PathPoint has announced its merger with Kids & Families Together (K&FT), effective July 1. The groups’ complementary services will strengthen the mental health care and child- and family-related support available for vulnerable populations within the Central Coast, Pathpoint said.

Each organization’s board of directors voted on the merger.
 
Kids & Families Together offers a range of services for foster/resource, kinship, adoptive, and birth families in Ventura County. The organization’s mission is to strengthen relationships by providing safe, supportive help that keeps family members emotionally connected to one another.

K&FT opened its doors on Jan. 1, 2000, and since then, the organization has expanded its range of support. As a merged organization, PathPoint will now offer three service types: Developmental Disability Services, Behavioral Health Services, and Child & Family Services (encompassing K&FT).

As a new division of PathPoint, Kids & Families Together will retain its name and all existing contracted services will continue.

Jennifer Newbold, LMFT, will oversee the new K&FT division, as executive director of Behavioral Health Services and Child & Family Services.
 
During the 2023-24 fiscal year, the two organizations enhanced their partnership through a Services and Consulting Agreement, aimed at preparing both sides for integrating in a thoughtful, strategic, and collaborative manner.

Co-founders David and Faith Friedlander , who retired on June 30, said they anticipate remaining involved in the merged organization as supporters and in a capacity that best matches their circumstances and the organization’s mission.

Three members of K&FT’s Board of Directors – Crystal Cummings, Mary Galvin, and Sharon Watts Woolley (K&FT’s former board chair) – have joined PathPoint’s Board.
 
“We are thrilled about the merger between Kids & Families Together and PathPoint,” said Sharon Watts Woolley, former chair of K&FT’s Board of Directors. “K&FT serves as a pillar of service to foster, kinship, adoptive, and biological children and families in need.

“We have worked diligently and collaboratively with PathPoint executives and staff members to ensure that this merger will benefit both organizations and the communities we serve,” she said. “We sincerely believe that we will be ‘stronger together.’”
 
For more, visit www.PathPoint.org.