ROCHESTER, N.Y. — An organization helping children in need in areas throughout the Finger Lakes region and Western New York is marking its 150th year in business.

Mary Ellen Wilson was 10 years old in the year 1874, a child of abuse and neglect. A little girl with no voice and with fewer rights than animals at the time, who would become the voice of thousands of children in the years to come.

“She was living in a home where she was being maltreated pretty, pretty seriously,” said Jessica Brumbaugh.

She tells the story of the young orphan from New York City. Brumbaugh, who oversees the Society for the Protection and Care of Children, says Mary Ellen’s situation came to the attention of the Society for the Protection of Cruelty to Animals, as there were no such services for children facing cruelty.

“At the time, there wasn’t a clear path forward for a child who was being abused. And so they were able at that time to get a judge to listen. And the judge, we have the court papers where the judge sent Mary Ellen to a safe place to live here in Rochester,” said Brumbaugh.

Wilson ended up with a family that cared for and loved the little girl.

“[This was] 1892, Humane Society,” Brumbaugh said, showing us some of the original documents for the organization and for the agency keeping watch over abused animals. “This says the Constitution for the Humane Society of Rochester, New York. The object of the society is to provide efficient means for the prevention of cruelty to children and dumb animals in the city of Rochester and the County of Monroe.”

It was a time when New York state had laws protecting animals, but none that would protect children.

Mary Ellen would change that.

“The start of SPCC Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Children, originally that was our that’s our legal name, actually, that started in 1875 when Mary Ellen was placed here in Rochester,” said Brumbaugh.

After 150 years, the agency, now called the Society for the Protection and Care of Children, has nine significant programs helping some 7,000 individuals in Monroe, Wayne, Yates, Seneca and Ontario counties.

“So this place has morphed over the years,” said Brumbaugh.

Currently the children who are helped there are generally coping with traumatic situations.

“Those kids are often coming to us, having experienced some pretty horrendous trauma in their life,” said Brumbaugh. “Sometimes it’s abusive neglect, sometimes it’s just witnessing some violence at home or in the community.”

“It’s very much a welcoming place,” said Sheneiqua Shine, who is among those helped by SPCC back when she was a pregnant 15-year-old. “They were supportive of me as a person, not just as a mom. Making sure that I knew that I was cared for and I was loved.”

Shine was part of SPCC’s Teenage Parent Support Services Program, one of nine of the agency’s program that include its Family Trauma Intervention Program.

“[About] 95% of the kids that come through our program and receive that one-on-one individual therapy, as well as support for them and their parents or caretakers, is that their trauma symptoms are decreasing,” said Brumbaugh.

From Mary Ellen, who eventually married, had children and lived a happy life, to girls like Sheneiqua, and thousands more like them, SPCC would be the organization that made a difference for 150 years.

“This organization, it shows up for kids, whether it was 150 years ago, what it looked like 100 years ago, 50 years ago and now today, you can look and see the outcomes are great,” Brumbaugh said.