Farnham Family Services and the County of Oswego Council on Alcoholism and Addictions Join Forces
Oswego, NY - Two leading and well-established Central NY substance use treatment and prevention providers announced today they have agreed upon an affiliation and planned merger. The Boards of Directors of Farnham Family Services and The County of Oswego Council on Alcoholism and Addictions (COCOAA) are joining forces to form a more efficient and stronger organization to prevent and treat local substance abuse.
This effort was supported by a grant awarded from the Central New York Community Foundation and the Shineman Foundation. The New York Council on Nonprofits (NYCON) was engaged to provide professional facilitation, due diligence and legal support services to a joint Strategic Partnership Task Force of the boards.
“The treatment and prevention of Substance Use Disorder in Oswego County continues to be a high priority. COCOAA and Farnham will bring the strengths of our respective organizations together and unite to build one organization that has the capacity and resources to meet the needs of Oswego County,” Eric Bresee, Executive Director of Farnham Family Services said in a prepared statement.
“Our coming together is a progressive move for our community as our two agencies have been collaborating in numerous ways over the past several years," said Penny Greene, Executive Director of COCOAA, in the agency's press release. "Both Farnham and COCOAA have long histories of serving our communities and excellent reputations. To combine the best of both organizations in order to improve and expand our services to meet critical community needs, just makes sense.”
“We are getting creative about how we deploy existing resources. By leveraging the strengths of COCOAA and Farnham we will create efficiencies that will allow for the reinvestment of resources into the development of needed community services that are currently lacking,” stated Bresee.
Eric Bresee, currently serves as the Executive Director of Farnham Family Services, and will remain in that position when the agencies merge. Penny Greene, currently executive director of COCOAA will be appointed as the Associate Executive Director of the newly unified organization.
Although both agencies will function as one, COCOAA will continue to serve their clients at their 53 East First Street location in Oswego until April 1, 2020, and continue to operate under their corporate name until the necessary paperwork for the merge is finalized, with an expected completion date of January 1, 2021.
For more information you may contact them at (315) 342-4489 or visit online at www.FarnhamInc.org.
