Samaritan Counseling Centers of Southern Oregon

Dear Friend of Samaritan:

"Life is not the way it's supposed to be.
It's the way it is.
How you cope with it is what makes the difference."

If you visited our website or our Medford office, the above quotation from Virginia Satir was prominently displayed. While it speaks directly to our clients, it also applies to our Center and to those of us who are charged with its operation.

This notice is to advise you that, after much consideration, the Board of Directors determined that the Center was no longer financially viable. It also determined that the appropriate way to cope with the issues it faced was to cease providing counseling services by March 31, 2006.

Were the life of the Center "the way it's supposed to be," we would have sufficient funds to subsidize counseling and education for the many individuals and families who have great need of these services but not the financial resources to pay for them. We would have adequate undesignated funds to pay Center operating expenses, a broader referral base, and sufficient clinical staffing to meet the need. But that's not the way it is.

Over the last few years we have endeavored to expand the mission of the Center to include more direct support for those not able to afford counseling (in 2005 we provided over $140,000 worth of subsidized counseling and served over 650 individuals). Our donors provided a portion of those funds and for that, we and the people of this community owe them our thanks.

However, donations which could be used toward paying operating expenses have been inadequate. Despite the goodwill, time and energy given to the Center by our staff and board, our efforts have not been sufficiently productive to continue operations. We are not alone in this. Many non-profits are facing similar issues, not because the need isn't there, but because there are so many organizations competing for the same dollars.

The need remains in our community for a ministry that is founded on the principle that mental health involves the whole person and that an individual's spiritual journey is an integral part of their mental well being. The counselors on the Center staff have relocated and will still be offering the high quality of care they always have. The Center, however, will not be present as a witness to wholeness.

Again, thank you for the support you've given to the Center. Thousands of people's lives have been touched and changed, in part because people were willing to offer their resources to see the mission fulfilled. We fervently hope and pray that someone in our community will seek to revive the mission of providing faith-based services for those in our region who have minimal financial resources as well as those who can pay for those services. We ask you to join us in our prayers.

May each of you be upheld as you seek to support local efforts to offer all people wholeness and peace.