PORTLAND, Maine — The closure of Casey Family Services offices in Portland and Bangor will result in the layoffs of more than 40 people and leave “hundreds of families and children” without the specialized foster care programs they’ve become accustomed to, Portland Mayor Michael Brennan said Tuesday evening.
Brennan, who is chairman of the Annie E. Casey Foundation board of advisers, said the foundation’s decision to shutter the Casey Family Services offices nationwide blindsided his panel. He said he learned of the larger organization’s decision Monday afternoon, less than 24 hours before the foundation unveiled its plan to the public.
“This is a very disappointing decision,” Brennan told the Bangor Daily News on Tuesday. “There was no transparency in the process. This was a decision made by the board of trustees without consulting the advisers at all. … This is not a financial decision. This was not a case where they didn’t have the money necessary to continue services. This was purely a philosophical decision made by the board of directors and the president of the Annie E. Casey Foundation to get rid of the direct services.”
Casey Family Services’ Maine headquarters is at 75 Washington Ave. in Portland, and a satellite location exists at 30 Summer St. in Bangor.
Bangor Mayor Cary Weston did not immediately return a call on the subject Tuesday night.
Brennan said Casey Family Services has an annual budget of between $40 million and $45 million, compared with the Annie E. Casey Foundation’s endowment of $2.8 billion and its annual grant allocations totaling between $175 million and $200 million.
The Annie E. Casey Foundation is a private charitable organization dedicated to helping build better futures for disadvantaged children in the United States, according to its website. It was established in 1948 by Jim Casey, one of the founders of UPS, and his siblings, who named the foundation in honor of their mother.
In an announcement of the move Tuesday, foundation officials said the decision represents a shift of priorities from managing foster care and child welfare programs to providing more funding to other organizations that provide those services.
Casey Family Services employs 280 people and provides foster care programs under state contracts in Maryland, Connecticut, Maine, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, Rhode Island and Vermont. Casey Family Services provides what it describes as “therapeutic foster care services” to about 400 children over that area.
“The decision to change our strategy to focus on helping nonprofit human services agencies improve their service to families instead of operating our own foster care agency is a significant milestone in our organization’s history,” said Patrick T. McCarthy, trustee, president and CEO of the Casey Foundation, in a statement. “As the human services environment changes, we see an opportunity to help strengthen the work of frontline staff who often make life and death decisions on behalf of vulnerable children and families.
“We are proud of the contributions Casey Family Services has made in supporting families, working with foster parents, collaborating with public agencies, and providing outstanding care to children,” he continued. “This success is due to a skilled and dedicated staff and we deeply regret the impact this transition will have on them. We will honor the legacy of CFS and its people by continuing to work diligently to build better futures for children and families across the country.”
According to the timeline the foundation announced on Tuesday, “the majority” of children and foster families working with Casey Family Services will make the transition to other public agencies and organizations by the end of this calendar year, with a small number of employees held over until June 30, 2013, to help with clients who need longer to make the transition.
But Brennan said the “quality and intensity” of the programs provided by Casey Family Services, which specialized in working with older and “high-needs” foster children, is “unmatched” by any other group or agency in Maine.
“I don’t agree with this decision [to close Casey Family Services],” Brennan said. “I think it’s the wrong decision.”
More hope…more change…
Really, Obama’s fault? Did your read this article at all, or was this a muscle twitch?
Your ignorance is blinding you.
Thanks a lot George Bush! (makes about as much sense as blaming Obama for this after actually reading the article…)
You are so right. This DEPRESSION was started by George Bush and now, LePage has become his Depressions right hand man.
You did understand that it has NOTHING to do with finances…rather a “philosophical” difference right?
From the story: “…This is not a financial decision. This was not a case where they didn’t have the money necessary to continue services. This was purely a philosophical decision made by the board of directors and the president of the Annie E. Casey Foundation to get rid of the direct services.”
It’s pretty much a case of “Nannynanny boo boo” more than a financial one. In other words, people can’t get over themselves for the good of the families involved.
Egomania is going to kill this country long before any financial depression is and no politician is going to stop it.
40 more people out of work. Every day more Americans are being tossed overboard without a safety net to catch them. Ok. I loved a good mixed metaphor. But you get the idea.
No safety net? Unemployment insurance isn’t an option? The State has no more job retraining programs?
I’ve been downsized a number of times during my working life, and I always got another job, usually within the same week I lost the last one.
Whining people are so annoying,
Due to a medical condition I can no longer commute the 140 mile + per day to my job and had to apply for unemployment insurance as a result. Because it’s a medical condition certain documentation and protocols come into play that delay any payments for about 7-8 weeks. This is the first time in 35 working years I’ve needed unemployment and I feel like I’m being punished because of a medical condition I have no control over. Don’t know about you but two months without a paycheck puts me in the Ramen noodle breakfast club. Where I live unemployment is above 20% so jumping right back into the workforce in a comparable position within an accepted commuting radius is probably unrealistic. Your blase and cynical derision of those who are unemployed is typical of a low information commenter who can’t think past their own situation and lack the vision to see that economics affects people differently.
Or, I could ignore my doctor’s advice, keep my job and within a couple of years have to have my legs amputated below the knees. Hmmm, what would you do whiner-hater?
I dont know but it sounds like a lot more people are feeling the CHANGE promised by Obama then Me. My hours cut. I do not blame my boss. Higher copay insurance. Mr. Obama needs to understand there is a problem.Almost 4 years and the only change is downward.
This change has nothing to do with economic policy. If you’d take a moment to read the article, you’d (potentially) understand that the Board made a decision to operate differently. This private agency has plenty of money and operates freely of State and Federal money.
More Maine jobs bye bye. LePage you are doing such a great job destroying Maine.. Since you took office Maine has lost thousands of jobs every month. You have put Maine in such a Depression, we will never get out of.
It’s going to take a while to get out of the hole Baldacci got us into, it was worse than than anybody knew, sound familiar.
Where in this article do you get the notion that LePage or any politician had anything to do with this decision?
Indeed. NO politician had anything to do with this. The MAYOR (politician) of Portland is on the local board of directors and says he was blindsided by a decision of the parent charity. Hopefully, the same support will come to Maine and be distributed to the other private organizations doing similar work.
This was all in the article, I don’t have other information. Not Bush; not LePage; not even Obama. Just a decision to work the charity differently.
And how is this Lepage’s fault?
Because he exists?
Nobody wants to provide services; it’s difficult, messy, and doesn’t always work. It’s so much easier to be an “expert” and provide advice and policy recommendations.
This is actually GOOD NEWS of course the press wouldn’t write it that way.
Maine has a number of agencies providing “therapeutic foster care” C.H.C.S, Care Development, St Micheal’s Care and Comfort , and literally scores or other agencies can pick up the slack, and then Casey will be free to subsidize these agencies so they might provide better care.
Politicians see all change as dangerous to their careers. Newspapers prefer to get the meat of their stories from politicians.
Cheer up the “forty people” laid off will get jobs with the other agencies which will provide services to the “hundreds of families and children” who will indeed get “the specialized foster care programs they’ve become accustomed to”.
Tempest-in-a-teapot. Move on.
Where is the gov.when you need him to step up and help.When the lawyers needed their pay for work done.the gov.made a special move of funds to see them paid.I wonder how many have ties to maine lawmakers.What is sauce for the goose should work for the gander.
This means even more kids will now need loving homes. Find out if you’re up to the challenge: http://www.kidspeace.org/services.aspx?id=204
…but don’t do it through kid’s peace, they are a terrible agency.
don’t fall for everything that has a pretty name on it.