History

Family Service Association was founded by Alfred Smiley on February 1, 1898, during a public meeting called by the Minister’s Association and held at the YMCA. The purpose, since its inception, has been to alleviate poverty, encourage self-sufficiency, and promote the dignity of all people. The organization’s original name, Associated Charities of Redlands, was changed to Family Service Association in 1948.In its early years, Family Service had few paid staff. Each member of the Associated Charities was a volunteer case worker, appointed a “visitor” by the Executive Committee, and went out into the community to attend to the ill and destitute. In 1904, the first employee, Mrs. Bertha Van de Carr was hired for the joint mission of acting as a “visiting missionary” to clients and collecting contributions from donors. She went on to be the organization’s first Executive Secretary, serving until 1936. In November of 1906, the first office opened in Mrs. Van de Carr’s home at 18 East Fern Avenue. In 1909, the organization opened a wood yard to provide jobs for unemployed men. Those employed were paid 15 cents an hour, paid out in “tickets” redeemable for food and lodging. The wood was offered for sale to the public. In 1910, the first “visiting nurse” was hired.

Eldridge Lyon, the donor of the Lyon Wing to A.K. Smiley Public Library, donated Family Service’s first building, at 114 Vine St., in 1932. The building originally served as Redlands’ first hospital. In 1987, Board President, Rev. John Inglis (Pastor of Redlands’ First Presbyterian Church), along with Board members Dorothy Gerrard and Gene MacIntyre, presided over the sale of the Vine St. building and the move to and rehabilitation of a building at 402 W. Colton Ave., a building that originally housed the Hope Protestant Reformed Church. This allowed the organization to double the number of clients served. In 2004, the programs of Family Service and of Home Again were co-located on the Lawton St. site of Home Again with the addition of a new facility to handle donations and a distribution center, as well as new office space. This move also necessitated by the growing service needs of the community.

The financing of the work of the Family Service Association has always relied heavily on the donations of individual community members. The minutes of the first meeting show agreement that members who gave not less than 25 cents per month were called “subscribers,” probably because they agreed to “subscribe” on a regular basis; organized groups that gave were called “contributors.” In 1914 the organization received a bequest in the amount of $1,000 that was the beginning of the endowment fund. That fund, at the end of 2006 was valued at more than $990,000.

The Home Again Project, a program to benefit homeless families, began in 1990 at the site of the former House of Neighborly Services building on Lawton St. The House of Neighborly Services was a well-known and important agency in Redlands for many years. Originally begun to provide help and assistance for the Hispanic community, its programs began to wane in 1965 when the freeway was built, cutting the facility off from much of its constituency. The House of Neighborly Services was originally part of a state-wide program started by the Presbyterian Church. The original building on the Lawton St. site was built in 1927. The classroom addition, behind the original building, was built by former Redlands mayor Swen Larson in 1962 and extensively remodeled and enlarged in 2003. The Presbytery of Riverside, who had run the House of Neighborly Services program, owned the property and agreed in 1990 to lease it to Family Service for $1.00 a year. In 1998, the Presbytery of Riverside donated the property to Family Service, thus furthering plans for Family Service and Home Again to be co-located on Lawton Street. Planning began in earnest and in 2004 the newest location for the organization became operational, now functioning on 2+ acres in three buildings and serving over 1,500 families per year with over 2,000 case contacts per month. Today, a staff of 14 serves the same mission envisioned in 1898, to assist all “worthy poor who do not belong to any religious or charitable organizations able to support them”.