Organizational History
Family Service Agency (FSA)was founded as a travelers aid agency in 1902 by Maie Bartlett Heard, wife of Dwight Bancroft Heard founder of the Heard Museum. The original mission 'to provide services that advocate for, strengthen and preserve the individual and the family' has held firm for the past 109-years and will continue well into our second century of service.
FSA has a solid history in the local social service community as evidenced by the facts that: a) through the 1930's we were 'responsible' for the provision of all charity services for Maricopa County; b)in 1935 the Maricopa Medical Center merged with us, later to be spun-off as their own distinct entity; c)in that same decade we founded the first tuberculosis hospital in the county, later to be administered by St. Joseph's hospital; d)in the early 1940's, in response to community growth the City of Phoenix charged us with being the leader in bringing more social service agencies into the community. The result of this effort was the introduction of the Community Chest (now United Way); the Visiting Nurses Association (now The Board of Visitors); and the general expansion of other entities to provide a broader range of services to the community.
Since our early beginnings as a travelers aid agency we have evolved into a more traditional family servicing agency. Two programs of significance that are still in operation today are the infant adoption program (established in 1945 we were the first agency in the state of Arizona to provide such a service)and in 1988 we commenced the delivery of behavioral health outpatient services. Today, our service delivery has expanded to provide (in addition to the aforementioned programs)substance abuse outpatient treatment, an employment and re-entry program for ex-offenders (conceived in 2001 and fully operational in 2003, the first such program in Maricopa County), counseling and parent aide in-home services for families with dependent children who are at moderate & high-risk of abuse and neglect; visitation services for children and their non-custodial parents; Employee Assistance Program services; and a 12-month program for substance abusing parents with minor children.
We have a strong history of creating programs and then 'spinning them off' as either their own entities or assumption by other social service providers to enhance their own service offerings. FSA has long acknowledged that we, alone, cannot be all things to all people and support of our mission and to be client-needs driven has inspired us to be the best, not the biggest. We believe that providing quality, necessary services that meet gaps in community need is more meaningful than having the biggest expense budget.
While we do not focus on providing a duplication of services, we do indeed provide services that are offered by other service providers, especially behavioral health and substance abuse treatment as the community need far outweighs the collective provider ability to meet that need. Every two-years we conduct an environmental scan of other social service providers, current and past clients, Federal, State and Local governments, contributors and contractors to find out what purchased services are planned for the future, what the 'gaps' in community needs are and try to develop programs in response to those needs to try and ensure our viability in the community and to continue to serve our community with dignity, quality and effectiveness.