Proud to be from Pittsburgh: The Bradley Center

PITTSBURGH — For more than a century, The Bradley Center in Pittsburgh has been caring for children. Their mission started with serving orphans who needed love and shelter, and it has since expanded to helping children overcome serious emotional and behavioral health challenges.

Study skills are just one facet of what children learn at The Bradley Center. For everyone there, healing is just as important as learning.

“We work with children who are on the autism spectrum, but we also have children who’ve experienced extensive physical, sexual and emotional abuse and very traumatic histories,” said The Bradley Center CEO Lisa Fox.

Channel 11’s Peggy Finnegan got to tour the residential treatment facility that helps severely traumatized children from across the state and West Virginia. Treatment is critical because without help dealing with their past, the children’s futures could be at risk, Fox said.

“Homelessness, incarceration ... or they could perpetuate the lives that they have lived. In some case, not all, it’s a life of abuse,” said Fox.

Not all of the children are victims of trauma. The Bradley Center also runs a day school, which provides specialized support that public schools can’t offer.

Elbert Gray brought his now 12-year-old son, Asaan, to the center for help with behavioral issues.

“The kid I brought in here three years ago is not the kid that’s here now,” Gray said. “I mean, he’s grown tremendously. It’s like two different children,”

As an attorney, Gray works in the Allegheny County court system, and she knows what can happen when children don’t learn to manage their behavior.

“If you can identify problems early on enough and get them treated, then maybe you stop the cycle of activity that leads one to go to jail or be troubled or commit crimes,” he said.

Graduates of the center have gone on to college, vocational schools, internships and military service.

Fox said it’s not about the center itself, but rather it’s about the children.

“Their resilience (and) their ability to really overcome unbelievable obstacles,” she said.

For more information about The Bradley Center, including an upcoming fundraiser on Sept. 18, visit

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Cox Media Group