The ACAY Mission Philippines is an offshoot of the involvement of the Missionaries of Mary (an international group of sisters from France who began work in the Phils. in 1997) in the conduct of voluntary activities for street children and youth in the detention centers in Manila. The purpose of ACAY Mission is to provide social services to youth and families who have experienced difficulties in their lives to alleviate their condition. They organized recreational, spiritual, craft making and alternative recreational activities for these children and youth.
Their flagship program, the School of Life (for disadvantaged girls) was put up in 2000, when the group put up a residential home for girls in Quezon City. This expanded to the organization of the Second Chance Program to cater to the needs of the boys who are in conflict with the law. The programs operated as a foreign representative branch office activities of the Association Compassion Asian Youth which is based in France.
Realizing the impact of the program among the youth, the French Board of Trustees gave the Philippine Branch Office authorization to close the branch office in 2014, to put up its own local association, hence the ACAY Missions Philippines, Inc.