Burbank Family Service Agency: Who Qualifies and What It Offers

Burbank’s Family Service Agency has been quietly holding up a significant piece of the city’s social safety net since 1953, and two of its leaders want to make sure residents know it’s there.

In a letter submitted to local media this week, FSA Executive Director Laurie Bleick and board member Mary Alvord, a lifelong Burbank resident, laid out what the agency offers and who qualifies. The short answer: almost everyone.

“Many people may not realize that the Burbank Family Service Agency is open to anyone in the community who needs support,” the letter reads. “Whether a family is managing stress at home, a young person is struggling, or someone simply needs guidance, our doors are always open.”

The agency serves children, teens, parents, adults, and seniors, providing counseling, family support services, prevention programs, long-term transitional housing, and crisis support. Services are available in-person or via telehealth, and the bar to access them is low. A referral or a phone call gets the process started.

FSA has operated under a city partnership since 2004, which expanded its reach directly into Burbank Unified School District campuses. Under that agreement, the agency provides no-cost, in-person clinical services for all students from kindergarten through 12th grade. Counselors can respond on demand when a crisis hits any school in the district. Student CARE Centers operate on both Burbank High and John Burroughs High campuses, giving students a dedicated, on-site resource during the school day.

That school-based component matters in a city where families often have entertainment industry schedules, irregular hours, and the financial pressures that come with contract work and production cycles. A kid who needs to talk to someone doesn’t have to wait for a parent to schedule an appointment across town. The help is already there, on campus.

The agency’s broader reach extends beyond students. Seniors navigating isolation, adults managing financial or relationship stress, and parents who need guidance on supporting a struggling child can all access FSA services. The organization has also provided long-term transitional housing, addressing a need that most residents associate with larger cities but that exists quietly in Burbank too.

Bleick and Alvord submitted the letter in the context of recent public conversations about community well-being. They did not specify what prompted it, but the message carries practical urgency: many of the families who need FSA’s services most are also the least likely to know those services exist.

For anyone who has watched a friend or neighbor struggle and not known where to point them, this is the answer. FSA’s main line is 818-845-7671. For teens specifically, the agency runs a WARM CAREline at 818-333-6239, a dedicated number where young people can reach out directly.

The agency’s longevity in Burbank says something about how the city has chosen to fund and prioritize mental health support. FSA has operated continuously through recessions, a pandemic, and the ongoing stress that tends to run underneath the surface of a city that looks, from the outside, like a pretty comfortable place to live. It does not make headlines often. That’s somewhat by design. Mental health services work best when they feel ordinary and accessible, not exceptional.

What Bleick and Alvord are asking for with this letter is straightforward. They want residents to keep FSA’s number saved, to pass it along when someone brings up a hard conversation, and to stop assuming that professional support is out of reach financially or logistically. For students in BUSD, it already is free and on campus. For everyone else, the call to 818-845-7671 starts a conversation about what’s available and what fits.

Burbank has invested in this infrastructure for more than seven decades. Using it is the point.