The legacy of FRIENDS stretches back over a century.

Because one woman saw a need and imagined what was possible, FRIENDS opened its doors as Friends Asylum for Colored Orphans in 1871 following the Civil War.

FRIENDS was founded by former Richmond slave, Lucy Goode Brooks. (Read full story here.)

Having lost one of her own children to the slave trade, Lucy Goode Brooks was especially concerned for the plight of black children left orphaned and abandoned by former owners.

Lucy convinced the Ladies Sewing Circle for Charitable Work, of which she was leader, that a home for orphans was a worthy project. They asked the Richmond-based Quaker Society of Friends for help, recognizing their humanitarian interest in the less fortunate and oppressed.

The Quakers agreed to sponsor the orphanage project and raised money in Virginia and the Northern states.