WHO WE ARE

RCS began with a simple goal when it received its non-profit designation in 1995 — there was a need to have a locally controlled administrated organization who could control the decisions, both financial and programmatic on behalf of rural California kids.

We started as a Foster Family Agency, helping those who had nowhere else to turn. RCS began with five families who decided to foster children, quickly expanding to 18 over Mendocino and Lake Counties. Fast forward to 2022 and along with Humboldt County, there are now many families who foster children.

But the needs of the communities we serve were more than just foster families. We quickly began to add other programs, including youth residential services and treatment. We now offer supportive housing for adults, kids and transitional age youth. We also operate a 60-bed shelter for the unhoused as well as youth empowerment services and job training.

In Mendocino County, RCS also operates a Crisis Line which takes in nearly 9,000 calls for service every year. It all comes back to one of RCS’s biggest tenets — if there is a need, how can we fill it?

Redwood Community Services has undergone many changes throughout the years, one of the biggest being a name change from Redwood Children’s Services. Considering our reach and work now reaches far beyond children, we consider it a proud change.

RCS is also proud to employ a number of our former clients in a variety of positions throughout the organization — taking people where they are and building them up is a critically important part of what we do, an idea that extends to every facet of the work Redwood Community Services does.

As Redwood Community Services continues to grow and change, our main goal remains the same — serve people in our communities and give them everything we have to help them succeed.

OUR COMMITMENTS