Our Children

Founded in Flint, Michigan in 1978, Robert Ennis established Ennis Center for Children with only $6,000, which he borrowed from a friend, and a commitment to 33 children. Today, Ennis Center provides foster care, adoption, and related support services to more than 2,500 children and families each year, and is the largest African-American founded nonprofit organization in Michigan.

Who We Serve

Ennis Center helps children in need from birth to age 19, creating family stability and providing permanent homes. Most children we serve come from poor, at-risk backgrounds, many of them abused, neglected, abandoned, and medically and/or emotionally fragile. Some examples of the types of children and families we work with are:

Children with parents who have substance abuse problems which results in poor care for their children. Such was the case for Leo*, who along with his three siblings, was dropped of at a babysitters home by his mother. After three days without word from the mother and unable to care for the children any longer, the babysitter took the children to the local police department. Another example is baby Andy, the second child of an 18-year-old mother, he was born three months premature with a club foot and tested positive for exposure to cocaine, opiates, and alcohol at birth.

Mental illness in birth parents can also result in a parent’s inability to care for a child. Our Ennis Center team is working with five-year-old David, whose bi-polar diagnosed mother attempted suicide.

Some children, like Abe, who came to us straight from the hospital at just two-days old, have a long history of domestic violence in their home. The latest incident was two weeks before he was born when his mother was beaten nearly to death by her boyfriend, the baby’s father.

Sometimes, horrible abuse is discovered. Eight-year-old Kayla had numerous scars on her legs and behind from being whipped with extension cords, boards, and house gutters by her father, who is being criminally prosecuted.

By providing an array of support programs such as mental health, delinquency, reintegration and post-adoption services, Ennis Center addresses a child’s problems at the roots to prevent future trauma. This commitment to each child’s welfare is evident in our organization’s mission: with the support of the community, we preserve families when possible and create new families when necessary. All programs are based on a strength assessment model and promote family stability and family reunification whenever possible.

Our Children

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