About the Burke Center for Youth

Mission

Our mission is to promote healing and inspire hope for children in crisis. For the children who have suffered abuse and neglect we work to match them with safe and loving families so they may form healthy relationships and look forward to a brighter future.

Vision

All children deserve a safe and supportive family in which to flourish. All abused and neglected children will be removed from harm and subsequently raised in a safe and loving family. Those children will become leaders in the march to stop the cycle of child abuse.

Philosophy

pending

History

In 1973, Rosemary Burke had a dream. She knew that she had a knack for helping children that were hard to reach. She had worked with many children who had suffered abuse and neglect and were in the custody of the state. She had also spent fifteen years working with her own son, who no one seemed to understand, who had something we now call "autism". She found Charles Campise who met qualifications as an administrator, and together they opened a residential treatment center for 15 boys. They noticed that boys responded well to farm life. They told people that they wanted farm animals for the boys and before long they had horses, cows, pigs, goats, chickens, ducks, turkeys, geese, dogs, and cats. They then grew to have three locations in the Dripping Springs area serving 35 boys.

In 1990, there were people in the community who said they would like to help the boys. Burke Center then obtained a license to operate a Child Placing Agency so that they could locate, screen, train, license and support families who became foster families.

In 1995, a psychologist introduced the idea of "Therapeutic Camping" as a treatment model for abused and neglected children. After seeing how effective the “therapeutic camping” model was, Burke Center then obtained a license to operate a Therapeutic Camp and called it "Pathfinders".

In 2006, Burke Center Foster Care Services grew to have four offices serving well over 100 children.

In 2007, Pathfinders became a residential treatment center again accepting boys age eleven to eighteen. We continue to maintain our philosophy that boys respond well to being outdoors. We continue to have a treatment program that keeps the children outside engaging in life, learning how to accomplish goals, and how to have healthy relationships. Today, many of the boys graduate to go live in Burke Center foster families who specialize in working with adolescents to learn Transitional Living Skills.

In 2008, Burke Center began recruiting, training, licensing, and case managing Adoption Homes. We have had the honor of finding wonderful adoption matches for many children giving them a forever home. In this life, what could be better?

In 2010, Burke Center became licensed to certify treatment foster homes providing services for children who present with Emotional Disorders, Autism, Mental Retardation and Medically Fragile.

We continue to grow our foster care program and now have five offices throughout the state, training foster parents and facilitating the care of children who have no permanent home.