This year I became the most recent in a long line of board chairs who have proudly served Family & Children’s Service (FCS) over the past 109 years.  It is a position I value highly and I am honored to be part of an organization that continues to be so vitally important to helping people in our community.  I am grateful to our outgoing chair, Paul Stach, my board colleagues, and FCS CEO, Delly Beekman, for positioning the agency to best address the needs of our community today, while providing a solid foundation for the future.  I look forward to working with them and our dedicated staff to fulfill the agency’s mission to provide compassionate care, intervention and education to people during challenging times in their lives.

As with most non-profit organizations, maintaining appropriate funding to support an ever-increasing need for services is always a challenge, especially as the number of those 65 years and older rapidly increases and people live longer.  The recently enacted changes in tax law pose a particular challenge for all nonprofits, including FCS.  We are trying to understand these changes and are investigating how they will impact the agency, our services, and our donors and funders.  FCS will continue to stand with other non-profits in advocating for the countless vulnerable individuals and families we serve each year.  I have high expectations that our volunteers and donors will continue to be as generous as they have always been and our Board of Directors, social workers, nurses, home health and supportive aides, and support staff will continue to work diligently and with compassion to strengthen, protect and preserve the dignity and independence of people in need.  That is what our clients expect from us, it’s what they deserve, and it’s what we are wholeheartedly committed to doing.

This year, we will continue to improve and expand our current programs for the benefit of the over 9,000 clients we serve annually.  Our special events for 2018 have already been scheduled, each of which raises funds that are essential to sustaining FCS services and agency operations. And we will continue to explore opportunities that address emerging, yet unmet, community needs.  I am very excited to serve for the next two years as the Chair of the FCS Board of Directors and as such, I am deeply committed to improving the lives of all those we serve throughout Monmouth County.

Deborah Zilai

Chair, FCS Board of Directors