It all started with a belief and a commitment to care……
In 1976, James Minder was developing programs for Boysville, a child welfare agency. His wife, Susan Davis, had worked with developmentally disabled children at Plymouth Center. Each of them believed that state institutional care did little to help children grow into positive, functioning adults who could live in the community.
On Friday, Friday, February 13, 1976, Pyramid Human Services opened the Quincy Home, its first 12-bed group home for developmentally disabled adolescent boys located in northwest Detroit. Quincy House provided the opportunity to test the waters and discover the trial and error of group home management. Spectrum opened a second home, the Durham Center in Detroit, for abused, neglected and delinquent teens. Eventually, it was decided that our kids would be better served in smaller homes throughout metropolitan Detroit.
Simultaneously, Spectrum began opening group homes for developmentally disabled adults in Washtenaw and Wayne Counties. During the late 1970s and early 1980s, many state institutions for the developmentally disabled closed their doors, creating a huge need for the community group homes that Spectrum provided.
As the agency grew, President Jim Minder realized that a true continuum of care was needed, because youth leaving residential programs needed aftercare. The Independent Living and in-home programs that are offered today by Spectrum Child & Family Services arose from that need.
In 1980, Pyramid became Michigan Human Services. However, because of confusion with other organizations, the name was changed in 1988 to Spectrum Human Services, Inc., which was chosen through an employee contest.
In 1983, Spectrum became the first agency to provide comprehensive in-home services for delinquent youth in Wayne County, through the Milestones program. The program, which served up to 150 youth at a time, was part of a research study that cited better outcomes for youth participating in community-based programs rather than residential care. Adjudicated youth coming through the Wayne County Juvenile Court were diverted to the Milestones program, rather than going to a residential center. Spectrum Human Services established its Adoption program in 1985, in response to the requests of many of our foster parents who wanted to adopt their foster kids.
In the first ten years, Spectrum Human Services, Inc. was the first organization to:
- Take profoundly mentally ill adolescents from an institution and move them into a residential setting
- Provide in-home care program for delinquent youth
- Provide a team of professional social workers and therapists to offer support to foster care parents. Staff members provided individual therapy to assist parents, as they coped with severely emotional children.
With Spectrum’s overwhelming desire to provide quality services to the mentally and physically challenged population and the need for services, this movement opened a floodgate of options and possibilities. Spectrum’s driving force was to provide dignity and respect to those that had been institutionalized and forgotten. The program delivery was targeted to children and adults. So Spectrum Human Services divided its forces into child welfare and community integration, while challenging staff members to become experts and champions for the critically underserved. We are proud to have nearly 1,400 “experts and champions” working for Spectrum Human Services, Inc. & Affiliated Companies.
Today, Spectrum Human Services, Inc. provides a formidable continuum of care with 45 programs and services in eleven Michigan counties. Our six affiliated companies Child & Family Services, Community Services, Juvenile Justice Services, Primacare, Completion House Inc., and Operation ABLE of Michigan serve 1,800 children, families and individuals each day throughout the state.
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