We Are Changing Our Agency’s Name & Why

Dear Friends and Community Partners of Family & Children’s Service of Niagara:

As friends and partners of our agency, we are reaching out to you to let you know of an exciting initiative happening at our agency. Following the completion of our agency’s Strategic Plan early last year, we committed to explore the possibility of an agency name change due to the following core factors:

• Confusion as to who we serve- “Family” & “Children” isn’t inclusive of everyone we serve, and when people only see these two words, they many times dismiss that our agency can help them if they don’t feel they fall into those categories.
• Location- “Niagara” in many ways is still associated with Niagara Falls alone vs. the entire county. We also provide service in Orleans County through our Healthy Families Program, and we serve many individuals from Erie County at Passage House and Casey House. While Niagara County is our home base, human services are becoming more ‘regional’, and we need to plan for that.
• Our current name is very similar to other agency names, and to that of government agencies, causing confusion for donors, funders, community partners, and clients.
• The changing nonprofit environment- Now more than ever, branding and marketing of nonprofits is essential to the sustainability of organizations and to carrying out our mission.

After consideration of these factors, we, with the approval of our Board of Directors, made the decision to move ahead with a process to discover a new agency name. We formed an Agency Naming Committee of several staff and Board members, and gathered feedback from the community. We worked with an outside organizational consultant to guide us through a process to arrive at a new name…and WE HAVE! We feel the name is reflective of who we are as an agency, and the direction we are going in this nonprofit environment. Most importantly, the name goes hand in hand with our mission: Side by Side, Step by Step…we strengthen our community by supporting and empowering individuals and families on their journey.

We are looking forward to this new chapter in our organization’s journey. It isn’t often that nonprofits change their name (this is our first name change in the past 39 years), but we wanted to take the initiative to do so in a thoughtful manner. The Agency Naming Committee worked hard to arrive at this name, and we are proud of the work we have done thus far. We plan on changing our name officially at the end of October, and will hold a press conference at that time to make an official announcement. We will also reach out to you, our friends and partners, to make sure you are aware of the official new name once that change is made. Making changes carries its challenges, but sometimes not to change also carries a risk. We believe this name change will help to take us forward in our current times, create new possibilities for our agency, and continue our tradition of being a leader in providing high quality and compassionate human services for our community.

Thank you for your continued support of our agency and mission,