Statements

Mission

Family & Children's Service (F&CS) serves all people in crisis and transition by meeting them where they are, understanding their needs, and connecting them to the resources they need. F&CS often 'fills in the gaps' in social services, creating a safety net to ensure that all children and families can be safe and healthy. Each year we provide services to more than 50,000 Tennesseans.

Our mission is to connect individuals and families to hope, to healing, and to one another.

Background

Started in 1943 by community volunteers, the mission of the Children's Bureau (the predecessor of Family & Children's Service) was to unite families separated by WWII and find homes for children orphaned by the war. In 1953 the Children's Bureau merged with the Family Service Association, a counseling agency, to become Family & Children's Service. The combined agency's early focus was on counseling and infant adoptions. Adoption remained a primary activity of Family & Children's Service (FCS) through the 1960s, when the focus of adoption work changed from adoption of infants to supporting the adoption needs of older children in state custody. We continue to operate adoption support programs including Wendy's Wonderful Kids, which helps foster children prepare for adoption and find adoptive families. Throughout much of its history, FCS was the only place in Nashville for family counseling. Even after counseling services proliferated in the late 1970s and 80s, they were not affordable for most families and insurance coverage for such services did not become commonplace until the late 1990s. Family & Children's Service has always offered free counseling services to those families and individuals that need them, and we continue to do so today. Given our expertise in counseling-based and crisis intervention programs, over the last two decades FCS has been increasingly called upon to provide safety-net social service programs. In 1997, FCS began providing services at schools in low-income neighborhoods. FCS was awarded contracts by the State of Tennessee for Family Focused Solutions (Welfare to Work) in 1999 and the Davidson County Relative Caregiver Program in 2001. In 2005, FCS acquired The Crisis Line, a 24/7 crisis call line, from a downsizing nonprofit. Our most recent program additions include language interpretation services for individuals accessing medical and social services (more than 30 languages are available); suicide survivor support groups; and health care access programs, which help under and uninsured individuals find affordable health insurance, cost-saving programs and/or affordable community-based health care options.

Impact

Family & Children's Service serves more than 60,000 clients each year across more than a dozen program areas.

Needs

F&CS is always in need of donations of basic needs items (diapers, gently used children's clothing, towels and bath items, children's school uniforms, etc.) for our school and home-based social service programs. For more information - please call 615-320-0591.

CEO Statement

Throughout our history we have remained faithful to our mission to strengthen families. We continue to evolve in our effort to be responsive to the varying needs of the individuals we serve. We strengthen families, children and individuals to achieve self-sufficiency, family preservation and emotional well-being through specialized mental health counseling, education, and supportive services. To the individuals, children, and families we serve: we regard it as a privilege and an honor to have the opportunity to work with you in your journey toward healing. Thank you for entrusting us and allowing us to be a part of this process as you re-discover your strengths and build healthy connections. To our volunteers and donors: so often people who don't work directly with the children and families we serve at F&CS are uncertain of their true impact. Without your support we would not be able to provide quality services to our clients. F&CS has a rich history of support from the community. You are very much a member of the F&CS team. With so many amazing nonprofits in Nashville doing remarkable work, we thank you for choosing us. To our employees: we are so grateful that you have chosen to share your skills, expertise, and passion for the well-being of children and families with F&CS. Thank you so much for putting your heart into creating hope and healing for those we have the privilege to serve.

Board Chair Statement

Family & Children's Service continues to face the challenge of responding effectively to better serve our changing community. As always, four principles guided our program development and plans for service delivery: Relevancy - Providing services that are needed and will be supported; Resiliency - Increasing our agency's ability to be agile in changing quickly and moving forward; Results - building capacities in individuals and families and their community; Resolve - increasing our ability to advocate on behalf of the needs of our clients and our communities to effect change at all levels.

Service Categories
Primary Category:	Human Services  - Family Services
Secondary Category:	Mental Health & Crisis Intervention  -
Tertiary Category:	Health Care  -

Areas Served

F&CS offers direct services to clients primarily in Nashville/Davidson County and surrounding Middle Tennessee counties, and phone-based services throughout the Middle Tennessee region. Clients in Middle Tennessee receive phone or telehealth based counseling through the F&CS Crisis Contact Center, Crisis Line and health care access programs. F&CS also provides specialized Medicare outreach and advocacy to counties in West Tennessee, and our ACA Navigation work serves clients statewide.

TN - Bedford

TN - Cannon

TN - Cheatham

TN - Coffee

TN - Davidson

TN - Dickson

TN - Franklin

TN - Giles

TN - Hickman

TN - Houston

TN - Humphreys

TN - Lawrence

TN - Lewis

TN - Lincoln

TN - Marshall

TN - Maury

TN - Montgomery

TN - Moore

TN - Perry

TN - Robertson

TN - Rutherford

TN - Stewart

TN - Sumner

TN - Trousdale

TN - Wayne

TN - Williamson

TN - Wilson

TN - Cumberland