A Vision of Family
Hope Cottage Pregnancy and Adoption Center is the oldest secular, nonprofit, United Way-affiliated adoption center in Dallas. It began in 1918 with the vision of one woman, Emma Wylie Ballard, who recognized a need to provide care for Dallas's unwanted children. Since illegitimacy had such a stigma, babies were literally being abandoned in the streets. She opened a small home to accept the babies, naming it Hope Cottage, and hired women to care for them.
It's from these humble roots that the Center began to grow and flourish, subsequently becoming an adoption agency, placing children in homes, ensuring their futures and strengthening the Dallas community. Along the way, Hope Cottage has passed many significant milestones.
1922 — Crowded conditions lead to the construction of the first true home for Hope Cottage at 2301 Welborn. (Babies are cared for and loved in nurseries there until 1960. After that, babies are placed with nurturing foster families while awaiting placements with adoptive families.)
1928 — After securing community funding from the Community Chest, Hope Cottage becomes a United Way affiliate.
1960 — With the community's support, Hope Cottage embarks on what will be the first of several mergers with other agencies serving children. A collaboration with the Children's Bureau, a large foster-care organization, broadens the focus to include older children in need of homes.
1965 — Hope Cottage merges with a foster group home called the Girls' Foundation of the Dallas Federation of Women's Clubs. The result is foster group homes for girls and boys. Two maternity homes become a part of Hope Cottage as well.
1970s — The legalization of abortion leads to a rapid decline in the number of adoptable children. Both maternity homes close, and women in need of maternity care are sent to live with special foster families. The boys' home closes as well.
1978 — Hope Cottage sells its home of 50 years and moves to the present location at McKinney and Fitzhugh Avenues.
1988 — The Board of Directors and key staff members hold a strategic planning session that results in a return to adoption as the key focus of Hope Cottage. The generic counseling program ends, and specialized counseling for adoptive families, birthfamilies and adopted individuals is made available. The Girls' Foundation program is transferred to another agency providing similar services. Foster care is limited to those children awaiting adoption.
1991 — Hope Cottage becomes known as Hope Cottage Adoption Center. A publications company, House of Tomorrow Productions, is created to sell books, videos and produce a professional journal called Adoption Therapist.
1997 — The word "Pregnancy" is added to the agency's formal name to better convey the available services for pregnant women in crisis. Hope Cottage also establishes an International Adoption Program to facilitate the adoption of Romanian children and assist Dallas couples in building families.
1998 — Hope Cottage completes its first Romanian adoptions and expands the International Adoption Program to include China. Construction begins on the present-day 22,000-square-foot building with plans for a maternity and children's resale shop inside called Hope Chest. An adoption education program, Giving Life a Second Chance, starts teaching a structured adoption curriculum in local middle and high schools. House of Tomorrow Productions closes.
1999 — India is added to the International Adoption Program at Hope Cottage, and in subsequent years, Guatemala and El Salvador follow. Partners in Hope, a mentoring program, is created to match volunteer mentors with pregnant women.
2006 — To address the crisis facing the state's foster care system, Hope Cottage establishes the Foster-to-Adopt program. Additionally, an abundance of frozen embryos created through in-vitro fertilization leads to the creation of our most recent Domestic Adoption Program — Embryo Adoption. A new Parenting Preparation Program begins as well.
2007 — Hope for Families Counseling and Education Center opens.
As you can see, over the years the adoption-related needs of the community have changed from "baby nurseries" and "maternity homes" to comprehensive pre- and post-adoption services. For over 85 years, Hope Cottage has provided these essential adoption services to meet the needs of the people of Dallas and Fort Worth and gained a national reputation for excellence. We're often cited as one of the most professional and cost-effective charitable causes in Dallas.