The Family Service Association collection provides records from the administrative level of the organization from the 1890s through the 1960s. The organizational records include annual reports, extensive meeting minutes, informational manuals and staff handbooks. Newspaper articles pertaining to the organization and other ephemera are located throughout the scrapbooks.

The organizational records offer a detailed look at the operations of the agency, from broad planning and administration to day to day functions and staff procedures. The collection also provides a look at the larger picture of social service in the Grand Rapids area. The collection is a resource for studying the history of public and private social organizations in Grand Rapids, the evolution of social work and social perception. The scrapbooks and minutes provide historical views towards poverty, homelessness, race issues, mental illness and gender issues, among other topics. Numerous statistical data is also included throughout the records.

Also included in the collection is a series of documents pertaining to the Community Mental Health Act in Michigan in the early 1960s. The Community Mental Health Act of 1963 was a federal legislation that called for the establishment of community based mental health services. In effect, the act led to broad deinstitutionalization of the mentally ill. At the local level, the handling of the act was assigned to the United Community Service. Ms. Virginia Woodman, director of the FSA at the time, participated in the committee convened to study the act and its effects on mental health care in Grand Rapids and Kent County. Ms. Woodman also served on a committee pertaining to the act at the state level. Included in this collection are correspondence, meeting minutes, guidance documents and surveys of local organizations. The series is a good source of information regarding the perception and implementation of the Community Mental Health Act, as well as the state of mental health care at the time.