The Oldest Human Service Nonprofit in San Antonio-Family Service
since it is like what I want to do with my career.
Their mission is to empower individuals and families to transform
their lives and strengthen their communities. Another mission is to
address the social determinants of health through a trauma-informed
care lens. The social determinants of health are where people live,
learn, work, play, and age. They are broken into five different
categories: economic stability, education, health and health care,
neighborhood environment, and social and community context. This
organization started since 1903 and it has been supporting
strengthening and serving San Antonio and surrounding communities
and its still going on from 1903-present. It breaks it down with a
timeline on their webpage from when the charity first started and
how it changes through all the years.
1903
Our Journey Begins
A small group of altruistic women launched a grassroots campaign to
help the poor and the hungry. They could not have foreseen that their
charitable mission, begun on a $5,000 budget, would endure and
indeed thrive for more than a century. Originally called The Charity
Association of San Antonio and Bexar County, that agency evolved to
become Family Service Association of San Antonio, the city’s oldest
human service agency.
• Family Service is created under the name The Charity
Association of San Antonio
2019-Present
Continuing Forward for Future Generations of Change
Family Service continues evolving to meet the changing needs of our
community. We are now in 14 counties across South Texas. We have
over 25 programs offering comprehensive services, with numerous
community partners to strengthen and expand our mission. We
remained open throughout the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020 and
through today, to continue offering the pivotal services our families
need.
• 2019: Family Service’s the Neighborhood Place’s renovation is
complete. Though the community center has been open during
renovations, a Grand Reopening finalized the transformation.
• Remained open throughout the pandemic offering services
TEXAS DEPARTMENT OF HUMAN SERVICES. The precursors of the
Texas Department of Human Services began during the Great
Depression of the 1930s: the Child Welfare Division of the Board of
Control, which was established in 1931 but not funded until 1935;
the Texas Relief Commission, which was in operation from 1933 to
1934; and the Old Age Assistance Commission, which was
established in 1936. In 1939 the legislature established the
Department of Public Welfare, incorporating the earlier agencies
under more centralized control. The new department was supervised
by the state board of public welfare, which was composed of three
members appointed by the governor for six-year terms. The board
appointed the executive director to serve as chief administrative
officer of the department. The major duties of the department were
to administer the state laws regarding assistance to the needy aged,
dependent children, and blind and to carry out the state's child
welfare program. Between 1945 and 1961 voters raised the ceiling
on relief funding from $35 million to $52 million for aid to the blind,
dependent children, and the aged; they raised the ceiling on state
funds for the disabled from $1.5 million to $2 million. In 1963 the
combined ceiling for these expenditures was $60 million.
In 1965 the Department of Public Welfare was authorized to
cooperate with the federal government in administering the anti-
poverty program, which had been established the previous year. State
funding for all assistance programs was raised from $60 million to
$80 million in 1969. The department continued in the 1970s to
administer four public assistance programs for needy Texans: old age
assistance, aid to the blind, aid to the permanently and totally
disabled, and aid to families with dependent children. The federal
government provided approximately 75 percent of the assistance
funds, and the state, by appropriation from the legislature, provided
the remainder. The department also administered the Texas Medical
Assistance Program (Medicaid), which helped pay the costs of
medical care for many people who were eligible for public assistance.
It served as the state agency responsible for administration of two
food programs for the benefit of needy persons-the commodity
distribution program and the food stamp program. The department's
division of social services provided many services to children, adults,
and families who received financial assistance through the
department. The department also had as a fundamental responsibility
the protection of all children from abuse, neglect, or exploitation. It
also provided adoptive services and was responsible for licensing
child-care and child-placing facilities.
In 1977 the legislature changed the name of the department to the
Texas Department of Human Resources. The department was
restructured in 1980, with the programs categorized to reflect two
major client groups: families and children, and aged and disabled
persons. Voters approved a flexible spending system for welfare
funding in 1981, which if state expenditures in this area should not
exceed 1 percent of the total budget. In 1985 the Department of
Human Resources was renamed the Texas Department of Human
Services. In 1987 the legislature added a penalty provision to the
Human Resources Code for failure to report abuse, neglect, or
exploitation of elderly or disabled people. In 1989 the board of
Human Services was expanded from three to six members.
The legislature authorized a new Health and Human Services
Commission in 1992 to oversee the state's eleven human services
agencies. Besides the Texas Department of Human Services, these
agencies included the Texas Department of Health, the Department
of Mental Health and Mental Retardation, the Texas Rehabilitation
Commission, the Texas Commission for the Blind, the Texas
Commission for the Deaf and Hearing Impaired, the Texas Youth
Commission, the Texas Juvenile Probation Commission, the Texas
Commission on Alcohol and Drug Abuse, the Texas Department on
Aging, and the Interagency Council on Early Childhood Intervention
Services. One of the commission's functions was to develop a plan for
the consolidation of human services programs and functions, as well
as for a permanent governing structure. As part of this plan, the Child
Protective Services, Adult Protective Services, and Childcare
Licensing programs were transferred to the new Texas Department
of Protective and Regulatory Services. Purchased health, indigent
health, and preventive health services programs were to be
transferred to the Texas Department of Health in September 1993.
References
https://www.tshaonline.org/
https://family-service.org/
