ForKids, Inc.

ForKids has established a strategic goal of family well-being and employs deliberate approaches to deliver evidence-based, trauma-informed services to ensure long-term positive outcomes. In addition to family well-being, the 2022 Strategic Plan: Pathways Out of Poverty includes goals toward building communities that support stable, healthy and thriving families, continuing our work in economic mobility, promoting educational achievement for children, ensuring housing stability, and achieving operational excellence.

To accomplish these goals, ForKids will increase opportunities for families to access culturally responsive and individualized services, expand collaborative working partnerships with community providers to reduce barriers and ensure connection to resources, extend engagement periods and measure goals that indicate long-term success. Finally, as part of our commitment to diversity, equity and inclusion, ForKids will implement individual, community and systems-level strategies to dismantle systemic racism and inequity.   

Strategies
To achieve organizational Goals and Objectives, ForKids will apply the following strategies in all elements of its work.
Lengthen Service Interventions
Extend client engagement periods and measure goals that indicate long-term client success.
Deepen Client-Centered Approaches
Refine and expand the client-centered approaches to increase opportunities for clients to makes their own
choices, advocate for themselves, and chart their own courses and paths.
Advocate
Build community systems that provide stable housing and viable pathways out of poverty for families and
children.
Partner to Expand opportunities
Expand resources through collaborative working partnerships. Help families access culturally responsive and
individualized services and opportunities by reducing barriers.
Advance Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion
Implement individual, community, and systems-level strategies to dismantle racism and inequality.
Data-Inform All Work
Collect, analyze, and utilize data to inform service provision and agency operations.

ForKids is one of the largest providers of year-round homeless services for families in Virginia, addressing the needs of families and children experiencing homelessness. ForKids is dedicated to our mission of breaking the cycle of homelessness and poverty for families and children. Envisioning a future where no child is homeless, ForKids establishes partnerships with families to start the process of achieving self-sufficiency. The ForKids team addresses the complex challenges of homelessness, working to quickly house families regardless of their barriers, while employing a comprehensive array of critical services to help families address the issues that contributed to their housing crisis and develop a plan of action to maintain stability. ForKids is the only regional organization that provides comprehensive educational programming for children experiencing homelessness, targeting not only academic performance but also the well-being of the entire family.

The ForKids team has been helping families overcome the challenges of poverty and unstable housing since 1988 and remains committed to our mission of breaking the cycle of homelessness and poverty for families and children. Each year, the team promotes positive change in the lives of over four hundred families recovering from crisis, providing housing solutions aligned with a system of holistic support services that lead to lifelong self-sufficiency. Dedicated to building pathways out of poverty, the ForKids team addresses the link between housing instability and income disparity and works to ensure families have access to affordable housing and economic opportunity. To promote generational stability, the team combines academic assistance with enrichment activities for school-age children to close achievement gaps and provide a foundation for vocational success. Through a strengths-based approach and individualized, client-focused services, the ForKids team fosters self-advocacy, emphasizing that clients are collaborators in their housing stability plan and experts on their own lives. 
From 7/1/21-6/30/22 (FY22), the Hotline team answered over 57,000 calls, made 28,443 referrals to over 36,500 unduplicated callers for programs and services in the region.
In FY22, the ForKids team assisted 100 families, including 208 children, providing security in emergency shelter and the resources to move to permanent housing.
In FY22, 337 households, including 717 children, made great strides toward housing and financial stability with the help of the ForKids team.
The ForKids economic mobility team continues to assist more families beyond the immediate need for income. Through established partnerships with local higher education and training institutions, the team connects adults with programs that teach the competencies to enter a skilled trade field within a short timeframe. To eliminate any barriers to participation, ForKids offers assistance with childcare, transportation and class materials. The economic mobility team partners with prospective employers to identify opportunities for employment that align with client strengths and community need. With the help of the team, 214 people took advantage of employment services, leading to 71 interviews and 64 job offers.
Since 2019, ForKids has partnered with United Way of Southampton Roads and Catholic Charities of Eastern Virginia to implement Aspire and Strive, the first programs of their kind in this region. Mobility Mentors employ a coaching method and engage community organizations to provide education, employment and other resources that women with children can access to increase their skill level and achieving goals in FY22. Based on annual assessment data, Aspire participants have demonstrated an average income increase of $3 per hour, an average credit score increase of 61 points and tripled their savings.