Aspiranet

We provide safe, nurturing foster homes for thousands of children. We help families at risk stay together - keeping children out of the foster care or group care system - through counseling and other much-needed support. We provide mental health services to individuals and families in the community as well as those in foster care or group care. And for those children who cannot reunify or remain in their families, we offer adoption services to provide safe and permanent families to live and grow into the future. Each of our services in creative partnership with communities all over the state.

Description:
Aspiranet adheres to a set of core values that define the organization's interaction with others in the scope of providing services to children and families.

RESPECT - INTEGRITY - COURAGE - HOPE

Demonstrating our core values into our daily work translates into a set of operating values as we deliver our services to children and families:

1. Commitment to the care and best interests of the child.
2. All children having a family providing physical and emotional safety, and preserving the child's dignity and self-esteem.
3. Positive parenting that is non punitive.
4. Birth families, foster families, staff, placing agencies and the community as partners in caring for children.
5. Healthy working relationships.
6. The therapeutic strength of the foster family as primary providers of care for our foster children.
7. Aspiranet staff as educators and supporters of families and children.
8. The healthy relationship between children and their birth families.
9. Ethnic and cultural diversity and individual strengths and differences.
10. The adherence to Agency and State standards and regulations.



History:
Aspiranet's History
Aspiranet's parent agency, MBH, Inc., was founded in 1975 by Anson Hartson. As a former probation officer, Anson had seen far too many juvenile offenders grow up to be criminals. He wanted to do something about it, or in the vernacular of the 60s, he wanted to be a part of the solution not a part of the problem. So he became a group home parent.

By 1984, MBH, Inc. was operating 12 six-bed group homes. However, the agency was challenged to reinvent itself that same year in response to a California State funding crisis. Recognizing that most children thrive in a family setting rather than in an institution, the agency shifted from group homes to foster homes.

Since then, MBH, Inc. has grown significantly by continuing to innovate and respond to local community needs. Today, Aspira, Excell Center, Excell Readiness Center, Sunset Neighborhood Beacon Center, Experience Corps, Valley Oaks School for the Dyslexic and the Stanislaus Academy serve thousands of children, adolescents and families annually, offering them hope and help for a brighter future.



Contact person: Valerie Hoffman, Volunteer Coordinator, (phone), (email)


Main office number: (805) 289-0102
Office fax number: (805) 289-0130

Address:


1838 Eastman Ave Suite 100 Ventura, CA 93003 (See a map)


Web Site: http://aspiranet.org

Last updated on June 30, 2009