Our Programs

Leading the Way Home Since 1915

We offer a full range of supportive services to achieve our mission to help homeless families become healthy, productive, and self-reliant. Families Forward works closely with the City of Philadelphia’s Office of Supportive Housing to help families transition back into the economic mainstream, obtain permanent housing, and lead healthy, fully-realized lives.

Community Housing Program

Families Forward Philadelphia offers 80 transitional or permanent supportive housing units in West Philadelphia as a part of our Community Housing Program (CHP). CHP started in 1992 with just a few units in response to federal initiatives to address homelessness. These homes consist of 2-bedroom, 3-bedroom and 4-bedroom units based on a family’s need.

Emergency shelter

We offer an emergency family shelter that has 65 individual rooms. All of our families are referred to us through the City of Philadelphia’s Office of Supportive Housing central intake. While obtaining housing is our top priority, we also encourage saving money – working with our families to dedicate funds to rent, furnishings and day-to-day living expenses once they leave our shelter.

Education

The centralized Education Department was formed in July 2015 to address the educational needs of children in homeless families. The Department’s primary goal is to coordinate resources and information between school and families and provide learning supports to all children in our programs. We achieve this mandate through a combination of home visits, online monitoring of grades/attendance and sponsoring programs onsite at our facility – where families interact with staff from their school and Families Forward Philadelphia. The Department also tracks information on child/family outcomes and supportive services to assist clients in reaching their service and educational plan goals.