Boys & Girls Town of Missouri, Edgewood Children’s Center Approve Merger
New organization will expand services available to children and families, strengthen the impact of state funds and donor support, and promote service innovation
St. Louis (Aug. 28, 2009) — The independent boards of directors of Boys & Girls Town of Missouri and Edgewood Children’s Center voted yesterday afternoon to approve the merger of the two children and family services agencies.
The merger forms a new parent organization that can include a family of agencies, beginning with Boys & Girls Town and Edgewood. The name of the new parent organization has yet to be determined. St. Louis will serve as the headquarters of the new parent agency.
The merger offers significant benefits to children and families needing services as well collaborating social service agencies, officials who steward public funds, taxpayers whose dollars support treatment for needy children and families, and donors and funders providing funds to the agencies.
- Streamlining business operations frees additional resources for increased services to children and families.
- Children and families will have access to several services within one organization which will ease transitions between programs.
- Referral sources will save time and effort searching for the best resource for the children and families they serve.
- Cross pollination of each agency’s talent and expertise will help craft new forms of service delivery – impacting best practices throughout the industry.
“The most compelling reason behind this merger is to maximize the strengths of each agency to better meet the increasing demand for services by children and families,” said Vince Hillyer, president of Boys & Girls Town of Missouri, who will serve as chief executive officer of the merged organization.
“We are not joining to make a ‘bigger’ organization, but a ‘better’ organization,” explained Wayne Crull, Edgewood president and chief executive officer. “We have spent months in critical review and planning to create an efficient operating model that maximizes our strengths and forms an agency with an even stronger voice to advocate for children and families.” Crull will service as chief operating officer of the new organization.
The agency will serve approximately 7,800 children and family members annually from four regional campuses. Boys & Girls Town and Edgewood will combine programs in St. Louis under the name of Edgewood Children’s Center and will operate from Edgewood’s campus in Webster Groves. Boys & Girls Town campuses in Columbia, Springfield and St. James will continue operations as Boys & Girls Town of Missouri.
Combined, the agencies will form one of the largest children’s not-for-profit services in Missouri. The organization will employ 735 staff members with a projected budget of $31.8 million.
The plan of merger and other documents are to be filed with the office of Missouri Secretary of State immediately. The first official day of operation is expected to be October 1. |
Columbia Region
