History & Services Over the past 24 years, CHARLEE of Dade County, Inc. has developed an integrated continuum of care for the hardest to serve foster children, who have been abandoned, abused or neglected by their biological families. CHARLEE, which stands for Children Have All Rights: Legal, Educational, and Emotional, was incorporated in Miami in 1983 through the coordinated efforts of the Junior League of Miami, the National Council of Jewish Women, and the Episcopal Diocese of Southeast Florida. Since its inception, CHARLEE has helped thousands of children in the foster care system begin a new life and today, CHARLEE serves approximately 1,000 children and their families annually. CHARLEE originated with the concept of providing community-based care to emotionally damaged adolescents in the foster care system that were in need of a healthy and normalizing family environment. This program, entitled the Family Care Therapeutic Group Home Program, was created with the understanding that emotionally damaged youth would be better served with long-term treatment in a community-oriented environment rather than the standard foster care or hospital-like residential treatment programs. This program currently serves thirty (30) children in five (5) group homes. Other major programs of CHARLEE include: The Gladstone Center for Girls, opened in March 1994, is a comprehensive treatment facility that serves up to 21 girls at any given time, between the ages of two (2) and eighteen (18) who have been removed from their homes following allegations of serious sexual abuse. This facility serves as a critical front-end component of the CHARLEE continuum of care. All support services are offered to the residents on site. Since its opening, Gladstone has cared for hundreds of girls and offers intensive therapeutic intervention at all times during their stay. The Supported Foster Care Program, created in 1996, is a coordinated and directed system for recruiting, training, licensing and supporting foster families who take on the important task of raising abused and neglected children until a permanent placement is found. Our case managers and therapists work as a team with the foster parents and the biological parents, in order to determine what the best course of action is for the child. The children range in age from infancy to age eighteen. Most recently, CHARLEE has developed two specialized group homes and a transitional living facility for girls. The Crisis Intervention Home is designed to provide shelter for up to (6) teenage boys who have extensive therapeutic needs. The Shenandoah Teen Pregnancy Home is dedicated to caring for up to six (6) pregnant teens and their babies. The goal of this group home is to help prepare these young residents for motherhood, and support them during their first years of motherhood in hopes of breaking the cycle of abuse and involvement with the dependency system. Casa Valentina is an apartment style residence for girls over 18 who have recently “aged out” of the foster care system. This facility provides these young women with transitional housing and supportive case management during this critical stage of their lives. CHARLEE is also able to send children each summer to our Buffalo Cove Outdoor Education Center at Hector Hallow, a therapeutic wilderness camp located in a secluded 200-acre valley in the beautiful Blue Ridge Mountains of North Carolina. Each summer, CHARLEE kids experience quality outdoor education and although only a week or two, the camp gives these children an experience like no other. The weeks spent in North Carolina are some of the most rewarding in a child’s life. They come back renewed, more self sufficient, and with a better handle on coping with their traumatic experiences. With the privatization of the child welfare system, CHARLEE doubled in size on August 3, 2026 and now cares for approximately 1,000 children. CHARLEE is the single largest provider in the Central Region of Dade-County. This means we are in need of our community’s support now more than ever! These are not simply CHARLEE’s children, but rather they are “our” children, they represent the future of our community. Our youth describe our program as being “like a family” and they feel like they can always “come home”. Once they become a part of the CHARLEE family, they remain a part of it regardless of their age.