Founded in 1889 by an iconoclastic and daring firebrand -- Katharine Felton -- FSA has long claimed a place as a leading innovator of effective, evidence-based social services.
In the devastating aftermath of the 1906 earthquake and fire, and under Felton's leadership, FSA spearheaded San Francisco's recovery efforts city-wide, leading the way to a restored and strengthened city. FSA's comprehensive continuum of services -- renowned nationwide as the "San Francisco Model of Care" -- served as the template for effective, informed, and insightful human services.
Now, nearly 118 years since its founding, FSA continues to forge the way to a better future, offering state-of-the-art mental health care and social service programs that incorporate the field's best evidence-based practices.
For example, this year FSA is implementing four new programs to serve San Francisco's most seriously mentally ill people -- those who are most vulnerable, most costly, and hardest to reach. Forging strong and effective inter-agency partnerships, employing the best and most effective treatment methods, and providing an integrated array of essential services, these Full Service Partnerships will help reach -- and restore -- San Francisco's most fragile, troubled, and disturbing young people, adults, and seniors.
State and national studies demonstrate that intensive programs like these maximize client recovery while cutting taxpayer costs, reducing homelessness and its associated ills, and offering hope and support to desperate families.
Our newest endeavor, the Felton Institute for Excellence in Clinical Training continues the focus on exemplary research that has characterized our work for more than a century. Named, of course, for FSA's founding director, the Felton Institute is a training facility bringing together the best teachers and practitioners from throughout the nation to provide training and consulting on the latest in evidence-based and research-proven service and treatment approaches. In many cases, FSA classes will be taught by the very professors and clinicians who developed the original service approaches.
These new endeavors -- both in the field and in the classroom -- embody FSA's ongoing, unwavering commitment to improving life for the mentally ill, their families, and their communities.
By creating the best, most advanced programs available anywhere, and by bringing them to those who need them most, FSA continues its legacy of leadership. We hope you'll join us.
Amalia Egri-Freedman
Chair of the Board of Directors
