Youth and Family Services, the agency that has provided help to vulnerable residents since 1982, closed its doors Friday after giving staff members of Solano County Health and Social Services a week’s notice.

That sent Patrick Duterte and other Health and Social Services employees scrambling to assure that 300 YFS clients, particularly those in Vallejo and Benicia, wouldn’t lose those services.

“I dropped everything,” Duterte said. He told his staff to do the same. “I said we’re going to get this done. We hustled.”

If the new network Duterte and his employees put in place works according to plan, none of the 300 clients will notice much of a difference in the way they get help.

Many of the 25 YFS employees were caught by surprise by the announcement, and have seen their jobs salvaged, too, Duterte said. Some were picked up by other vendors “with just a phone interview,” and in some cases simply because of the reputation of their work, he said.

“This is a sad time for our agency,” said Robin Gross, YFS board president. “I am encouraged that the county and our community-based partners have stepped up to preserve these services for our at-risk adults, families and children in this county.”

She has said the agency’s closure happened because of payment delays, and placed some of the blame on Solano County.

However, “I’m not going to play the blame game,” Duterte said, explaining that he had been told YFS couldn’t meet payroll.

“My number-one task was to take care of the clients, and we did it. We didn’t want clients to have a break in services,” he said. “We did it in a week.”

Duterte said only one of the many YFS programs that was in arrears was the federal Housing and Urban Development grant that underwrites Rosewood House, a women’s halfway house in Vallejo. That’s because the payment comes from Washington.

“The rest we pay right away. When we get the invoice, you get the payment within three weeks,” he said.

Duterte said the city of Vallejo had given YFS a 20-year conditional grant for the Rosewood House building, so long as it was kept in use. He said his department is negotiating with two organizations that may be able to take over the program, and he hopes the city will transfer its arrangement to the new operators.

For the next few weeks, YFS clients will be seen in the same building at 1017 Tennessee St., Vallejo, where they’ve obtained help from YFS, Duterte said. The building has been put up for sale, but will be available for use for a while, he said.

Other programs for which Solano County had contracted with YFS as a partner are ADAPT, which provides adolescents with drug and alcohol prevention services and treatment in Vallejo, Benicia and elsewhere; AIM, or Adolescent Intervention Model, providing early intervention services in Vallejo and Benicia; CATS, or Child Adolescent Therapy Services, for those up to 21 from ethnically diverse, low-income and high-risk populations; the Tutor-Mentor Program that gets at-risk youth and dropouts back into school and ready for the workplace; Project Aurora, offering substance abuse help for women and their families; Building Blocks, a children’s therapeutic recovery center associated with Project Aurora; Keys 2 Recovery, a men’s outpatient treatment program for those in recovery; Re-entry Services, helping those who may be homeless or who are re-entering society after incarceration; and Baby First, assisting those at risk of using drugs or alcohol while pregnant.

Duterte said he and his staff have been talking with multiple other Solano County vendors, many of whom were willing to take over the services YFS offered.

“I’m really excited everybody stepped up,” he said.

In particular, he said he is thrilled that the Women’s Re-Entry Achievement Program will continue helping women who are being released from prison and are resuming life in the community.

“The federal government has seen the results. We do not want to change anything,” he said. In fact, he’s been told federal agencies want to take a closer look at the program so it can use it as a model.

“We’re really proud of that one. It’s a top-model program,” Duterte said.

He said he was sad to learn YFS had decided to close. “YFS was fabulous. They’ve been a partner of ours for many years.”