So why was the name of this county agency changed in January of 2017? Many ask this. Many still call it Family Services. It is difficult to change a name that has been in place for 43 years. There were several reasons it was done. Here are the main ones:

Brown was the last county in this part of Minnesota using names other than “Human Services.” The last one to go before Brown was Nicollet — now called Nicollet County Human Services.

The state department we work with is called “Minnesota Department of Human Services.”

Our society has become slowly but surely more mobile. Having different names for virtually the same agency was confusing to people. Some people do not see themselves as “family;” everyone sees themselves as “Human.”