Sister Ann Weltz

All About BACN


The Bay Area Crisis Nursery (BACN) was established in 1981. This all started when our Founder Sister Ann Weltz fell in love with the concept of a crisis nursery after she spent a summer working at one in Tucson, Arizona. That’s when Sister Ann decided to open her own crisis nursery. She had a vision of a grassroots organization that would give parents the much-needed time to care for themselves so they could then care for their children. The organization would be rooted in the idea that families are able and capable of making the best decisions on their own when given supportive, non-judgmental information. The Nursery would be a loving sanctuary where parents would feel comfortable and safe leaving their children. With faith in God’s continued support of the Nursery, Sister led our organization with grace for 37 years.

BACN's ultimate goal is that all children are safe, healthy, and thrive both emotionally and physically. Our mission is simple, yet powerful, to prevent child abuse and neglect through providing supportive services to families. We provide a warm, safe, loving homelike care facility.

All of our services are free, voluntary, and confidential. We are the only place that provides short-term residential care and emergency childcare services to give parents time to focus on resolving a crisis or stressful situation. Knowing their children are safe, parents can make better use of other services to mitigate issues causing stress in the family. This proactive approach reaches children before abuse occurs. The purpose of BACN is to provide a safe, nurturing environment, supporting families who are mitigating difficult situations.

The families who come to us are living in poverty, homeless, escaping domestic violence, dealing with medical and/or mental health emergencies, or have suddenly lost their childcare provider. These are among some of the reasons that families reach out for support. For our families, paying for quality childcare, and overnight care, is inconceivable. Our parents are brave, and our services bring them hope.

To ensure continued success for our families, the Bay Area Crisis Nursery also provides a Respite Care program allowing monthly respite support of the children. This allows our clients the time they need to acquire additional services for continued stress reduction for the family.

BACN is the only crisis nursery in the San Francisco Bay Area.