Arlington Thrive

Arlington Thrive provides timely assistance to help our neighbors in need so they can develop the capacity to be stable, secure and thrive in their jobs, health and homes. We accomplish this through our team of dedicated case managers who provide our clients with emergency financial assistance. Our work interrupts the cycle of poverty by preventing unforeseen expenses from becoming insurmountable setbacks. Looking forward, we aspire to address systemic causes of poverty as we treat the symptoms through our existing financial assistance programs. We have developed strategies to continue enacting our vision, grow our organization, and increase the services we provide our clients to set them up for success. Thrive’s major goal is the implementation of pilot programs which will address causes of poverty in our community. Our clients are always the focus of our mission, and we actively use their feedback to inform the creation of programs which meet their evolving needs.

While Arlington Thrive has historically been a small organization, Thrive was selected to partner with Arlington County during the pandemic when the demand on our services increased 400%. Currently, Thrive is proud to have a more public-facing role in the County. We have expanded our staff in order to disburse as much funding as possible to in-need community members. In partnership with Arlington County, we expanded our staff during the pandemic to ensure we could provide front-line support to meet increased demand. Now that our staff has grown and we have specialized in case management, we look forward to evolving our programs as the needs of our clients change. As we improve our services, we are focusing on expanding assistance to underserved Arlington residents who don’t have access to county services. Thrive is deeping collaboration with our partners and encouraging their feedback on our models of support for our clients. Collaborating with our partners and collecting feedback from our clients informs our pilot programs. For instance, we recently created a childcare pilot program to connect parents with affordable care after our clients identified the cost as an obstacle to financial stability. Our fundraising team guarantees program sustainability. These strategies will guide Thrive as we develop long-term solutions to Arlington’s structural inequities.

Arlington Thrive has over 48 years of experience providing emergency financial assistance to our neighbors in need. During that time, we have helped thousands avert devastating consequences such as evictions and utilities shutoffs. We have assisted nearly 5,000 clients since 2019, and we are actively preparing our staff to assist even more clients as we grow our case management team. We are thrilled to announce the hire of a communications manager who will assist Thrive in increasing our visibility as an organization and the visibility of our clients’ needs across multiple platforms and audiences. Our communications team will coordinate closely with our fundraising and management teams to deepen community engagement and strengthen the partnerships which form the foundation of our success. Our programs equip us to address a range of community needs, from emergency financial assistance to addressing systemic causes of poverty. The Daily Emergency Financial Assistance Program (Daily Fund) provides rapid, emergency assistance to Arlington residents experiencing a financial crisis. This program pays rent, utility bills, medical and dental bills, prescriptions, transportation and some work-related expenses. The Carter-Jenkinson Homelessness Prevention Program provides rent and rent-related assistance for Arlington households that are experiencing financial crises that put them at risk of homelessness. In May 2020, in response to the need created by COVID-19, we created the Arlington Emergency Relief Fund (AERF), which provides emergency financial assistance to Arlington households directly affected by COVID-19. Our staff and programs ensure that not only do we prevent homelessness and unemployment; we help people pay for vital health care and we create a stronger, more vibrant community.

Arlington Thrive has achieved extraordinary success with the support of our partners and community throughout the past several years. Following the pandemic, we have built an exceptionally talented case management team who assisted our clients with compassion and professionalism. During this unprecedented crisis, we distributed nearly $10 million in eviction prevention assistance. In response to the pandemic, we have become a technology-driven operation which is almost fully virtual. Now that we have established ourselves as the County’s partner for distributing emergency financial assistance, we are excited to address long-term systemic solutions. We laid the groundwork to increase the supply of affordable childcare which will reduce the financial burden on the parents we serve. Thrive also founded the Arlington Interfaith Network, which will allow us to garner input from expert local advocates and facilitate collaboration between faith and nonprofit sectors. Finally, we are proud of how we have grown the Arlington Safety Net through our flourishing partnerships with the Arlington Community Foundation, elected officials, Arlington’s Department of Human Services and the Community Assistance Bureau, and Thrive’s donors and supporters. In the future, we will continue strengthening our current programs and using client feedback to inform the creation of pilot programs which respond directly to the evolving needs of our neighbors. We look forward to realizing our vision of an Arlington Community where all have homes, are financially stable, and thrive.