PACE and FACES Announce Nonprofit Merger
Santa Clara, CA – Pacific Autism Center for Education (PACE), a leading nonprofit that provides services for individuals with Autism, and FACES (Foundation for Autistic Childhood Education and Support) 
, an intensive behavioral early intervention program in Redwood City, announced today that they have made the decision to merge. The organizations expect to finalize a Merger Agreement during the 1st quarter of 2012. The combined agency will be headed by current PACE Executive Director Kurt Ohlfs.
Matt Moran and Tom Hayes, FACES Board co-chairs, said, “We are very excited about the opportunity to merge with PACE. Both agencies share significant values, including a commitment to excellence, a strong emphasis on data collection, and responsive, tailored care for individuals with Autism. We join PACE’s Board of Directors confident that FACES is in good hands under PACE’s guidance.”
Kurt Ohlfs, PACE Executive Director, agrees, “We are also very excited at PACE to welcome FACES under our program umbrella. The outstanding services that FACES has provided for the past sixteen years will be a huge asset to providing the most comprehensive high quality services for individuals with Autism in the Bay Area.”
While FACES implements an intensive behavioral early intervention methodology (a.k.a., Intensive Applied Behavior Analysis or intensive ABA), PACE’s Early Intervention program primarily utilizes the more response-based Son Rise and DIR/Floortime methodologies. Importantly, the program offerings will remain distinctive after the merge in order to provide the most comprehensive options for families, professionals and school districts seeking early intervention services across the North and South ends of the peninsula. Primarily, PACE will support the administrative end of FACES, and FACES will function as an affiliate of PACE. FACES’s delivery of service will remain the same.
As competition and dependence on decreasing public sector money pose problems for early intervention services on the whole, the creation of this combined entity will ensure the ongoing delivery of critical services to the early intervention sector.
This merger was made possible in part by a generous grant from the United Way Silicon Valley Nonprofit Effectiveness Fund , the purpose of which is to provide support for nonprofit agencies that are considering transition activities such as mergers, acquisitions, and consolidations.
About PACE
Founded in 1989, PACE’s mission is to provide high quality programs for individuals with Autism and its related developmental disabilities, so they may experience the satisfaction and fulfillment that come from learning, self-care, productive work, and interpersonal and community experiences. PACE’s programs include: Early Intervention, School, Adult Day Vocational, and Residential.
About FACES
Founded in 1995, FACES’s mission is to enable children with autism to reach their full potential by providing Northern California with a resource for early intervention services (ages 2-10) based on the science of Applied Behavior Analysis, K-12 school and parent consultation (ages 2-22), and social development.
Contact: Nora Martin, PACE Marketing and Communication Manager
noramartin@pacificautism.org; 408.625.6172
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Download pdf version: PACE and FACES Announce Nonprofit Merger [pdf]
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