A Proud History of Service

Founded in 1831 as the Leake and Watts Orphan House, Rising Ground has been helping people rise above adversity for close to 200 years. Over the decades, we have expanded our services to address emerging needs and help the most vulnerable among us, and in the process, have become an integral part of communities throughout New York City and Westchester County.

Historical Highlights

1831

Moved by the rise in urban poverty and the reduction of public welfare aid in the 1820s, the Leake and Watts Orphan House was founded by Westchester County Judge and former Congressman John Watts, Jr., with the bequest of his friend John George Leake, a wealthy New York lawyer who passed away without any heirs. At the forefront of the social responsibility movement, the Orphan House was one of the first private charitable institutions in the country dedicated to children in need.

1843

Leake and Watts Orphan House moves uptown from Trinity Church in lower Manhattan to 112th Street and Amsterdam, the current site of Cathedral of St. John the Divine.

1850

Leake and Watts Orphan House opens its doors to girls.

1890

The Orphan House moves outside the city to a 40-acre farm on the Hudson River in Yonkers. The grounds are designed by Frederick Law Olmsted, one of the architects of Central Park.

1890

The Leake & Watts Orphan House sponsors a uniformed band.

1921

The “cottage system” is implemented on our Yonkers campus. First implemented for girls, the system featured six cottages with cottage parents, housing 10 to 30 girls each.

1937

A social services department with trained social work staff is established.

1944

We establish our foster home department in order to find homes for children in the community.

1947

We merge with the Orphan Home and Asylum of the Episcopal Church and the Sevilla-Hopewell Society of Brooklyn.

1979

We establish the East Bronx Family Service Center to support families in need.

1985

We become the first social service agency in the nation to support children with HIV/AIDS.

1986

Twelve women placed at the Bedford Hills Women’s Prison testify to their histories of battering and its relationship to their criminal charges. This historic trial creates a call to action by Sister Mary Nerney that leads to the development of a holistic program of services for victims of gender-based and intimate partner violence. Today, the Criminalized Survivors Program remains a core part of Rising Ground’s survivor supports.

1987

We establish five early childhood programs to serve low-income families and expand our group home services to teenage mothers and their children.

1996

We expand programming to include juvenile justice services, one of the first human services organizations in the nation to do so.

1997

We open the Marion and George Ames Early Childhood Center and the Biondi and Middle High School in Yonkers.

2000

We open the Biondi Elementary School.

2004

We expand our services to include supports for children and adults with intellectual/developmental disabilities.

2007

We open our first group home in the Bronx for young adults with developmental disabilities.

2009

Our Residential Treatment Center shifts from serving youth in foster care to a specialized program for youth with a variety of mental health challenges, some of whom are in foster care.

2010

We open the Children’s Learning Center in Manhattan specifically serving preschoolers with autism.

2014

We are honored as the Gold Winner of the New York Community Trust Nonprofit Excellence Awards.

2014

We open our Passage of Hope program for unaccompanied migrant minors.

2018

Leake & Watts changes its name to Rising Ground to better reflect our expanded services, extended communities, and broader mission. We also join forces with Edwin Gould Services for Children and Families, bringing together two longstanding traditions of supporting New York City children, adults, and families in need. The consolidation strengthens and broadens the supports we provide to children, adults, and family members throughout the five boroughs of New York City and Westchester County.

2022

Rising Ground sells most of its 32-acre Yonkers campus after 130 years, relocating its programs to sites throughout New York City, while maintaining a Yonkers presence. For the first time since 1891, the organization is once again officially New York City-based, reflecting the community we support.

2023

The number of programs offered by Rising Ground dramatically expands to over 100 including nearly doubling our Passage of Hope program for unaccompanied youth, acquisition of residences for homeless youth, and the introduction of a Parent Advocate Initiative, and a Family Enrichment Center. In addition, through the acquisition of services from Sheltering Arms, this expansion includes drop-in centers for homeless and runaway youth, community mental health services, reception centers for youth entering foster care, as well as growth in other services.

2024

Rising Ground opens new administrative offices in Midtown Manhattan at 1333 Broadway with program hubs in the Bronx, Queens, Harlem, and Brooklyn.

2025

Statues of our founders, John Watts, Jr, and John George Leake are relocated from the Yonkers campus and installed in the new administrative offices at 1333 Broadway, providing a tangible link to our history.

Records Request

If you are looking for information about yourself or a relative who lived at Rising Ground/Leake & Watts or attended the Biondi Education Center and would like to request alumni records, please download and complete our Record Request Form, and email it to Records@RisingGround.org. Or you can email us with questions. We’re happy to help!
Please note: the Record Request Form needs to be notarized.

Record Request Form