170 Years of Compassionate Care
We’re turning 170!
The Daughters of Charity and Epiphany Center are proud to celebrate 170 years of service bringing hope and healing to the city’s most vulnerable women, children, and families.
At Epiphany Center, we are excited to share that this year is the Daughters 170th Anniversary of service to San Francisco! While we feel blessed to honor the Sisters’ 170 years of helping the most vulnerable among us, we’re even more excited to look to the next 170 years of how we will continue to evolve to meet the changing needs of our city’s at-risk families.
This month, we will be sharing stories of healing and hope inspired by the families we serve and by YOU, our compassionate, caring donors who make our work possible.
Before we get started, below is a brief look back into the beginnings of Epiphany Center and how we got to where we are today.
A HISTORY OF SERVICE
1852 The Daughters of Charity of St. Vincent de Paul arrived in San Francisco and founded Epiphany Center (formerly Mount St. Joseph-St. Elizabeth) as the Roman Catholic Orphanage for children whose parents died in the cholera epidemic that devastated the City.
1926 The Daughters of Charity opened St. Elizabeth’s Infant Hospital for unwed mothers under the director of the medical staff at St. Mary’s Help Hospital (later rebuilt in Daly City and renamed Seton Medical Center).
1976 Mount St. Joseph and St. Elizabeth’s merged administration. The Mount program at that time was caring for teenage girls in three therapeutic homes. St. Elizabeth’s program provided residential services for pregnant and parenting teen mothers. Residents of both programs attended an on-site nonpublic school.
1986 At the request of the Department of Human Services, the agency began a residential program for infants prenatally exposed to drugs to support reunification with their parents. The program changed services from residential to day care in December 2001 and the Parent-Child Center now provides licensed, therapeutic care to infants and toddlers.
2008 The agency began doing business as Epiphany Center, with Mount St. Joseph-St. Elizabeth remaining as its legal name.
2019 Epiphany Center expanded by offering the Step-Down Program to provide transitional housing and supportive aftercare services to help women prepare for life post-treatment. Additionally, the Road to Resilience Project helps women struggling with substance use disorder while pregnant and/or parenting infants to find safety and stability through services and referrals.
2020-22 When the COVID-19 pandemic started, while other treatment programs stopped moving individuals into their facilities, Epiphany Center was deemed by the Department of Public Health as essential. We are proud that we have been able to continue moving women in need of treatment into residence.