FAIRFIELD -- The head of the Good Will-Hinckley Home for Boys & Girls for the last five years will resign from his post at the end of the month.

Dr. Neil Colan confirmed Wednesday that the Good Will Board of Directors has accepted his resignation, which is effective Oct. 30.

Colan, 57, of Readfield, said he plans to return to work as a psychologist and president of a company in Hallowell, Lincoln Group, which serves children and families.

In an interview Wednesday, Colan expressed both satisfaction and disappointment in his tenure at the organization, which closed its core residential and school programs this summer and laid off most of its staff because of financial hardship.

"Part of leadership is accepting responsibility. Clearly, I did not succeed in my efforts to lead Good Will-Hinckley in affecting the change we saw as necessary for this organization to be effective and viable," Colan said. "I believe we accomplished a lot, but it really wasn't enough to counter rapidly changing state policies and overall economic conditions."

Good Will-Hinckley is on a sprawling, 2,450-acre campus along U.S. Route 201 in the Hinckley section of Fairfield and has about 45 buildings. It serves boys and girls, often with drug or mental-health issues, who don't have a stable place to live.

Colan, who previously served on Good Will's Board of Directors, was hired as chief executive officer at a time when the residential school was re-examining its plan for growth and opportunities for new revenue sources. Funding from the state government was beginning to decrease, as part of a policy to move away from costly residential care.

"It was just at a time when we were starting to see a changing climate in the state, relative to public policy around residential care; Neil was there to help shape the strategy to deal with that for Good Will," said Larry Sterrs, CEO of Unity Foundation, who is leading the school's new strategic-plan effort. "I think he really positioned the organization well."

Don Marden, chairman of the Good Will-Hinckley Board of Directors, called Colan "a capable and effective leader" who improved the school during his tenure.

"Neil streamlined operating expenses, developed a facilities master plan, achieved national re-accreditation, diversified residential referrals and developed the 'Center for Excellence' model, among his many accomplishments," Marden said.

Colan cited other achievements such as reducing operational expenses for the organization, diversifying its revenue sources and increasing the school's presence in the community through events and community collaborations.

But the biggest accomplishment has been serving "a lot of needy kids and families," he said.

"I always enjoyed our graduations," Colan said. "They gave me evidence of our success in a very dramatic way. Seeing the promise in kids who had no promise is why I do what I do."

But when it came to steering Good Will's fate, amid the organization's brewing financial storms, Colan concedes that he didn't do enough and "could have been a more effective communicator about how necessary it was, and still is, for this organization to change."

Joe Corvino, of Fairfield, worked at Good Will for nearly 20 years as a family teacher with his wife, Karen, and later as a program manager, until leaving in July 2008. Corvino said Colan and Good Will's managers attempted to diversify the organization's funding sources, but "they did too little, too late."

"They could have done some things better, like create a fact-finding committee, utilizing staff to come up with ideas," Corvino said. "The real atrocity is we don't have any kids there now. It's about serving kids."

Earlier this year, the school suffered a blow when one of its longtime benefactors, the Harold A. Alfond Foundation, declined a request for a $12 million cash infusion over concerns that the school's management didn't have a viable financial plan. A report prepared for the foundation concluded that Good Will's proposal was "far too much 'a bet for the company' proposal."

Good Will officials have said they now are preparing a strategic plan that will, in part, seek to reinvent Good Will-Hinckley as a part of a statewide "Center of Excellence" initiative, serving students at risk of school failure.

Good Will is now tapping into its remaining endowment funds, totaling about $10.5 million, to pay for $2.24 million in operational expenses in the coming year.

Colan said he had been contemplating his departure since the spring and chose to leave later this month because Good Will-Hinckley will need a new leader, along with the strategic plan that's under development. Current staff members will likely carry on Colan's duties until a new CEO is hired by the board, Colan said.

The strategic plan "will lead to a re-definition of Good Will-Hinckley," Sterrs said, "and that's going to require a very different set of skills and experience (for a CEO) to not only lead that re-definition, but make sure it's sustainable for the long run. Good Will's future is definitely going to be multifaceted."

Scott Monroe -- 861-9253

smonroe@centralmaine.com