Family of Woodstock
Jenny Munoz
March 10, 2011
BSHS/355
The Family of Woodstock, a social service agency, was founded by those individuals who felt that certain factors presented the opportunity for them to start a social service agency as a direct result of the Woodstock Festival held in a town approximately 100 miles from their location. Many of those who attended the Woodstock Festival brought little, if any, personal belongings or food with them. They were sleeping in parks and spent time hunting down food and/or shelter. In many cases, the attendees were looking for shelter, food and clothing. The community came together with one resident by the name of Gail Vaisl offering her home as well as her telephone service to prevent the Festival attendees from roaming through the area and possibly being arrested for vagrancy. This began the Family of Woodstock whose mission is “to provide confidential and fully accessible crisis intervention, information, prevention, and support services to address the needs of individuals and families. The scope of the agency's vision allows us to bring to bear resources to address a broad spectrum of human problems.” (Family of Woodstock, 2014). The commitment that the staff at Family would not tell people what to do nor pass judgment on them, the staff was instructed to listen and encourage those who came for help to make choices that would be of benefit. The qualified workers goal was to refer them to the existing agencies, but be able to fill in when no other agency could assist individuals seeking assistance. Family of Woodstock has become the premier agency for individual sand families seeking assistance from areas of homelessness, domestic violence, emergency services, child and adolescent services. The services from the agency have certainly met the needs of their community and beyond by providing family with numerous shelters and housing programs such as Family House which...