About our company
A Member of the Community for 133 Years!
United Family & Children's Society is a direct descendent of the first
private organized efforts to help needy people in the Plainfield, NJ
area in 1877. The Plainfield Relief Society was established with the
philosophy "that the best charity was to aid and teach the destitute to
help themselves." In 1893, the Organized Aid Association was formed
wth similar goals and was followed by the Charity Organization Society
in 1907.
In 1941, these pioneering agencies and The United Catholic Aid
Society and the United Hebrew Charity Organization were merged into one
group to form what is now known as
United Family & Children's Society
The 125th Anniversary of the agency was celebrated at a special event in
April 2002. President George W. Bush and the Governor of New Jersey each
sent congratulatory letters honoring the agency's work over the past 125
years.
Today the focus is on mental health services, adoption,
foster care, special programming for pregnant and parenting teens and
services for 175 de-institutionalized adults in a Plainfield residential
healthcare facility. The agency is licensed by the NJ Department of Human
Services for adoption and mental health outpatient services.
The agency is a field location for local clinical degree graduate programs.
Rutgers Graduate School of Social Work, Rutgers Graduate School of Applied
Psychology, and the graduate schools of social work at Columbia University,
Fordham University and Kean University have all been represented by clinical
interns at United Family.
Professional Affiliations and Giving
Supported by People Like You!
United Family is a certified partner of the United Way of Greater Union County
and Somerset County United Way, both in New Jersey. Staff contribute to the
annual United Way campaign at a 100% level.
As a 501(c)3 organization, donations to United Family are tax-deductible.
Financial gifts, one-time donations and multi-year pledges are accepted throughout
the year and directly support the agency's services to its clients. Contributions
in the form of a bequest in a will, donations of stock and naming the agency as
the beneficiary of a life insurance policy are also gratefully accepted. Contact
your tax advisor with any questions.
Major contributors to UFCS include: the Turrell Fund, Harris Brothers Foundation,
The Plainfield Foundation, The Union Foundation, E.J. Grassmann Trust, The Arnold
Schwartz Foundation and the Boyle Family Foundation along with many generous and
thoughtful individual donors.
United Family is a member of the NJ Association of Mental Health Agencies (NJAMHA),
the Union County Court Consortium, the Mental Health Professional Advisory Committee
for Union County, The Union County Youth Services Commission, and the Union County
Human Services Advisory Council.