Ravenna agency takes over Valley Counseling

By ED RUNYAN

runyan@vindy.com

WARREN

The $1 million in funding cuts made last year to Valley Counseling Services led to an 18-person reduction in staffing and Tuesday’s announcement that the nonprofit Trumbull County organization has been acquired by another nonprofit, Family and Community Services of Ravenna.

Tim Schaffner, president and CEO of Valley Counseling, said the acquisition will ensure that the agency’s 5,000 clients — mostly indigent men — will continue to receive mental-health and addiction counseling.

Without the acquisition, Valley Counseling would have run out of money by April, Schaffner said.

Valley Counseling, whose administrative and counseling offices are at 150 East Market Street, also has offices on Mahoning Avenue in Warren and Belmont Avenue in Liberty and employs about 80 psychiatrists, nurses, counselors, social workers, case managers and others.

Valley Counseling will retain its name, locations, local leadership and current services, said Mark A. Frisone, executive director of Family and Community Services.

FCS had about 400 employees before the Valley acquisition in 11 counties in Northeast Ohio from Ashtabula to Jefferson counties and as far west as Summit County. FCS has acquired 13 nonprofit agencies in the past seven to eight years, Frisone said.

April Caraway, executive director of the Trumbull County Mental Health and Recovery Board, formerly Lifelines, said it reduced the amount of funding it gave to Valley Counseling last year by $1 million as a result of state budget cuts — about 17 percent of Valley Counseling’s funding.

Frisone said FCS is able to provide services at a lower cost by reducing certain administrative costs, such as auditing and accreditation.

A larger organization such as his will be better able to weather the “highs and lows” that have hit the nonprofit mental-health field in Ohio and will continue to occur, Frisone said. Such acquisitions are happening all over Ohio, he added.