Contact Community Services and Mental Health Association of Onondaga County

Contact Community Services, Inc. and the Mental Health Association of Onondaga County, Inc. have announced they are forming a strategic partnership that consolidates governance, management and administrative functions. This new structure will make the best use of combined resources to continue the organizations’ missions and commitments to the community, according to Robert Tyson, president of the board of directors of Contact Community Services, Inc. “Both organizations will operate in a more efficient and cost-effective manner, strengthening the capacity of both,” Tyson said. “By integrating functions, we can reduce overhead and focus more resources on programs.”

Using an integrated governance model, a single board of directors will provide the oversight and policy-setting functions for both organizations. Patricia Leone, executive director of Contact Community Services, will also serve as executive director of the Mental Health Association. The Mental Health Association will move to the Contact Community Services headquarters in East Syracuse. Its telephone number will remain the same.

Both organizations have provided Central New York with mental health support and services for decades. Established in 1971 as a volunteer-based telephone counseling service, today Contact Community Services annually serves over 30,000 people through a variety of mental and behavioral health programs, including afterschool programs, school-based mental/behavioral health services, 24-hour hotline, youth emergency services for mental health hotline, and other educational and support services. The Mental Health Association has been providing mental health information and referral, education and outreach programming, mental health advocacy and other support and assistance since 1962.

“The Mental Health Association and Contact Community Services are a good fit,” says Ms. Leone. “We both have excellent reputations in the community and have earned great respect from funders and clients. This arrangement will make us both stronger and more effective in developing and providing programming for individuals and organizations and improving the delivery of mental health services to our community. Our combined voice will be a powerful tool in advocacy."

“Given the current economic environment, this integration of governance and administration could become a model for other non-profit organizations in Central New York,” says Thomas Dennison, Mental Health Association board member and professor of practice at Maxwell School of Syracuse University. “The Mental Health Association and Contact Community Services have taken an innovative step, and I think we will see other agencies exploring collaborative models.”