Child And Family Services Of SWM 125th Birthday Next Week

childandfamilyservices
childandfamilyservices

Next week will bring a party to celebrate the 125th birthday of Child and Family Services of Southwestern Michigan. Executive Director Joseph Goepfrich tells WSJM News the agency was created on September 28, 1891, and it’s changed quite a bit since then.

“We have had different programs that have come and gone, and we have always tried to focus on our needs within the community where there have been scare resources available to meet those needs, and as community needs have changed, so have we and we’ve continued to grow and evolve and change.”

Child and Family Services was initially created to help place children in adoptive and foster homes, and now it also offers care services to adults, and runs the domestic violence Safe Shelter in Berrien County. Next Wednesday’s birthday party will be at the Harbor House in Benton Harbor from 5 to 7 p.m. On hand will be the mayors of Benton Harbor and St. Joseph, as well as a 104-year-old client of the agency.