Families Forward exists to help families in need achieve and maintain self-sufficiency through housing, counseling, education, and other support services.

Since 1984, Families Forward has empowered over 32,000 low-income and homeless families in Orange County to regain their financial independence by offering them a hand up from poverty, not simply a hand out. Beginning with just five rented apartments in Irvine, Families Forward has grown in response to community need and now has twenty-eight transitional homes spread throughout the community, a 3,400 square foot food pantry and an extensive network of resources to help families in financial crisis.

Our four primary programs include: Transitional Housing, which offers housing and comprehensive services to homeless families enabling them to return to self-sufficiency; Homeless Prevention, which provides case management and support services to families at-risk of homelessness while they work to rebuild their lives and return to financial self-sufficiency; Housing First, a new program that provides longer-term rent assistance and support services to newly struggling families, helping them to regain self-sufficiency; and a food pantry to help prevent anyone in our area from going without essential nutrition.

It is our belief that by linking support with accountability, we can help families help themselves to regain and maintain self-sufficiency. During Families Forward's twenty-eight years of service, more than four out of five families have successfully graduated from our Transitional Housing and Homeless Prevention Programs to self-sufficiency.

http://www.families-forward.org