inTouch

Merger Updates

AzCA recently hosted 30 college students from the nationally recognized American Humanics Nonprofit Leadership and Management program who reviewed our marketing and communications efforts. Out of the many great suggestions that day, came the insight that the mergers we have completed with six agencies over the past 11 years have been an important and valuable part of our success and growth, and that we should update our donors and supporters about the continued success of our member agencies after they merge with AzCA. Going forward, we will feature updates about our member agencies on the anniversary of their merger with AzCA.

Arizona's Children Association merged with The Parent Connection in April 1999 and New Directions Institute for Infant Brain Development in April 2006.

The staff at The Parent Connection has remained virtually unchanged since the merger. "Almost everybody here with the exception of one educator has more than 16 years at The Parent Connection," said director, Kim Metz. "Our agency got its start in the early '90's," added Kim. "By 1998 our board and executive director realized we needed to get our feet on the ground, so we started looking around for an agency with history and credibility that would complement our work. Arizona's Children Association was right at the top of the list."

"Our history and experience began to show us that we needed to be serving children at a very early age, and giving families the tools they need to reach their children before they arrived at our counseling and rehabilitation services," said AzCA President and CEO Fred Chaffee. "By merging with The Parent Connection and keeping the name, we immediately had knowledge and credibility. That trend continued with our merger with NDI."

Since the merger, The Parent Connection has extended its reach from families with children from zero to five to parents of children all through adolescence. The agency has grown beyond Tucson to Safford and rural Pima County. "Working together as a team, we are serving more families in a bigger area while continuing the quality of work we've always done," added Kim. "AzCA's intent was for us to be the best at who we are and what we do. We are serving more families in a bigger area, while continuing the quality of work we've always done. It's win, win, win."

For New Directions Institute for Infant Brain Development, the merger with AzCA has meant statewide and national growth. "Our merger with Arizona's Children has allowed us to take all of our programs statewide, which is something we never could have done," said NDI founder Jill Stamm. "We have taken advantage of the fact that there are highly trained masters level behavioral health specialists at AzCA for whom our information makes immediate sense. They have begun to apply our early brain development information in their daily work with families, as well as directly bring our programming into their communities."

On the national level, NDI has leveraged AzCA's long history and credibility with the Child Welfare League of America to bring it's programs and products to several other states.