WARREN, Ohio - SCOPE Incorporated of Trumbull County will cease operations.

According to a news release from the agency which provides senior services, Family and Community Services Incorporated of Ravenna, Ohio, will pick-up the role and mission of the troubled 51-year old agency.

SCOPE Executive Director Ralph Smith is quoted in the news release as saying,"Our members and others who use our services are very unlikely to notice the change."  

Smith says, "We have been in discussions with Family & Community Services for over a month. We have agreed they can use the name and assume our contracts. Our cash flow had been weak for a year - it really went downhill in July. We were fortunate to find someone with the resources and desire to do the job."

According to the release, the Ravenna organization did not buy or merge with Trumbull SCOPE, but agreed to assume their  mission.

Smith says Family and Community Services is recruiting the Trumbull SCOPE staff, and he expects that twenty or more of the current staff to be hired.  

Family & Community Services has been in operation for over 70 years and has grown to 500 employees as they expanded to working in 19 counties in Ohio and several more in Pennsylvania.

Trumbull SCOPE has faced difficulties in recent years.

Last year, SCOPE shut down their in-home and daycare services for senior citizens covered by Medicaid after violating state laws.

The Ohio Department of Health recommended the non-profit be stripped of its certification as a long term care provider.

The state discovered that SCOPE failed to complete nearly to two dozen background checks for employees who cared for its clients.

In 2009, members of the Area Agency on Aging resigned as administrators of the Trumbull County Senior Service levy after refusing to sign a contract with SCOPE, claiming SCOPE had a history of not being financially responsible.