HISTORY OF NORTHWEST FAMILY SERVICES, INC.
Northwest Family Services, Inc. is a Youth and Family Services Program, established in Alva, Oklahoma in 1976 under sponsorship of a citizen's group interested in meeting the needs of children and families in Northwest Oklahoma. The agency has grown continuously since its inception.
NFS is one of the major children and family service agencies in Northwest Oklahoma. It is incorporated as a nonprofit agency. NFS has a fifteen member Board of Directors who are representative of key institutions and community agencies in the service area. The agency has developed a professionally and fiscally sound profile in the communities of Alva, Cherokee, and the surrounding areas. NFS has had previous experience and success in developing, implementing and providing services for children and families.
The mission of Northwest Family Services, Inc. is to facilitate positive family functioning and advocate overall self-sufficiency and self-responsibility by making programs available to all individuals with the service area of the agency. That service includes Woods and Alfalfa counties in Oklahoma. Areas contiguous to those Oklahoma counties may also be included within the catchment area; provided that the services requested are not available in the respective counties through any other sources, and that the services requested are those that are normally included within the agency catchment area because it is considered by are business leaders to be within the economic/social sphere of influence of Alva.
Northwest Family Services, Inc.'s philosophy is that by concentrating the agency's objectives toward an enhancement of those behaviors which fall within the bounds of social appropriateness, and by increasing interpersonal and self-awareness, both the present and future lives of children and families seeking help will be enabled and enriched.
Therefore, the agency's programs shall be designed to address the issues of juvenile delinquency, drug abuse, family discord, parenting, limited knowledge base, and other concerns identified, and brought to, the attention of Northwest Family Services, Inc. These programs will have written description with a statement of goals and strategies.