New partnership + $90k Investment = Mental Healthcare Access for Families Experiencing Homelessness

At Families Forward Philadelphia, Philadelphia’s largest provider of services for families experiencing homelessness, our participants are the experts on their lives. When they express their needs, we listen. So, when residents told us that they need mental health support, we set to work to make that happen.

This winter we got a call from the brand new Foxwynd Foundation. Their executive director, Pamela Villagra, spoke to FFP’s chief development officer, Jessica Main, and asked “what do you need?” Jess knew exactly what to say: we need onsite mental healthcare at our shelter.

Mental health, poverty, and homelessness are inextricably linked. We know that when you don’t feel well, you can’t do well – and this includes mental wellness. It is this understanding that has led us to contract with Council for Relationships and their Community Partnership Initiative to bring an embedded therapist onsite to our Family Residence for 15 hours per week.

Our new embedded therapist provides one-on-one, couples, and family therapy to the residents of our emergency shelter – and supervises two interns who run group therapy based around topics raised by our residents.

This work takes great investment. When we set out to bring mental healthcare onsite, like many nonprofits undertaking important work – we were not sure where the funding would come from.

After the initial phone call and a subsequent site visit, Foxwynd invited Families Forward to submit a grant proposal. In May, the Foxwynd Board of Trustees approved Families Forward's full request for $90,000 to fund the first year of the partnership between Families Forward and Council for Relationships. It is important to note that this generous donation was funded by The Foxwynd Foundation DAF, which continues to support Families Forward Philadelphia in their mission.

In the 2024 movie Cabrini, St. Frances Xavier Cabrini set off for America to secure housing and healthcare for society’s most vulnerable. In the movie she was quotes as saying “begin the mission and the means will come.” At Families Forward, our residents are our mission – and the Foxwynd Foundation has provided the means. This new partnership allows both Families Forward and Foxwynd to live into our shared missions – empowering our society’s most vulnerable.