Jeremiah's Place: Our History

After discovering a need for emergency childcare in Pittsburgh, Jeremiah's Place was formed.

Since our opening in 2014, Jeremiah's Place remains the only crisis nursery in our community, providing emergency childcare for families throughout Pittsburgh and surrounding areas.

Physicians Lynne Williams and Tammy Murdock and Early Childhood Educator Eileen Sharbaugh pursued the founding of Jeremiah’s Place after a survey of families in the East End of Pittsburgh revealed a strong need for a short-term emergency childcare facility. Results indicated that one in nine families left their young children in high-risk situations in times of crisis due to a lack of safe childcare options. Focus groups to many discussions with numerous service providers throughout the city confirmed the results.

This survey was based on an earlier study on families' needs for a crisis nursery by Dr. Anna Marie White, who continued to contribute to the development of Jeremiah's Place. With the need clearly identified, Dr. Williams, Dr. Murdock, and Mrs. Sharbaugh brought together physicians from the prevention-focused, child-centered fields of pediatric and obstetric care. They established a voluntary committee of 25 passionate individuals from the Pittsburgh community, including early childhood educators, pediatric nurses, social workers, family support providers, public health advocates, special education educators, and infant mental healthcare workers. These zealous individuals volunteered countless hours of their time, energy, and talents to make the crisis nursery a reality.

In March 2014, more than fifty volunteers came together to prepare the 3,500-square-foot facility to accept children in need, and on April 21, 2014, Jeremiah’s Place opened its doors and served its first family.

Jeremiah’s Place has continued to provide 24-hour emergency childcare since opening in 2014, supporting families in Western Pennsylvania.

This year, Jeremiah's Place will be celebrating 10 years of serving Pittsburgh and its communities with emergency childcare services.

To date, Jeremiah's Place has provided services to over 1,400 unique children from 75 different ZIP codes and across over 9,000 childcare visits. (Learn more...)

As our impact grows, we continue to strengthen the relationships with our families, connect with new families, and build support of our mission.

We are excited for what the future holds as we continue to protect children, strengthen families, and transform communities