KALAMAZOO (WKZO-AM) — Family and Children’s Services is one of west Michigan’s oldest human service agencies, begun in Kalamazoo 113 years ago.
It now serves a nine-county region in southwest Michigan with facilities in Kalamazoo and Calhoun counties. They fix families and help parents and children get along together, and so when the organization changes its leadership, it’s a big deal.
Longtime CEO Rosemary Gardiner is retiring. They have just announced that she will be replaced by Sherry Thomas-Cloud, the current director at the Douglass Community Association.
Thomas-Cloud said working in social services is difficult work, but it’s also very rewarding.
Fixing families entails behavior and mental health counseling, crisis intervention, foster care, infant care, educational, parental support, dealing with learning disabilities, and being able to do it in more than one language. There are many more aspects to it, too.
