About Us

Since 1891, Fred Finch Youth Center has changed the lives of over 20,000 children–children who frequently have been emotionally and sexually abused, neglected, and abandoned–giving them strength, knowledge, and hope.

One of the East Bay’s largest non-profits, we have long been known for our residential programs. In recent years, we have adjusted these residential programs to serve a specific population of critically underserved youth: those dually diagnosed with both developmental disabilities and severe emotional disturbance. Meanwhile, we have dramatically expanded our community-based programs for children, adolescents and young adults, ranging from age 4 to 24. Young people are referred from throughout California by parents, guardians, schools, public and/or private agencies.

The assistance we provide is innovative and in some cases unique in the country. Fred Finch has residential programs in Oakland, Vacaville, and San Diego, as well as community-based programs in Alameda, Contra Costa, San Diego, San Francisco, and San Mateo Counties. Most recently, we have won major Mental Health Services Act contracts to initiate new programs providing crisis assessment and stabilization in San Diego County, and transitional housing and supportive services for Transitional Age Youth in Alameda and Contra Costa Counties.

FFYC is proud to have been chosen as the Oakland Raiders Courage House by the Ed Block Courage Award Foundation.

Our History: Serving Children, Youth, and Families for 116 Years

 

Fred Finch Youth Center was founded in 1891 by Captain Duncan Finch and his wife, Eunice. They named the center after their only son, Fred, who had died of tuberculosis at a young age. Fred Finch Youth Center started out as a Methodist orphanage–and in the early 1900s, as many as 220 children at a time lived on our campus nestled in the lower Oakland hills. One of our most prominent early residents was Pulitzer Prize- and Academy Award-winning writer William Saroyan, who lived here with his siblings in the early 1900s and later wrote about his experiences at Fred Finch.

We remained an orphanage until the early 1950s, when we began to focus our mission on adolescents who were considered “incorrigible” or delinquent and started providing mental-health services for these young people and their families. In the late 1960s, we saw the need for a sophisticated residential-treatment facility for even-more-troubled youngsters. With a federal mental-health grant and private fundraising, in the early 1970s we erected a non-public school with three buildings, four new cottages with single rooms, and a clinical/administration building. From the 1970s on, we have focused on serving the youth that many other agencies don’t have the resources to help.

Today, our Oakland campus offers a unique residential program for youth dually diagnosed with both developmental disabilities and emotional impairment. Elsewhere, we offer two more dual-diagnosis residential programs (in Vacaville and San Diego), and a host of programs in the community. Among many other services, these programs support young people in their homes and at their schools, provide therapy to youth and their families in brief periods of crisis, and offer transitional and permanent housing and support for older youth. We are especially concerned about the needs of youth “aging out” of foster care.

Fred Finch’s programs and services provide therapeutic environments that foster psychological growth. We facilitate safe communities where a caring, skilled staff provides the support and understanding young people need to counter the effects of abuse, condemnation, rejection, and dysfunctional family life they may have encountered. We strive to reduce self-destructive behaviors and to prepare each youth we serve for self-sufficiency and independent living.

Fred Finch is licensed by the California State Department of Social Services and is accredited by the California Association of Services for Children. Our special-education program is certified by the California State Department of Education. We recently received a renewal of our prestigious three-year accreditation from the Commission on Accreditation of Rehabilitation Facilities.

(Click here for a description of our Training Department, which prepares our professional staff and offers free training to staff of other child- and youth-serving agencies.)