It’s not often the closing of a social service center is hailed as progress.

But that’s the case for Catholic Charities’ St. Joseph’s Home for Children in Minneapolis, which in conjunction with Hennepin County will close as an emergency child protection shelter in August and as a central intake for child protection placements by the end of the year.

The change is part of a larger effort by Hennepin County, Catholic Charities of St. Paul and Minneapolis and other entities to place young people in need with relatives or foster families — and use shelters as a last resort.

“This closure actually represents wonderful progress to reduce the trauma kids face when families are in crisis,” said Hennepin County Commissioner Mike Opat, chair of the county’s Child Well-Being Advisory Committee

“Hennepin County and Catholic Charities’ partnership has endured for decades,” Opat said. “As with all great partnerships, it evolves from time to time and this is the next step in our work to bring transformational change to child protection.”

The need has dwindled as child protection efforts have advanced. In recent years, the shelter has served fewer than 10 children a night. It has 21 beds. In 2017-2018, St. Joseph served more than 800 children for central intake or to stay up to 90 days in the shelter. By last year, that number dropped in half.

Closing both programs, which operate 24 hours a day, seven days a week, will mean the loss of 37 full-time jobs, including nursing staff and central intake. Catholic Charities officials said they hope some employees will find work in Catholic Charities’ other programs.

Catholic Charities also is determining what to do with the 12-acre property, which includes Hope Street, a 28-bed emergency shelter for homeless young adults 18 to 21 and transitional housing for 12 males ages 16 to 21.

St. Joseph’s Home for Children began in 1869 as the St. Joseph’s German Catholic Orphan Society, and it was Catholic Charities’ first program in the Twin Cities. Serving youth left parentless by the dangers of pioneer life, the Civil War and pandemics, the society opened the first St. Joseph’s German Catholic Orphan Asylum in St. Paul in 1877.

In 1960, the Asylum merged with Catholic Boys Home, which had served youth at 46th and Chicago in Minneapolis since 1886. From that same location over the last 60 years, St. Joseph’s has provided safe, stable and dignified care in times of need.

“From babies to adolescents, children have found safety and stability in care of St. Joseph’s Home for Children for generations,” said Tim Marx, president and CEO of Catholic Charities. “We are so proud of that legacy.

“While it’s always hard to leave a bit of history behind,” Marx said, “this transition means the community is getting closer to its goal of keeping vulnerable children safely connected to and supported by their families and home communities, relying much less on an institutional setting like St. Joe’s – and that is a good thing.”

The transition meshes well with Catholic Charities’ effort to focus on housing stability, an effort bolstered late last year by its $75 million private-public partnership to provide affordable housing for more than 200 people in Minneapolis.

The nonprofit organization also is approaching the one-year anniversary of Dorothy Day Place, a $100 million public-private partnership in St. Paul that provides housing, emergency shelter, transitional housing and social services on one campus.

People are invited to share their memories of St. Joseph’s at a Catholic Charities’ blogpost.