Hibiscus Children's Center

The mission of Hibiscus Children’s Center is to provide services to children and families to prevent and reduce child abuse.

Founded in 1985, Hibiscus Children’s Center is a not-for-profit charitable organization fighting child abuse with care, counseling, intervention – and your help. Hibiscus is nationally accredited through Council on Accreditation and is fully-licensed by Florida’s Department of Children and Families to serve families throughout the State of Florida, primarily serving Indian River, Martin, Okeechobee, and St. Lucie counties.

Hibiscus Children’s Center has a rich history. With the senseless and tragic death of a child at the hands of his own father, a quiet, generous philanthropist became a passionate and vocal advocate and benefactor for abused and neglected children. Dismayed at the lack of facilities and programs to protect children, in 1985, she galvanized her community into action and began her quest to create what would become the Treasure Coast’s only licensed emergency shelter for abused children through age 12. With the building’s construction funded by private donations of property, materials, services and funds, Hibiscus Children’s Shelter opened debt-free in 1989 on a foundation of community support almost totally unheard of today. Often called “the house that love built,” the 36-bed shelter has served hundreds of abused, neglected and abandoned children over the years by offering safe haven and loving care to a legion of wounded little ones. Hibiscus Children’s Center has a wealth of resources both within its own organizational structure and in its collaborative partnerships and alliances in the community.

Since opening, the Shelter has never been empty and the commitment to planned obsolescence remains in tact. In order to accomplish this goal, the Center, other agencies and individuals have become increasingly aware that overpowering child abuse presents an array of complex challenges. Most child abuse, like family violence of all kinds, is part of a damaging and escalating cycle that has been going on for generations.

For this reason, Hibiscus Children’s Center has added community-based, family centered programs that offer services in an attempt to prevent abuse and neglect in families during times of crisis. Hibiscus H.O.P.E. Program began in 1992. It is an intervention oriented, community-based, family centered program working with families identified through the child welfare system as being at imminent risk of removal of at least one child from the family due to abuse or neglect – removing the risk rather than the child. Services include counseling, mentoring, basic living skills, parenting education, behavior management, or anything else that a family might need to remain intact. Hibiscus Support for Families in Crisis (formerly Crisis Nursery) Program is a nationally recognized primary prevention program founded in 1994 and designed to prevent the abuse. The program provides family support services and out-of-home respite care. Hibiscus’ also has a Foster Care Program. Founded in 2001, the Foster Care Program provides a wide array of services including recruitment, training, licensure and re-licensure.

Each of these initiatives has been a result of strategic planning based on identified community needs. Most recently, this has resulted in the recognition of the tremendous need for the creation of a more homelike environment for children remaining in the child welfare system without appropriate permanent placement. Hibiscus Children’s Village, which opened in April 2004, provides a loving home for children removed from their homes due to egregious abuse and neglect. The children live in homes where they receive nurturing, love and encouragement in a family-like environment. The Village is a safe haven where children can more naturally prepare for a successful transition into foster or adoptive homes.

Hibiscus Children’s Center also provides additional services to provide children and families with the resources they need to succeed. Infant Mental Health Program provides services to families with children ages birth to five years to strengthen the bond and promote growth and development between caregivers and child/foster child. Strengthening Families Program is a collaboration with several children’s agencies to provide skills training to at-risk families.