Mission Statement
Family & Community Services of Portage County seeks to support, strengthen, and empower individuals and families through a broad continuum of community-based services that meet the needs and values of the community. The agency is guided by a commitment to individual dignity, service excellence, accountability, volunteerism and belief in the solidarity of the human family.
Description
Family & Community Services, Inc. is the largest private non-profit social service agency in Portage County, with a staff of 185 working at 32 sites in eleven (11) counties. More than 70,000 children and adults were assisted in 2006and the annual budget for 2006-07 has grown to $7.1 million. Over 3,500 dynamic volunteers enable the agency to magnify the impact of its services.
The agency began its service in September of 1941 under the title of the Catholic Charities Bureau of the Ravenna Deanery. The staff of two (2) offered family and child welfare services. In 1961, the agency, then known as the Catholic Charities Service Bureau, received Articles of Incorporation from the State of Ohio. During the next year, the agency was certified by the State of Ohio to assume all responsibility for children under its care, including adoptions.
Family & Community Services has grown substantially through the years and particularly during the past decade, to where it now provides a broad array of services to the community. The agency has a well-earned reputation for being an entrepreneurial force in the social services community. During the most recent fiscal year (ending June 30, 2006), the agency administered 145 grants and contracts from all levels of government as well as private sources. Using everything it has at its disposal - from government grants to direct charitable contributions to the energies of its thousands of selfless volunteers - the agency aspires to offer the gift of hope.
