Family Service of Dane County, Wisconsin, a private social service organization, was first established under the name Associated Charities in 1910. In the two years preceding its founding, members of the Madison Women's Club and several city aldermen led a campaign to foster cooperation between private charities in order to prevent duplication of relief efforts in Madison. Initially, representatives of these church-based and secular relief organizations comprised the Board of Directors of Associated Charities, and the organization was funded through member subscriptions and community donations. During its first decade, Associated Charities expanded its scope, moving from a coordinating agency for poor relief to an active social welfare organization. By 1920, it oversaw four health clinics, a day nursery, the Neighborhood House (an Italian community center), and a used clothing store called the Service Shop. In order to reflect this expansion in scope, in 1919 the organization changed its name to the Public Welfare Association.
During the 1920s, the association focused its efforts primarily on services to needy individuals and families, and its earlier health clinics and most of the other discrete services were transferred to other public or private relief agencies or incorporated as separate organizations. In 1925, with the help of the Capital Times, the association launched the Kiddie Camp for children exposed to tuberculosis. The association administered this yearly summer camp until 1940 when it became a separate non-profit agency.
Hard economic times in the early 1930s overwhelmed private charity agencies across the country, and Madison was no exception. In 1932, the Dane County Relief Department took on most of the associations routine casework, and four of five association caseworkers became employees of the public agency. The private agency continued as the Family Welfare Association, shifting its focus to serve self-supporting clients experiencing personal or family problems.
The association also began its involvement with children's services in the early 1930s, launching a foster care program in 1932 and acting as a licensed child placement agency. In 1935 it merged with another child placement agency, the Children's Service Association of Madison, and the name of the organization was changed again to Family Welfare and Children's Service Association.
Family disruptions during World War II brought a huge influx of new clients, and applications for service doubled during the 1940s. Social work students from the University of Wisconsin helped handle the burgeoning caseload, and two professional staff workers joined the agency in 1946 when it assumed administration of local USO/Travelers Aid services. Following the lead of the national Family Welfare Association, in 1945 the Madison organization changed its name to Family Service.
The long tenure of Executive Director Sophia Siebecker (1934-1957) provided stability during this era of change, and under her leadership, Family Service established two new programs in the late 1940s specifically designed to aid women and older community residents. The Homemaker Service, first launched in 1949 and revived in 1966, provided in-home domestic help for temporarily incapacitated mothers and for elderly and disabled people. The Women's Service Exchange helped older women find employment.
Until the late 1960s, funding for Family Service came largely through private donations and grants funneled through the Community Chest (later the United Way). However, in 1968 under the leadership of Executive Director Francis R. Redding (1966-1985), Family Service began a fee-for-service system designed to supplement United Way funding. In 1972, services were officially extended to all of Dane County, and group counseling was begun. In 1976, Family Service became a certified out-patient treatment facility allowing clients to utilize health insurance to cover counseling and treatment costs. In addition to general counseling, two specialized service areas were established in the late 1970s: financial counseling and domestic abuse counseling. In 1977, Family Service merged with the Madison Consumer Credit Counseling Service and launched an ongoing initiative to provide financial counseling and other credit services. In 1978, the establishment of Alternatives to Aggression marked the first of several ongoing programs (including Program to Prevent Woman Abuse and Children of Violent Homes) designed to aid the perpetrators and victims of domestic abuse.
In the mid-1980s, Family Service began to pursue contracts with local and state government agencies and school districts to provide such specialized services as domestic abuse counseling and programming to troubled teens. Under the leadership of newly-appointed president David Fraser (1985-1994), Family Service expanded both its range of programs and its general counseling services. Through Families and Schools Together (FAST), the agency worked with local schools to provide counseling for families with academically at-risk children. The Families in Transition (FIT) and Safe at Home programs offered in-home counseling for families facing the potential loss of children to out-of-home placement.
