OUR COMMUNITY

16 | JULY 8 • 2021 

T

his year, human 
services organization 
Oakland Family 
Services is celebrating 100 
years in operation.
The private not-for-profit 
agency, which works with 
vulnerable and disadvantaged 
children, adults and families 
in Southeastern Michigan, 
including those in the Jewish 
community, provides crucial 
mental health services to the 
area.
Oakland Family Services 
began in 1921 as the 
Michigan Children’s Aid 
Society Oakland Branch, 
which launched as a small 
storefront in Royal Oak to 
help kids in the foster care 
system. It offered clothes 
to kids in need — almost 
like a “clothing closet,” 
says president and CEO of 
Oakland Family Services 
Jaimie Clayton — and 
continued to grow over the 
decades.
Despite multiple name 
changes, Clayton says the 
organization’s mission has 
remained the same. “We 
never strayed far from 
keeping the family at the 
core of what we’ve done for a 
century,” she explains. 
“We expanded from 
the concept of foster care 
to family trauma, then 
expanded that into mental 
health and early childhood 

and prevention services.”
Through prevention, 
education and treatment, 
Oakland Family Services 
tackles a variety of issues 
that impact the Southeastern 
Michigan community. It 
provides mental health 
services, ensures children 
have safe homes free from 
neglect and abuse, helps 
at-risk children gain access 
to learning, and assists 
people whose lives have 
been impacted by trauma or 
substance abuse.
“We are a full-service 
nonprofit,” Clayton, 52, 
explains. She has been with 
Oakland Family Services for 
nearly 20 years. “We provide 
services from pre-birth all 
the way to older adulthood.”
As an organization 
founded by women who were 
passionate about giving back 
to the community, Oakland 
Family Services continues to 
prioritize women in need. 
“Women’s programming is 
a priority in the state to be 
sure that women who have 
substance-use issues get 
treatment and can be with 
their children,” Clayton says.

COVID ANXIETY
Though she says the 
organization prides itself 
on achieving various 
milestones over the 
decades, like its continuous 

expansion into new services, 
Clayton believes Oakland 
Family Services’ biggest 
accomplishment was staying 
connected to the community 
during the COVID-19 
pandemic, when substance 
use and abuse and mental 
health issues skyrocketed.
“Our doors were closed, 
but we were open,” she 
says. “We did not skip a 
beat during the pandemic. 
We found a way to provide 
virtual services and 
continue to serve all of our 
populations.”

A survey of 24,155 
Michigan residents 
conducted in April 2020, the 
beginning of the pandemic, 
found 79% cited concerns 
about stress, loneliness, 
anxiety and/or depression, 
with 29% indicating 
that they were “very” or 
“extremely” concerned 
about these mental health 
symptoms. 
For the state’s vulnerable 
population, who already 
struggled with finding 
rides to appointments and 
financial concerns before 

Celebrating 100 years, Oakland 
Family Services provides 
mental health assistance.

Helping the 
Vulnerable

ASHLEY ZLATOPOLSKY CONTRIBUTING WRITER

Jaimie Clayton with some of the children the organization helps.

PHOTOS COURTESY OAKLAND FAMILY SERVICES