Mission & History

Our Mission

Walker is a nationally accredited, non-profit organization that provides a range of services to 3- to 22-year-old emotionally, behaviorally, and learning disabled students and their families. Through Walker’s Needham Campus programs, the Walker Trieschman Center (a division of the Child Welfare League of America), Beacon High School, and Walker Partnerships, Walker educates and supports children, adolescents, and their families, and the professionals around the world who serve them.

Our History

1897: George Walker, cofounder of the Walker-Gordon Laboratory in Boston, helps to establish the first medical milk commission, establishing new milk certification standards for safety and purity. The Walker-Gordon Dairy  opens on seven and a half acres along the Charles River in Needham, Massachusetts, where its reputation for pure and healthy pasteurized milk attracts many families seeking to improve the health of chronically sick children.

1952: The Walker-Gordon dairy in Needham closes after the death of Irene Walker (her husband George Walker died in 1927.)  A trust is established “for the care of children” and the property is converted into the state’s first convalescent home for children with polio, rheumatic fever, and other long-term illnesses. The Children’s Mission to Children (known today as Parents’ and Children’s Services of Boston) manages the home until the late 1950s, when the development of antibiotics and vaccinations eliminated much of the need for children’s long-term hospitalization.

1961: Under the direction of Children’s Hospital psychologist Dr. Albert E. Trieschman, The Walker Home opens for the treatment of emotionally and behaviorally disturbed boys. The original farmhouse and dairy farm buildings are converted for use as classrooms and residences for a half-dozen students.

1969: Dr. Trieschman publishes The Other 23 Hours (with co-authors James Whittaker and Larry Brendtro) introducing a new residential care philosophy that outlined the need for treatment beyond the one-hour therapy session. The emphasis is on “teaching competence” and stresses the transformative power of the therapeutic milieu in the lives of troubled children. The Other 23 Hours remains a classic text for child care professionals working in residential treatment settings and has been translated into five languages. Dr. Trieschman served as Walker’s director until his death in 1984.

1985: Richard W. Small becomes executive director of Walker. Over two and a half decades, his leadership transforms Walker from a small residential school for boys into a wide network of facilities and professionals dedicated to providing world-class mental health services, state-of-the-art special education, expert training and professional development, and child welfare advocacy.

1986: The Albert E. Trieschman Center is established to encourage innovation in the treatment and care of troubled children through training, professional development, and research. In 1998, the Center becomes a division of the Child Welfare League of America (CWLA), the nation’s oldest and largest organization devoted entirely to the well-being of America’s vulnerable children and their families.

1994: Walker launches Community and School Based Programs, now known as Walker Partnerships, with the objective of extending the reach of Walker’s expertise to help troubled students within public schools, and other community settings.

1995: Walker merges with Beacon High School in Brookline, Massachusetts, a co-educational, therapeutic alternative high school program for students aged 14 to 22. Beacon High School opened in 1971 as New Prospectives School. In addition, Walker opens a new Acute Residential Treatment program, now known as Community-Based Acute Treatment (CBAT) for the crisis stabilization and support of children as young as three years old.

2003: Completion of a major capital campaign results in the opening of several new buildings, including two new residences, and doubles the physical size of the original Needham campus.

2006: Beacon High School opens the school year after relocating to a beautifully renovated facility on the new Walker Watertown campus. Walker also creates Family and Community Integration Services to provide home-based therapeutic care and community-based support for children and families.

2010: Walker begins a yearlong 50th anniversary celebration, commemorating five decades of teaching, caring, and building hope.