By LOIS KINDLE
The Crisis Center of Tampa Bay and Success 4 Kids & Families recently announced they’ve reached agreement on merging operations.
The latter, which provides support and services for individuals and families coping with behavioral, emotional or mental health challenges, is expected to become one of the crisis center’s core crisis and service divisions as of Jan. 1, 2025. At that time, the center will assume responsibility for running existing Success 4 Kids & Families programs that offer a wide range of services to families, children, youth and young adults across the community.
Success 4 Kids & Families was established in 2005. One of its founding members and first executive director was Clara Reynolds, who served the 501(c) 3 nonprofit organization for 10 years before moving on to the Crisis Center of Tampa Bay, where she became president & CEO, a position she continues to hold.
While Success 4 Kids & Families is both successful and profitable, its leadership team began exploring the possibility of merging its services in early 2024 with another nonprofit to ensure the long-term success of its programs. Additionally, Executive Director Pam Jeffre and her second in command both wanted to retire, Reynolds said.
“The question was what makes the best sense for the people Success 4 Kids & Families serve? she continued. “It specializes in working with children and families in crisis, which is in perfect alignment with what we do.”
After exercising due diligence process, the Crisis Center of Tampa Bay’s Board of Directors unanimously voted for the merger.
“We’re taking on $4 million in revenue and operational expenses,” Reynolds said. “The government grants and contracts that fund Success 4 Kids & Families are not duplicated with ours.”
After the transition, Success 4 Kids & Families will cease operation as a separate nonprofit organization and will maintain its current space at 2902 N. Armenia Ave., Suite 200, Tampa. Its employees will be employed by the crisis center.
“We’ll be able to provide operational efficiencies while still maintaining the unique and valuable services Success 4 Kids & Families provides our community,” Reynolds said. “When the two organizations merge, it will be a tremendous honor to lead as president and CEO.
“I am thrilled the quality programs that Success 4 Kids & Families has operated for years are going to continue to flourish with the Crisis Center of Tampa Bay,” Jeffre said. “This merger compliments the strengths of both agencies. Our clients and stakeholders can expect a seamless transition, so they can continue to receive the same care and service they have received in the past.”
About the Crisis Center of Tampa Bay
The Crisis Center of Tampa Bay has served the Tampa Bay area for more than 50 years. The mission of the Crisis Center of Tampa Bay is to ensure that no one in the community has to face crisis alone. As a tax-exempt charitable organization, it’s the community’s gateway to help, hope and healing and is Tampa Bay’s elite provider of crisis and trauma services.
Its mission to ensure that no one in the community has to face crisis alone is accomplished through its telephone contact center, which answers seven crisis and community information lines; its trauma counseling at three locations, plus teletherapy; its functioning as Hillsborough County’s certified rape crisis centers at locations in Tampa and Ruskin; and its TransCare Medical Transportation.
COURTESY PHOTO
A merger of the Crisis Center of Tampa Bay and Success 4 Kids & Families is expected to take place Jan 1, 2025, when the crisis center will assume responsibility for running the latter organization’s programs and services. From left are Clara Reynolds, Crisis Center of Tampa Bay CEO, and Pam Jeffre, executive director of Success 4 Kids & Families.
Its operation and services are funded through government grants and contracts; fundraising efforts (donations from individuals, businesses and foundations); and insurance payments for medical transport.
For more information about the Crisis Center of Tampa Bay, visit https://www.crisiscenter.com/.
For emergency assistance, call 911 or 211.
About Success 4 Kids & Families
Success 4 Kids & Families provides family-focused behavioral health and psycho-educational services to assist both individuals and their families. Its services include case management and community-based therapy services for school-age children and teens and also specialized services for adolescents and young adults.
For more information about Success 4 Kids & Families, visit https://www.s4kf.org/.