Newtown Youth Services, Counseling Center To Merge

By John Voket

The two local nonprofit mental health agencies and providers of crisis intervention, prevention outreach, and counseling services have officially endorsed a merger. Newtown Youth Services and the Family Counseling Center of Newtown will proceed with merger plans under the working agency name Newtown Youth and Family Services for the time being.

The plans will not impact either agency’s services in the coming months.

The news was announced Monday, June 26, as the two agencies conducted simultaneous annual meetings in different rooms at the Booth Library. Christopher Gardner, who had been serving as the NYS chairman, and newly elected FCC chair Laura Miller-Kurtz will act as co-chairs for the new organization as merger plans move through the process.

Both of the agency leaders said their goal is to see the administrative and service delivery operations of the new organization fully integrated and functioning, possibly in a new or larger central location, by January 1, 2007. They said plans to see the financial operations of the agencies, as well as all independently held licensing and other nonservice delivery functions, fully merged by June 30, 2007.

They both stressed that the action will not change or interrupt any services currently being provided by either agency, and that no staff positions are planned to be cut.

Beth Barton will become the new executive director for the merged agency. She is currently serving in that capacity at FCC.

The youth services agency is currently without a permanent exec, and that position will not be filled.

Mr Gardner said NYS will continue with its fundraising programs including the ongoing raffle for a Mini-Cooper automobile and a fall road race. The FCC is not planning to change or downscale its signature holiday events including the Festival of Trees fundraiser or the high profile Holiday Festival in December.

Both agency’s boards approved the final year’s independent operation budgets for the separate organizations, which also include line items tied to funding merger logistics.

Both Mr Gardner and Ms Miller-Kurtz said there would be at least one opportunity for the public to provide input on what they hope to see in a newly expanded family and youth service system in Newtown. They also plan to work closely with other medical and prevention organizations including Kevin’s Community Center, The Prevention Council, and The Parent Connection to enhance local programming.

“It’s a way to provide more services to our community, cut down on waiting time for intervention, eliminate any redundancies, and save some money that we can immediately turn back into programming,” Mr Gardner said.

“Our organizations have so many complementary missions,” Ms Miller-Kuttz added. “This will be a great thing for Newtown.”

During the FCC annual meeting, which was led by the organization’s chairman Joseph Humeston, the mood among other volunteers, board members, staff as well as representatives of NYS who attended the FCC meeting was upbeat. Mr Humeston took the opportunity to look back on how his organization rebounded after undergoing some leadership transitions leading up to Ms Barton’s employment.

“Over the past year, the Family Counseling Center has continued to grow and serve the needs of an expanding client population,” he said during the meeting. “As we noted in our annual report, this has been a year of dynamic growth for the Family Counseling Center.”

Besides the administrative staff reorganizations with the creation of the new function of president, in the last fiscal year FCC provided more than 1,000 individual, couple, and family sessions than the previous year serving 46 percent of clients with income levels of less than $20,000.

Mr Humeston pointed out that the 2004-2005 period also saw significant growth in programs aimed at young people and their families such as The Newtown School System Substance Abuse Counseling Program and the FCC Strengthening Families Program.

“The Parent Education Program engaged 184 parents in issues of divorce, child support, and custody matters involving children under 18 years of age,” he said. “And 14 children and their families received services from our therapists through the Intensive In-Home Child and Adolescent Psychiatric Serve program.”

The center also provided more than 50 hours of consulting and training to the Interfaith Early Learning Center in Danbury to help teachers identify at-risk children and manage behavioral problems.

Mr Humeston took the opportunity to recognize retiring board member Bruce Walczak after eight-and-a-half years of service including handling the duties of treasurer for part of his volunteer tenure. The group also recognized Tim Cunningham, who had been serving as interim chairman leading up to Ms Miller-Kurtz’s election.

Numerous staff members and volunteers were also singled out, including the FCC’s new clinical director Elise Trock.

“She brings to the job years of clinical practice here at the center and a stint on the board of directors,” Mr Humeston said. “Supremely committed to clients and staff, Elise has put into place numerous efficiencies that have improved the center’s intake system and follow-up procedures. As clinical director, clients see a concerned professional who will advocate tirelessly on their behalf.”

The center’s award for Volunteer of the Year went to Layne Lescault, who devoted hundreds of hours to making sure that the organization’s signature fundraiser, the popular Festival of Trees at The Holiday Festival was “…a visual, artistic and commercial success.”

“Over the years, Layne has weathered early December snowstorms, venue changes, hours of setup time, volunteer no-shows, and less-than-artistic creations with the patience of a real-life Mrs Claus,” Mr Humeston said. “It is because of her single-minded vision and dedication that the Festival of Trees is a must-see every year at The Holiday Festival.”

As the meeting drew to a close, Mr Humeston invited the newly formed organization’s new co-chairs to share the podium. It was during these brief remarks that both Mr Gardner and Ms Miller-Kurtz mentioned the need for comprehensive staff, volunteer and community input toward the future and successful merger of the organizations.

Following the meeting, Ms Miller-Kurtz said the merger task force would waste no time in soliciting community input on what services and functions might be required of the new local youth and family service agency. She said the first of at least two town hall-type meetings was in the final stages of planning for sometime in mid to late July, and that she and Mr Gardner were anxious to incorporate residents’ input into the early stages of the merger process.