pathways Counseling has been providing counseling services to individuals, couples, children and families since 1999 in 12 Illinois communities. Utilizing your strengths, our professionally licensed therapists will help you overcome your challenges and achieve personal goals. We understand that every person is unique with differing life experiences, struggles and patterns. With that in mind, we tailor each counseling session to meet your individual needs. Learn more.
Faith Adoption Ministry
BCHFS is fully-licensed in adoptive services for Illinois and not only have the experience to handle complicated adoptions, but the personal care, attention to detail and willingness to create a harmonious environment is unmatched.
We strive to place children with loving, Christian parents residing in Illinois. If families are interested in adopting, they should personally contact the Mt. Vernon office to discuss what services we can best provide for their situation. Learn more.
GraceHaven: A Pregnancy Resource Clinic
GraceHaven: A Pregnancy Resource Clinic is a safe space to explore your options, process your emotions, receive accurate information on each pregnancy choice. GraceHaven offers free pregnancy testing, ultrasounds, parenting classes, adoption referrals and abortion recovery classes. The clinic provides confidential and compassionate care, free-of-charge, to all the women and men we serve. We can provide women and men with answers and options so they can make the best choice for their unique situation. Learn more.
“The King will reply, ‘Truly I tell you, whatever you did for one of the least of these brothers and sisters of mine, you did for me.” – Matthew 25:40
As a Christian organization and Baptist affiliated ministry, we espouse the following practices in our services and programs:
- We value and affirm life from conception to natural death.
- We believe that children should live in a safe and stable home environment and should be given the opportunity to thrive with loving parents.
- We offer residential care, when needed, which nurtures the whole child – physically, emotionally, and spiritually.
- We work to strengthen the family unit and build family and community supports with the goal of reunification of the family.
- We promote life through alternatives to abortion including residential care for pregnant women, life-skills training and Christian counseling, and/or adoption as set out below.
- We believe that marriage is ordained by God and revealed in the Bible to be a covenant relationship between one man (biologically male at birth) and one woman (biologically female at birth).
- We serve Christian, heterosexual-married couples (meaning of opposite biological gender at birth) in our adoption ministry and services, including those services we offer in support to outside adoption providers.
- When we cannot assist through our Christian ministry programs, we offer referral assistance to outside agencies.
- We offer all our services regardless of ability to pay and regardless of racial or ethnic backgrounds.