Ramsey County History – Winter 1991: “100 Years of Helping People: Family Service and Its Legacy of Leadership”

100 Years of Helping People: Family Service and Its Legacy of Leadership

Author: Tom Kelley

Family Service, Inc., a social service agency, began in St. Paul in 1892 and has lasted one hundred years. Beginning as Associated Charities, an information clearinghouse for the coordination of private charity for the “worthy poor,” in the 1910s it moved into relief and social work, with an emphasis on “the preservation of family life.” The agency survived several wars, the Depression, periodic financial crises, and demographic changes to become and remain a full-service, private, secular social-service provider. Strong leaders (notably James Jackson, Charles Stillman, A. E. Heckman, Dawson Bradshaw, and Ron Reed) have been very important. Once the mission became established, the agency stuck with its core functions while changing with the times. Thus Family Service has regularly added new services while discarding others, merged with other agencies, developed new sources of money, and grown in size and scope. This article is a condensation of the agency’s history, A Legacy of Leadership and Service.

PDF of Kelley article