Family Counseling Service traces its roots all the way back to 1925. Founded by a group of concerned local citizens and originally named The Family Service Organization, the agency’s original mission was to deliver food, clothing, and heating coal to needy families in the Aurora area. Counseling services became the focus of the agency after WWII, when societal changes, combined with the mental health effects of a long war, took their toll on our neighbors. The agency’s name would change a couple more times before settling on Family Counseling Service. What never changed, though, was our organization’s dedication to serving the ever-shifting challenges in our community.

As mental health moved to the forefront of our community’s needs, Family Counseling Service has led the way in Kane, Kendall, and the surrounding counties. No longer an agency that provides only counseling, FCS has grown to also include services for people who need help with substance use disorders, those who benefit from psychiatric medication services, or some who require help gaining access to other resources in the community like housing or healthcare. Our staff are in multiple school districts, people’s homes, and other organizations in the community, partnering wherever we can to help people manage behavioral health challenges. We’re also leading the way in training future mental health professionals. Our Continuing Education Network helps develop clinicians each year from all over Northern Illinois. And our 40-year-old master’s degree internship program has sent hundreds of trained mental health professionals into our community,  across the country, and even to other countries to help. We’ve spent the last hundred years adapting to and meeting needs in our community. We’ll spend the next hundred years helping people learn how to thrive.