Our Story
History of Family Outreach Center
Family Outreach Center formed in 1979, growing out of the Outreach Team of the Grand Rapids-based Family Service Association, an organization with a long history of providing services in the community. The Outreach Team was established to ensure that inner city residents and communities of color were familiar with the family counseling and support services the Family Service Association provided. The Outreach Team participated in a form of street canvasing called ‘case finding.’ The team knocked on doors to introduce Family Service Association program offerings, emphasizing counseling and support services.
Community leaders concerned about the deterioration of family life within segments of the population living in inner city Grand Rapids, who were primarily people of color and individuals with lower incomes. For a year and a half, community leaders and potential funders met to identify community needs and strategize about how to best address them. Although Grand Rapids had a good network of public and private agencies providing mental health, child welfare, and substance abuse services to support family life, many of these residents had limited access to or awareness of these services and were seldom referred by pastors, school administrators, social workers, or the criminal justice system.
A decision was made to incorporate a new agency, Family Outreach Center, that would provide mental health and family support services to children, adults, and families in Grand Rapids and Kent County, with a focus on communities that had traditionally been marginalized and underserved. Family Outreach Center incorporated in August of 1979 and since then has provided outpatient mental health services, substance use disorder treatment, jail mental health services, children's in-home and school based services, parenting and family support, prevention and education services, and violence prevention programs to those who need it most.
